CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961)

CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF is a 1961 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed and Yvonne Romain. It was based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. If was produced by Anthony Hinds for Hammer Film Productions.

The leading part of the werewolf was Oliver Reed's first starring role in a film and composer Benjamin Frankel's score is notable for its use of twelve-tone serialism, rare in film music. It was the first werewolf film to be shot in colour.

PLOT:
A beggar in 18th-century Spain is imprisoned by a cruel marqués after making inappropriate remarks at the nobleman's wedding feast. The beggar is forgotten, and survives another fifteen years. His sole human contact is with the jailer and his beautiful, mute daughter. The aging, decrepit marqués makes advances on the jailer's daughter while she is cleaning his room. When she refuses him, the marqués has her thrown into the dungeon with the beggar. The beggar, driven mad by his long confinement, rapes her and then dies.

The girl is released the next day and sent to "entertain" the marqués. She kills the old man and flees. She is found in the forest by the kindly gentleman-scholar Don Alfredo Corledo, who lives alone with his housekeeper Teresa. The warm and motherly Teresa soon nurses the girl back to health; however, the girl dies after giving birth to a baby on Christmas Day, a fact that Teresa considers "unlucky".

Alfredo and Teresa raise the boy, whom they name Leon. Leon, cursed by the evil circumstances of his conception and by his Christmas Day birth, is soon revealed to be a werewolf. An early hunting incident gives him a taste for blood, which he struggles to overcome. Soon, a number of goats are found dead, and a herder's dog is blamed.

Thirteen years later, Leon leaves home to seek work at the Gomez vineyard. The vintner, Don Fernando, sets Leon to work in the wine cellar with Jose Amadeo, who becomes Leon's friend. Leon falls in love with Fernando's daughter, Cristina, and becomes despondent at the seeming impossibility of marrying her. He allows Jose to take him to a nearby brothel, where he transforms and kills Vera, one of the girls. He also kills Jose, before returning to Alfredo's house. Too late, he learns that Cristina's loving presence prevents his transformation; he is about to run away with her when he is arrested and jailed on suspicion of murder. He begs to be executed before he changes again, but the mayor does not believe him. His wolf nature rising to the surface, he breaks out of his cell, killing an old soak and the gaoler. Shocked and disgusted by his appearance, the local people summon his adoptive father, who has obtained a silver bullet made from a crucifix blessed by an archbishop. Though torn with grief, Alfredo shoots Leon dead, and tearfully covers his body with a cloak.

CAST:
Clifford Evans as Don Alfredo Corledo
Oliver Reed as Leon Corledo
Justin Walters as Young Leon Corledo
Yvonne Romain as servant girl
Loraine Carvana as young servant girl
Catherine Feller as Christina Fernando
Anthony Dawson as Marques Siniestro
Josephine Llewelyn as Marquesa Siniestro
Richard Wordsworth as beggar
Hira Talfrey as Teresa
John Gabriel as priest
Warren Mitchell as Pepe Valiente
Anne Blake as Rosa Valiente
George Woodbridge as Dominique the goat herder
Michael Ripper as old soak
Ewen Solon as Don Fernando
Peter Sallis as Don Enrique
Martin Matthews as Jose Amadayo
David Conville as Rico Gomez
Denis Shaw as gaoler
Sheila Brennan as Vera
Joy Webster as Isabel
Renny Lister as Yvonne
Charles Lamb as Marques' chef
Desmond Llewelyn (uncredited) as Marques's footman

RELEASE:
It was released in May 1961 on a double feature bill with Shadow of the Cat (1961), another Hammer film. Upon its initial release, the film was heavily censored in the UK, and a restored print was first aired on the BBC in 1993. While a premiere TV screening of the restored print had been planned to air on BBC2 on 31 October 1992, during the Vault of Horror all-night marathon hosted by Dr. Walpurgis (played by Guy Henry; later named Dr. Terror), the censored version was aired by mistake.

In North America, the film was released on 6 September 2005 along with seven other Hammer horror films on the 4-DVD set The Hammer Horror Series (ASIN: B0009X770O), which is part of MCA-Universal's Franchise Collection. This set was re-released on Blu-ray on 13 September 2016. The film received an individual release with a new 4K scan in April 2020. The new release included a new commentary track by Steven Haberman, a featurette on the making of the film, make up artist Roy Ashton, "Lycanthrophy: The Beast in All of Us" and stills from the film. Furthermore, in some versions of the video, the mute girl's father is the beggar, himself.