Lon Chaney, Jr. played Talbot in THE WOLF MAN. Chaney, son of famous silent film star Lon Chaney (of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA fame), had become the most valuable player at Universal, taking over the roles that Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi used to play. The junior Chaney was a fine character actor whose work in monster movies eventually overshadowed some of his other brilliant performances, such as his amazing portrayal of the dumb brute Lennie in Hal Roach’s superb OF MICE AND MEN. For the Wolf Man, Chaney had to undergo the agonizing application of yak hair to his face, a process that took hours. Chaney himself said that as much as he hated putting on the makeup, he dreaded the more-painful removal even more. The results, however, were well worth it, as the makeup for The Wolf Man is remarkable even today, equal in imagination and execution as the makeup the developed for the Frankenstein films.
Returning to the formula used in the earlier films such as FRANKENSTEIN and THE MUMMY, the werewolf of THE WOLF MAN was a tragic figure, one who did not ask for his troubles and who was helpless to control his actions. Lawrence Talbot, the jolly son of Sir John Talbot, is bitten while killing another werewolf (played by Bela Lugosi) and thus becomes one himself. Up to then, Talbot had been an aimless bachelor with no purpose to his life. For the rest of the Wolf Man series, he would pursue his new dream - ending his curse, be it by death or by a cure.
Though we remember The Wolf Man as someone who turns into a wild animal when the moon is full, in this original film, there is no mention of the effects of the full moon. The poem which nearly everyone in the film recites, mentions only the autumn moon:
"Even a man who is pure at heart/ and says his prayers at night/ may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms/ and the autumn moon is bright."
