I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF
US, 1957, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Michael Landon, Yvonne Lime, Whit Bissell, Barney Phillips.
Directed by Gene Fowler Jr.
I Was a Teenage Werewolf is much better than the title suggests. Later in the year there was a companion film, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.
Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven) has a good role as a troubled teenager whose mother has died and his father has difficulty controlling him. He is full of rage which manifests itself in school, fights, being quick off the mark when somebody touches him. He is advised by a sympathetic policeman (Barney Phillips) to see a psychiatrist (Whit Bissell – who was Frankenstein in the later film).
The doctor, however, is involved in chemical and hypnotic experimentation and is determined to use the young man as a guinea pig. In hypnotising him and reducing him to his original state, he triggers a werewolf reaction. The werewolf then becomes enraged and attacks various students in the school.
While the film is reminiscent of some aspects of the werewolf film tradition, it is up to date for the 1950s in looking at science and experimentation as the cause of the condition rather than superstition.
The central character is very reminiscent of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and the film echoes the films about troubled teenagers of the 1950s.
1.An impressive B-budget film? For the 1950s? In retrospect?
2.The ordinary town settings, homes, schools, clubs? Laboratories and surgeries? A realistic feel? The musical score?
3.The title, the werewolf tradition? The different explanation, science and hypnosis? The rogue psychiatrist?
4.Tony Rivers, his mother’s death, his father’s dealing with him? His fights at school, Sergeant Donovan breaking up the fights, the discussions with the principal? The suggestion of the psychiatrist? His relationship with Arlene, the criticisms of her parents? His friends, the fights? Setting up the club, the youngsters going out, singing and dancing? The ordinary life? Arlene and her influence on Tony to see the psychiatrist?
5.The psychiatrist, his assistant, his experiments? The interviews with Tony? The decision to experiment? The hypnosis, the chemicals? His lack of scruple, the Frankenstein syndrome of seeing himself as above morality? The answers to the police, the experiment going wrong, destruction?
6.Tony, his ordinary life, his calming down, the encouragement of the doctor? The discussion with the principal, the rage, the gymnast and her death? His pursuing other students? The killing of his friend on the way home from the party?
7.The police investigation, the capturing of the werewolf, his being recognised by the principal? The dismay when Tony was discovered?
8.The Rebel Without a Cause tradition? Problem teenage films? Combined with the horror tradition?
