You can tell the film’s blazing 1970s topicality by reading
the “Sound by” credit.
And, yes, the Technical Advisor’s name is a deliberate
portmanteau of Marvel’s Stan Lee with the director Stanley Kubrick.
As our story opens, David Rush as the Mad
Scientist/Burgomeister is performing a delicate experiment.The secret formula will, in fact, lead to
*gasp* several deaths.
It’s deliberate that David resembles Groucho Marx.(That’s a greasepaint moustache.)
The Mad Scientist’s lab was set in my parents’ garage,
complete with a Visible Man model and my big brother’s chemical set.
Cued by his hunchbacked assistant—played by Bill Hughes
(seen again later)—, the Mad Scientist welcomes his gawky guinea pig.
Yep, yours truly.I
looked like this in the senior photo taken later, in fall of this year:
By the way, that chapeau atop my dome was purchased at the
OSU (OK State University) bookstore.
It’s bright orange.I
had worn the thing previously in our church’s presentation of Godspell,
in November, 1972.
Our sucker subject has come to the Doctor because of
a bad headache.A perfect prospect for
the Doctor’s formula!
And now, after some amateur stop-motion hand-hair-growing, a
full reveal of the monstrous transformation!
Wait a minute!That’s no wolfman!
Nope, for some reason we didn’t use a werewolf face ... we
used a thin rubber skull mask, augmented by a glued-on beard and my glasses,
crowned by the OSU derby.
When the “wolfman” makes a pass at the astounded Doctor, the
scientist tries to ward the creature off with some scissors.
This line refers to the creature’s originally intended
hirsute state.
And, of course, the “little snip” business is another
Marxist reference, to the infamous barber scene from Monkey Business, when a
moustache trim ends in a tiny Hitlerian bristle.
You may notice that the transformed monster (that’s me)
doesn’t do a lot of damage to the laboratory.Director David Rush explains:“One
memory is, I recall Bill [Hughes] and I wanted you to be more violent once you
turned into the monster but for some reason you didn't want to wreck your
parents’ garage. We compromised with
your energetic kick of the plastic bottles under the table.”
After the “wolfman” escapes, he participates in another film
homage, this time to the sequence in 1931’s Frankenstein.
Of course, our scene was more rudely hewn.And, I’ll have you know, Terror of the Wolfman
parodied Frankenstein a FULL YEAR before Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks did
it in Young Frankenstein!So
there!
By the way, Kathy our mermaid was a swell sport.
The Lonesome Lover seeking his lost mate.
After this foul deed, our “wolfman” runs away, and directly
past Bill Hughes, our sheriff with a rifle.Talk about Instant News!No
sooner does the fiend leave the maiden’s body behind ... than it’s front-page
news on the newspaper the same day!
EXTRA SPECIAL UPDATE:We are now able to pinpoint the shooting of the movie (or at least the newspaper scene). The Headline "Nixon Believes Field Unlimited, Sources Report" undoubtedly is from May, 1973. Nixon's 2nd Attorney General, Richard Kleindienst, resigned on April 30, 1973. Then-Secretary of Defense Elliott Richardson was tapped for the AG slot at the end of May, 1973. This newspaper (thus the scene) came from that interregnum of AGs.
Strangely enough, the “wolfman” clambers into his home and
becomes mysteriously delivered of his affliction.Maybe the eldritch draught wore off?
Never mind, because he’s been tracked down and will pay the
price for his dirty deeds.You can also
get a good glimpse of Sheriff Bill Hughes.
He developed the film and edited it.As far as the dubbed music soundtrack, he
writes, “For the record I lifted the music from these sources:DVD of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu – DVD of The
Third Man, directed by Carol Reed with Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles –
Marx Brothers music found somewhere on the Internet.”
And now you, my friends, may
view Terror
of the Wolfman!
That's all, my friends, until the beginning of October. Come back on Monday, October 1st, for BLOG-O-WEEN!
I was born at a very early age, in a hospital to be near my mother. After appearing in productions of both GODSPELL and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR in the 1970s, I found a wonderful wife and wrote many love songs to her, but not as many love songs as I write to God my Savior and Redeemer. We have three kids (one of each) -- wait for it -- blonde, brunette, and redhead.
