Moon of the Wolf (1972)

Cast:

David "A One-Armed Man killed my wife!!" Janssen is Sheriff Aaron Whitaker
Barbara Rush is Louise Rodanthe
Bradford "I was in Piranha" Dillman is Andrew Rodanthe
John Beradino is Dr. Druten
Geoffrey Lewis is Lawrence Burrifors

What the box says:

The sheriff of a small Louisiana town starts to suspect a werewolf when the body of a young woman is discovered mauled to death. A clever and well-written 1972 thriller built on classic werewolf folklore.

Plot:

During a full moon, several dogs are barking. A farmer and his dim-bulb son check to see if it is coyotes. They find a dead girl, instead�The sheriff gets called.

By daylight, Sheriff Whitaker and the crowd are at the swamp where the body was found. The distraught Laurence, brother of Ellie, runs to her body.

Doctor Druden performs the autopsy. The body has bite marks but was also struck on the head by a left handed blow. The bite marks were after death, she was murdered�.Dum-Dum-Dummmmmmmmm��

Sheriff stops at the girl�s house. Her father, Hugh, is babbling in French. Whitaker talks with Laurence. Ellie was having trouble with a man. He hit her�

At the stately Rodanthe mansion, he talks with Andrew Rodanthe. He learns that Andrew�s sister, Louise, has returned. Can we say love-interest?

Later at the murder site, Sheriff Whitaker discovers a necklace.

He questions the farmer and his dim-bulb son.

In town, Hugh has sent his maid to get some things to drive the luockyrou away. Sarah, the maid, reveals Ellie was pregnant. The father must be the killer.

Whitaker talks with Doctor Druden again and learns the good doctor was the impregnator. Apparently, he loved her. However, he didn�t want the baby, and Ellie wanted to keep it and leave the island.

Sheriff Whitaker runs into Louise, and small talk ensues. Louise returned after living in sin with a guy in New York and ran out of money.

The townsfolk plan to hunt down all the wild dogs.

Hugh, Ellie�s father, is babbling even more hysterically than before.

Doctor Druden arrives to find Hugh pointing at Laurence�s hand. The good doctor gives Hugh a shot to calm him down.

Sarah tells Laurence that Ellie was with child.

As the men ready for the wild dog hunt, Laurence stops by and gives Doctor Druden a fistful of welcome. Since, Druden didn�t mention that Ellie was pregnant, he was covering it up. If he was covering it up, he must have been the daddy. The Sheriff hauls Laurence off.

Sheriff Whitaker pays a visit to Louise. The smoldering passion could set off a fire alarm or not.

That night, in the jail, Laurence still blames the doctor. Something is skulking about on the streets. The deputy goes outside to investigate the ruckus after locking Laurence in the cell. The werewolf gets the deputy. Laurence gets all bug eyed and terrified as the cell door is ripped loose.

The townsfolk really start to panic after seeing the jail. Druden proclaims Laurence is dead. The cell door was ripped out of the wall by bare hands. None of the fearless dog hunters will volunteer to be deputized.

The town has become a virtual ghost town. Andrew Rodanthe volunteers to help Whitaker. They go to Hugh�s place.

The luockyrouu repellent has been set all around Hugh�s house. Sarah greets them as Andrew has a violent reaction to the repellent.

At the hospital, Druden checks out Andrew. He doesn�t know what is wrong.

Whitaker talks with Louise. He spots a photo of Louise�s mother wearing the necklace found at the murder site. Whitaker wants to talk with Andrew right now. Louise goes with him.

Questioning ensues. Andrew gave Ellie the necklace the night of her death. He gave it to her for the favors he did for him. Andrew has a rare disease and would have Ellie get him a month�s supply of his medicine at a time. That night, she seemed somewhat distraught. To cheer her up, Andrew gave her the necklace. Later that night, Andrew had another attack and woke up the next morning. Each night, he has slept soundly. Andrew mentions he is ambidextrous.

Druden gets Whitaker to take some medicine to Hugh. Louise goes with him. At Hugh�s place, Louise finally understands what Hugh has been saying werewolf in French. Apparently, Louise is the next victim.

Druden finds that Andrew isn�t his room. Werewolf knocks him down and roams the halls.

The mayor readies his vigilante lynch mob to hunt down Andrew Rodanthe who is a werewolf. Louise pleads with them not to do it. Sheriff Whitaker claims going after Andrew without his authorization is illegal. The town people aren�t really bothered by legalities when they�ve got a werewolf to kill.

That night at the Rodanthe mansion, Louise is waiting. She lets Whitaker inside not biblically though�She found a book on lycanthropy and pseudo-lycanthropic diseases. Blood turns them into werewolves. They hear a wolf cry.

Whitaker blockades the windows and doors. He has Louise stay in while he searches outside.

Outside, Whitaker calls for Andrew to no avail.

Louise keeps reading the book to distract herself when Werewolf Andrew breaks in the mansion. Louise manages to get outside.

Locking herself in the barn, she can�t find Whitaker. Werewolf Andrew gets in the hayloft of the barn. Louise tosses a kerosene lamp and sets the barn on fire. She gets away while her werewolf brother is still inside.

Louise mourns her brother. She hears a wolf cry and heads upstairs in the mansion.

Whitaker is still looking outside.

Louise gets a gun.

Whitaker spots the burning barn and heads back to the mansion.

Unsteadily holding the gun, Louise caps Andrew like Tommy Kirk does Old Yeller. Louise realizes that Andrew had silver bullets in the gun just in case something happened.

Louise and Whitaker walk away as Andrew reverts to his human form.

What I say:

This week's suggested soundtrack is Ozzy's Bark at the Moon and the uber-excellent Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon.

Werewolves have always got the short end of the stick in movies. Vampires are so much easier. Put someone in fake fangs and make them dress like French poets or leather pants like an 80s rock singer, you've got a vampire. Hammer Studios wasn't very successful with its werewolf movie, Curse of the Wolf. The late 60s on saw Paul Naschy, who I may not think much of, start to bring our fine-furry carnivore from the obscurity of Abbot and Costello movies. American movies gave us Werewolves on Wheels. Someone realized a werewolf could be used in a pseudo-mystery. I think there was werewolf version of 10 Little Indians or was that an episode of Tales From the Crypt.

Today, it is difficult to really explain the TV-movies of the early 70s especally for someone who didn't come along until the late 70s. Many of them were just a little over an hour to fit into a hour and half block of time and had more genre TV-movies like the Kolchack pilot or Duel. Today, TV-movies seem to be made for the Lifetime crowd. 10 years ago, TV-movies focused on stolen baby movies. The past couple of years have seen a couple of genre TV-movies like the Spring Break Shark Attack, the couple of Lucy Lawless killer bug movies, or the disaster movies that permeate miniseries during sweeps...

For a TV-movie with such an obvious low budget, the werewolf makeup isn't that bad. The movie tries to not flat out say werewolf though all the clues scream LYCANTHROPE!!! It is on par with any of the Paul Naschy movies of that time like Werewolf Vs the Vampire Women. We are never given a chance to see any wolf transformations. So no Naschy-like growling for us.

You've got to appreciate the lynch-mob mentality in a movie. They automatically jump onto an idea with both hands and won't let go. As soon as somebody claimed Rodanthe was a werewolf, no one person denied it or thought it was insane. At least, no redneck spoke in a fake Southern accent "Werewolf, we better bag him so I can get his head mounted on the wall."

Brotherhood of the Wolf may be the only more French werewolf movie than this. Normally, I'd make some French jokes but any movie about Kung Fuing Indians battling werewolves and has Monica Belluci's heaving cleavage deserves the respect and admiration of the world. Not that either are bad...Both are quite good and should be celebrated...

David Janssen is probably more known for playing Doctor Richard Kimble in the Fugitive or for co-starring in the Green Berets with John Wayne. By the early 70s, he seems to have most only did made for television movies. He did 4 or 5 in one year. I can say that Janssen's character was probably one of the laziest and most pointless heroes in any movie. The sheriff comes across as dumb hick or what could be called "a good ole boy."

I think it was an accident about the final part of the movie not having David Janssen do much of anything. He is outside looking for the werewolf. He misses the entire werewolf chasing Louise. He isn't capping Old Yeller for that matter. It seems to be a cheap shot to have the "supposed" hero who goes through the entire movie and not even stop the monster.

Gorewise, you would be extremely disappointed with it. However, who is going to expect gore in a 1970s made for tv movie? The same people expecting hot Sapphic action...Ok, that last sentence is to see if anyone was paying attention or can be lured to this review by the word "Sapphic." 70s TV-movies aren't the best proving grounds for actors. I have been critical on this movie because just tweaking a few things here and there would have made the movie so much better.

I normally don't like trying to go over other movies the director has done. Daniel Petrie has had quite a career. Anyone who directed Cocoon 2: the Return and Toy Soldiers where Wil Weaton is filled with more lead than water fountain should be acknowledged.

Quotable Dialogue
"Well, we're lucky you ain't got a pocketful of dimes, aren't we?"
"That'll pleasure me..."
"What's a lucaru?"
"The socially-unacceptable man walked out on me."
Morals of the Story
Sheriffs want to keep murders secrets from the victim's family.
Sheriff's badge is faker than the one a 6 year old would get from a toy store.
Prisoners aren't locked into jail cells.
Werewolves are ambidextrous.
Hospitals cannot pay their light bills. Why else are the hallways always dark?