Movie 133: She-Wolf of London (1946)

 

Starring: June Lockhart, Don Porter, Sara Haden, Jan Wiley, Lloyd Corrigan, Dennis Hoey.

Director: Jean Yarbrough.

Pretty much from here on out, I don't know much of anything about these old Universal classics.  I'm going to keep on trucking through them, though (with a few digressions to some more recent versions).  For now, let's keep on going through the Female counterpart flicks with She-Wolf of London.

The beginning focuses on a large amount of exposition-possibly as a recap of Werewolf of London-and then we get two people on horses who are going to race over who gets to pick the date of their wedding...the guy wins, because the forties.  Doesn't matter, though, because she didn't really want to wait so...why the hell did you race over it?!  They get interrupted by the cops, who are investigating a Werewolf related murder.  Phyllis, the lady in question, is pretty upset over it.  So, she would be the Werewolf.  Not that it took a great deal of thought to get to that conclusion considering the title of the film.

We've jumped to a new plot, it seems: Carol apparently wants to marry some dude who hasn't any dough.  Mom is kinda pissed about it, to the point of threatening to fire the servant who was going to deliver a letter for her...wow, talk about some convoluted backstory.  Phyllis isn't a daughter, or even an Aunt...she apparently owns the house, with the people she thinks of as her family are the Housekeeper(who was apparently with Phyllis's Dad but rejected him and then got married to another dude who died, and then became her ex's housekeeper) and her kids, and they've been pretending to be relatives and that's why Carol can't marry a poor dude because the jig will be up when Phyllis gets married and...I mean, wow.  That's a pretty tangled tapestry of backstory.  I mean, that's really a lot to unpack.  

The dogs hate Phyllis.  'Cause Werewolf.  Apparently.  There hasn't been any set up to the idea or anything, just...seems to be the case.  I would assume they'll reverse engineer a justification later on after the reveal.  But, given that this is a B-movie from 1946, all bets are kind of off.  

"They say that a howling Dog means death!"
"In that case half of London must be at deaths door!"  Thank you, movie.  

Oh, Phyllis, just because you woke up with blood on your hands doesn't mean you killed somebody.  You might have just really, really hurt them.  The slippers covered in mud...oh, okay, there's a family curse?  Apparently Phyllis believes herself afflicted by The Allenby Curse.

How does a housekeeper manage to develop this kind of clout?  I need a diagram to show how all of this occurred.  She bosses around the new maid/housekeeper/servant/whatever around like she owns the place.  Was she put in charge of the estate until Phyllis came of age?  Phyllis is unaware of her lack of familial relation...I suppose it doesn't really matter.  Not really, anyway.

Hannah the housekeeper is my favorite character so far.  She doesn't like her employer, seeks to help the two younger household members with their love lives (including aiding Phyllis' fiance Barry to see Phyllis) and generally seems kinda rad.  Cool old broad.

Phyllis just ain't that into you, Barry.  Her Werewolf thing means more to her.  So, Barry is going to take Carol on a drive.  Barry is gonna marry someone, damn it!  I would assume that isn't the case, really, but the movie decides to leave us with Phyllis, putting us in her position: both she and us see Barry leave with Carol, with no idea what happens or what is said when they go.  

Hmm.  Carol is actually pretty nice.  She spent the drive talking to Barry about how they're both concerned, and Carol wants to offer Phyllis a sympathetic ear about what's bothering her.  Phyllis declines, but I guess it was kinda nice.  Carol's Mom is a huge bitch.  Phyllis is intending to stay awake all night to make sure she doesn't kill again.  Good for you, Phyllis, taking agency!  

I'm not sure what the Police side story is really accomplishing.  Each scene basically seems to retread the same beats: someone is murdering people, cops are looking for them, one of the inspectors believes in Werewolves and the other doesn't.  This just circles around and around.  Well, okay, one of the inspectors is attacked by the she-wolf and killed, but not before blurting out "she" to the other cops.  I'm betting that Phyllis isn't actually the wolf.  Maybe it's her Not-Aunt.  Actually, Phyllis might be being gaslit.  That would work. In fact, now I'm certain Not-Aunt is probably doing just that.

Barry figured out the family curse thing...Barry is a fairly atypical 1940's movie guy, but he seems somewhat less irritating than a lot of the other characters of his kind. Y'know, it's interesting: these Universal films are pretty well read.  Barry is quoting Plato, Pythagoras, and Shakespeare...of course, his quoting merely upsets Phyllis further, 'cause Barry is kind of a jerk.  Because the Forties.  But it is interesting that a lot of old philosophy, folklore, history and literature gets referenced so frequently in these old films.  Especially when you consider how frequently all of that is so mangled in modern era films.  

Well, there is a fascinating turn of events: Barry (who is a barrister.  Barry The Barrister.) decides to hang out in the park to try and catch the She-Wolf.  He meets up with the Police...apparently the next victim was Carol's boyfriend Dwight.  He survives, apparently due to the interference of the Police and Barry.  Carol shows up, which alarms everyone...I am now entirely convinced that Not-Aunt is the villain...and probably isn't a Werewolf.

Carol seems to think Phyllis is being gaslighted.  Damn I'm good.  Of course, it's an elaborate ruse to get her Mother to tip her hand...at least, that's what I think it is.  This seems to be a lot like some shakespearean farce, really: Carol leaves, a guy follows her, Barry follows the other guy...hmm, interesting photography here near the end.  All the camera angles are titlted, putting everything off kilter.  Not-Aunt is insistent on Phyllis drink her warm milk...and that Phyllis will have to go to an asylum.  Ah, now we have visual evidence of her being drugged!  Well, okay...Not-Aunt just admitted everything to Phyllis, unaware that Hannah is listening at the door.  I was right about everything.  Rad.  

Yeah, Hannah!  Just outright says "I'm going to the police" and off she runs.  Didn't really need to, though, since Barry, Carol and the cops show up right after.  The End.  I still love that: once the story is done, movie over.  Love it.

Final Thoughts: I mean, it wasn't really a Werewolf movie but instead a fairly interesting murder-mystery story.  I enjoy movies that involve gaslighting, so that makes me happy.  The characters and stuff, well, I mean it wasn't a great movie.  Strong premise, interesting overall plot, mostly mediocre everywhere else.  I generally enjoyed the flick, though.

Final Rating: Three Stars.