“The Wolfman” (1941) vs. “The Wolfman” (2010)

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I waited two years for Universal’s remake of “The Wolfman.” A troubled production from the start — director Mark Romanek left the project two weeks before shooting began — the film would go on to miss one release date after another, as it spent many moons in post-production. Endless reshoots tried to beef up the film’s action quotient. A new composer was brought in before the studio decided to use Danny Elfman’s completely forgettable score after all. Two top-flight editors came on board to save the film. This is Hollywood filmmaking at its most incompetent, burning through millions of dollars to bring audiences a “Wolfman” picture that’s boring and toothless.

Never mind that the very same studio cranked out a terrific “Wolfman” picture almost 70 years ago.

I revisited the original 1941 version of “The Wolfman” — itself a quasi-remake of 1935’s “Werewolf of London” — to see how it stacks up against its big-budget follow-up. In the film, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) returns to London after spending the past 18 years in the States and reconnects with his father (Claude Rains) in the wake of his brother’s death. Larry quickly falls in love with the otherwise engaged daughter of a local shopkeeper, learns a shitload about werewolves from all the resident experts on the subject (the townspeople are like walking Wikipedia entries when it comes to the topic of lycanthropy) and is bitten by a werewolf while visiting a local gypsy camp to have his fortune read. At 70 minutes, the movie wastes no time.

Larry recovers from the werewolf bite in no time but finds himself a person of interest in the murder of a gypsy named Bela (played by Bela Lugosi). Though he’s convinced he bludgeoned a wolf to death with his silver-topped cane, the authorities find a shoeless Bela lying dead in the woods with a crushed skull. However, Larry’s father is loaded, so Larry manages to stay out of jail for the time being. Then night falls, and Larry undergoes a lap-dissolve transformation into the buttoned-down Wolfman. Oddly, the Wolfman changes clothes before going on the prowl. A grave-digger is killed, Larry begins to think he’s a werewolf, the authorities close in, and it all races toward an extremely brief third act. Universal monster movies of the period all seem to end very abruptly. The monster’s killed…THE END.

Of all the A-list Universal monsters that burst onto the scene in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, the Wolfman is the only one whose film didn’t have a direct sequel. Rather, Larry Talbot returned from the grave in a couple of Frankenstein follow-ups, “Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman” and “House of Frankenstein,” as well as a Dracula sequel, “House of Dracula.” The Larry Talbot/Wolfman character is also unique in that Lon Chaney Jr. is the only actor to play him in each monster mash-up. The roles of Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy and the others were often recast with different actors in many of the subsequent entries.

For the 2010 version of “The Wolfman,” Benicio Del Toro plays Lawrence Talbot. Del Toro seems to be on some sort of horse tranquilizers throughout the film. It’s a stunningly awful performance for the actor, whose work I’m usually very impressed with. The remake is set in Victorian England, where the original takes place in the least blitzkrieged quadrant of WWII-era London. The remake seems to want to evoke the style of the Hammer horror films of the ’50s and ’60s. Del Toro even vaguely resembles Oliver Reed in Hammer’s “Curse of the Werewolf.”

But it’s just so damn boring, this movie. I looked over at my girlfriend about a third of the way in, and she was fast asleep. It takes forever for Talbot to transform into a werewolf the first time. Once he does, the limb-splitting mayhem is so choppy and blink-and-you’ll miss it, you’re left confused as to what’s going on exactly. There’s no dread, no suspense. It’s a series of cheap scares and flashes of violence. You expect that from crappy B-horror movies. Here, I was hoping for a fuzzier take on “Jaws.”

Director Joe Johnston, who can always be counted on for a middling picture, seemed like an odd choice after Romanek walked. He’s out of his element when it comes to Gothic horror. Ten years ago, Tim Burton made his last great film, “Sleepy Hollow,” within similar genre trappings and nailed it. Johnston’s completely at a loss, uneasy with the setting and tone. This is such a bland and humorless film. Anthony Hopkins has one good line, but even he appears to be as bored as the audience with the proceedings.

I can’t wait to see Johnston’s mediocre take on “Captain America!”

“The Wolfman” (2010) was hardly worth the two-year wait. After all the farting around that went on behind-the-scenes during its lengthy post-production process, Universal ultimately delivered a film that fails to live up to the original. They should’ve let sleeping dogs lie.

-Brad Lohan

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