No eternal damnation, just eternal love

 FAUST (1926)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

F.W. Murnau had done something unusual with his crossbreed of Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus" and Goethe's "Faust" versions and earlier literary texts - he has made it terrifying. The notion of selling your soul for all the riches in the world is not exactly what is explored in this "Faust" film. Sure, Faust, the lead protagonist (Gösta Ekman), does sign his name on a contract with Mephistopheles and sells his soul yet it is mostly for the people in town dying from the plague. When that doesn't seem like enough, Faust wishes to do away with his whiskers and old age and become young again. When that is accomplished, Faust falls in love with Gretchen, a virginal young girl who runs away from Faust. Naturally, Mephistopheles can help cure that romantic problem with a tasteful golden necklace.

1926's "Faust" is a mite closer to the original Goethe text (more so than later adaptations) and it has its own distinctive F.W. Murnau peculiarities. For one, the sight of an enormous Satan casting a shadow with his wings over a German town is a terrifying image. There's also the sly Mephistopheles (scene-stealing Emil Jannings in an atypical role) chasing after Gretchen's aunt, Martha (a colorful turn by Yvette Guilbert), that seems to belong to another movie (she also wears a bracelet given to her by the devil yet not much comes out of it). It is genuinely funny and tingles the spine at first, especially not knowing what this devil is really up to, but then it gets repetitious. Faust chasing after Gretchen also goes beyond the tolerable meter as they run circles around the town's children, and keep circling and circling. He clearly pines for her.   

Still, I have to give F.W. Murnau credit where it's due with the depiction of Gretchen's painful scenes (a nerve-wracking turn by Camilla Horn) where she solicits help from the townspeople who ignore her after being named a harlot by her own murdered brother (Mephisto does the deed). The truly tough scene of Gretchen walking in a blizzard and seeking shelter with her newborn is one that will stay with me forever (she conjures an image of a cradle and places the newborn in it, wherein the baby promptly dies). Also powerful are scenes of an older Faust, an alchemist, trying to burn books including the Bible. I was quite touched when Faust seizes upon Mephistopheles to help rescue Gretchen from being burned to the stake. Faust doesn't realize that Mephisto is a trickster and unreliable and, if memory serves, Faust has always been a pathetic literary figure whose temptations outdo his sensibilities. Our sympathy for him is stretched when, earlier in the story, he seduces the Duchess of Parma (Hannah Ralph) resulting in the devil killing the Duke in a duel - all this for eternal sex, I gather, though it is short-lived.

"Faust" is amazingly shot and directed, in particular the use of looming, stark shadows (a major staple of German Expressionism that was fluently used in Murnau's "Nosferatu"). I also love the distorted various rooftops that seem to collide in depth of field shots seen from an ascending road. Jannings is memorably evil with his raised eyebrows and black mane of hair that seems impossible to maintain (of course, he's a devil so he can). "Faust" stands as a sardonic, exemplary, often haunting meditation of Goethe and Marlowe's texts (though I do not see much of Marlowe's influence here). Somehow, in Murnau's and Faust's mind, love beats the demon.   

Wolf Man suffering from amnesia

 THE WEREWOLF (1956)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

What is seemingly another werewolf film trying to conjure memories of Lon Chaney, Jr. and the Universal Monster lot has some other tricks up its sleeve. "The Werewolf" also fulfills what Lon Chaney, Jr. did, build sympathy for a man who doesn't want to transform into that howling creature. The sympathy seems stronger yet less sad and unfortunate than with Chaney, but make no mistake - Steven Ritch as the amnesiac man who is frightened by the prospect of transformation does a helluva job of making us care about his plight.

Most of "The Werewolf" has Ritch running around the mountainside, trying to evade the police after he killed a bully outside a bar. This guy doesn't need moonlight to change - he can transform during the day (some day-for-night scenes get confusing with daylight scenes). It turns out this poor guy was in a car crash, rescued by a pair of doctors who had injected wolf serum into him to help deal with the fallout of some presumed nuclear holocaust. These doctor Moreau-types also have ideas of creating a super race of werewolves!

"The Werewolf" has some decent black-and-white photography yet the werewolf transformations are not nearly as fun as Lon Chaney Jr.'s haunting changes in "The Wolf Man" (the werewolf looks a lot like that sad sack in "The Return of the Vampire," both by the same makeup artist Clay Campbell). Still, the film plays it straight and has subtle sci-fi overtones that lend it a little pizazz. I love the national forest look and the firm sheriff (Don Megowan) who has no time for love with a doctor's assistant - he'd rather hang with some of the residents holding torches. I also love seeing the poor man's family trying to convince the lycanthrope to remedy his sickness and come home. Weak ending is saved by some decent acting and a couple of imaginative werewolf attacks. 

Mild Lycanthropy shocks

 WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Of all the werewolf movies I've seen (with certain modern exceptions), Henry Hull's botanist character is one of the dullest. Hull has expressive eyes that can show fear and emit some level of pathos but the ill-written screenplay doesn't allow much for dynamism or soul. 

In the rather clunky opening sequence set in some backlot meant to represent Tibet, Hull's botanist, Dr. Wilfrid Gendon, is in search of an uncommon (and fictional) flower known as the Mariphasa lupina lumina. With his trusty binoculars, he locates the flower in record time. Dr. Gendon and his exhausted associate travel through the mountainous region and are almost stopped by an invisible force! They continue on until they find the flower and Wilfrid is attacked by a werewolf and bitten on the arm! Back in London, Wilfrid shows off his foreign plant collection, one of which includes a Venus flytrap and a plant that could easily be mistaken for something out of "Little Shop of Horrors." A certain Dr. Yogami (Warner Oland) is after the same flower that can heal or prevent transformation, likely due to the fact that he's also been afflicted with lycanthropy. 

The film has some mild atmospheric flavor for its customary Universal London fog and cobblestoned streets, though that does not set it apart from the norm of its time. A lot of the indoor scenes are visually cramped. As for the actors, Hull is inefficient as the insufferable doctor and it is hard to distinguish between the minimal werewolf makeup (the monster's widow's peak is its major distinction) and the doctor - they are practically the same except for the fangs. This werewolf has a predilection for attacking and killing women - our first misogynist werewolf? It also visits a zoo for some reason (housing a couple of wolves - nice touch) where the guard is having an illicit affair! Guess who gets killed? 

I loved seeing the delicate-as-a-flower Valerie Hobson (appearing the same year as Frankenstein's fiancee in "The Bride of Frankenstein") playing the doctor's wife who slowly loses any hope of romance with this introverted man. She seeks the companionship of her old friend and past lover, Paul (the delightful Lester Matthews). Why didn't someone just cast Matthews as the werewolf and give Hull a chance to be charismatic as Paul? 

"Werewolf of London" is sort of entertaining and fascinating to see as the first official full-length werewolf movie before Lon Chaney, Jr. immortalized it. Change the casting of the lead protagonist and they might have made a more impactful horror flick.