Did  you know that  Werewolf of London was  the first Hollywood  mainstream  movie to feature  a  werewolf?  Yes  folks believe it or not the Wolfman  was not the first  Hollywood  werewolf movie.   Wolfman  premiered in 1941  while Werewolf of London premiered  in 1935 . 

Werewolf of London primarily  set the stage for all werewolf movies  to come.  However, this werewolf movie would get snubbed  only because  critics of the time thought  there were parallels between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  and was  too  laughable for a film about  monsters  of the night.   Right . I know. Their lost.  It should be up there with the greats of the greats.  It also  showcased  and put upfront  everything there is about the lycanthrope mythology  that would  ultimately  start with a  single bite. 

It introduced other fascinating  tidbits  of mythos within the  werewolf cinematic  universe that werewolf movies do not use today,  like a certain plant  which would  in turn  be  prevalent throughout  other werewolf  films  but only as  a  plant called wolfbanes. ( I will  write another post about  wolfsbane)   In this classic movie it was supposed to be a plant to cure  lycanthropy but the  plant only cured it temporarily .  (I use  something similar  in my novel for my werewolves but  will  write another post about that as well)

 Werewolf in London would in fact be the only  werewolf movie to date  to deeply  explore  the  conceptual idea of trying to find a cure  for  the werewolf curse .  To do this it explored a ticking clock  technique  and where if the werewolf  didn’t  make a kill  every night they would  lose their human form. 

This might  be another reason why the movie  was snubbed at the time  because   it  didn’t  concentrate on the horror aspect as much  of what most  films  in the Horror genre are.   It was very pseudoscience and  character driven  for a film  delving  into  the moral decisions of the main character.    Also exploring the depths  of how the werewolf instinctively  will  kill the one it loves the most.  . I actually like the whole pseudoscience  plot  idea  to delve into  werewolf mythology. The only thing  it was missing was  the origin of the werewolf. 

But all and all  this movie is  in fact an Influential  masterpiece not only for all   cinematic   werewolf movies but  music  as  well,   Believe it or not but this film secretly  inspired  the  most famous  Warren Zevon’s  song entitled ” Werewolf of London.” 

It was  suggested by  Phil Everly who mentioned  it to Zevon  after watching the  movie  one night as  a joke to adapt the title for a song and dance craze. And after 3 years  and  finally  recording the song and releasing it. The song  became a hit over night.  Still  famous it is widely circulated and can  be heard  playing in various movie  soundtracks to this day. 

So when you listen to this most famous song  don’t  forget to remember if  it wasn’t for  the 1935  movie Werewolf of London  that  the magnificent   song would not have even existed. So that is why the  movie itself  should  be  taken  seriously  as an all-time classic. 

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HAVE YOU SEEN WEREWOLF IN LONDON YET ? AND  IF YOU DID  WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MOVIE?

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