FILM · 1941 · USA
The Wolf Man
- Directed by
- George Waggner
- Runtime
- 70 min
- Studio
- Universal Pictures
27 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
After his brother's death, Larry Talbot returns home to his father and the family estate. Events soon take a turn for the worse when Larry is bitten by a werewolf.
27 Interesting Facts About The Wolf Man
Interesting Facts (19)
- #001
The "wolf" that Larry Talbot fights was Lon Chaney Jr.'s own German Shepherd.
- #002
Evelyn Ankers was badly frightened when a 600-pound bear (its scene was later cut from the film) escaped from its trainer and chased the actress to a staircase, where an electrician pulled her to safety.
- #003
The fog-covered forest where many of the film's key scenes take place was one of the largest interior sets Universal had built at that time, occupying an entire sound stage on the studio's backlot.
- #004
Larry Talbot and his father Sir John go to the village church on Sundays, but the village church's door and steps look more like those of a cathedral. In fact it was a cathedral: it was part of the original set built for the legendary silent version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), starring Lon Chaney Jr.'s famous father Lon Chaney, which had stood on Universal's backlot for more than 20 years.
- #005
Curt Siodmak claimed responsibility for adding the werewolf's vulnerability to silver to the canon, a claim often repeated by horror enthusiasts including director John Landis. According to legend, silver was first used to kill a werewolf in the Beast of Gevaudan in the late 19th century; novels retelling the legend appeared in the 1930s and featured the werewolf being killed with a silver bullet. This film was the first to use the magic-bullet myth on screen.
- #006
Evelyn Ankers had a difficult time working with Lon Chaney Jr. She was already angry that she had been given a dressing room (the studio was punishing her for damaging studio property while drunk), and the actor constantly irritated her, liked to sneak up and frighten her, and played childish practical jokes on her such as calling her "Shankers" (a shank is a homemade knife-like weapon, especially one made in prison; to shank is to stab in the back).
- #007
Evelyn Ankers later recalled that during the filming of the final confrontation she had to faint and then remain on the ground until the fight scene between Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains was finished. Ankers remembered lying on the ground so long during one take that the low-lying chemical fog used in the scene caused her to faint. When the take was completed, the crew began rearranging the cameras and lights for the next shot without noticing that Ankers had not gotten up. Eventually one of the crew realized Ankers was missing, and she was pulled out of the fog and revived.
- #008
The werewolf is described as "a man who turns into a wolf at certain times of the year… 'when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright,'" yet the moon is never depicted in the film. This is the only film in Universal's Wolf Man series in which the full moon is never shown. In the sequel the folklore was changed to "when the moon is full and bright."
- #009
Larry's silver wolf-head cane, the only prop from the film that survives today, is currently in the personal collection of genre-film archivist Bob Burns. Burns, then a schoolboy, was given the cane's head by prop maker Ellis Burman, the man who made it for the film. It has since been sold to a collector in Maryland.
- #010
Although silver bullets are mentioned repeatedly throughout the film, only a silver-headed cane is actually used to destroy werewolves. Silver bullets would not be used until House of Frankenstein (1944).
- #011
Maria Ouspenskaya, who played the old Gypsy woman, was only six years older than Bela Lugosi, who played her son.
- #012
Bela's werewolf form appears as a four-legged, animalistic wolf, while Larry appears as a two-legged Wolf Man. One possible reason is that the film was originally conceived as a psychological thriller, in which it can never be entirely certain whether Larry truly transforms into a werewolf or whether it is all in his head. Naturally, this means he must be attacked by a creature resembling a real wolf, because if a Wolf Man-type monster attacked him, there would be no doubt that werewolves are real. Additionally, the canon novel The Return of the Wolf Man and its sequel state that lycanthropy affects people in different ways. In this respect Bela resembled a large wolf, like the wolves of the Middle Ages, while Larry was a hairy humanoid with wolf characteristics. The novels established The Werewolf of London as canon, and Wilfred Glendon's werewolf form was also different. The novel's sequel, Dracula's Daughter Marya Zaleska, confirms that these are different types of werewolves.
- #013
The first transformation takes place with Talbot wearing a tank top (although he had once worn an entirely dark shirt while prowling stealthily). In the six-jump dissolve, only the feet transform on screen. The second transformation has eleven shots, again only of the feet. The third transformation features 17 facial shots in continuous dissolve.
- #014
Despite Universal Pictures' concerns about the public's appetite for horror films following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the film became one of the studio's highest-grossing films of 1942.
- #015
Universal Pictures, lacking a theater chain, had planned to market the film as part of a double bill (with The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942)) but feared that the public would avoid an all-horror bill after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- #016
Larry transforms into the werewolf three times, and each time he wears the same clothes regardless of how he was dressed before the changes.
- #017
Curt Siodmak's first draft contained no werewolf scenes and no hallucination scene.
- #018
The painting of Larry's older brother, John Talbot, is actually of Lon Chaney Jr., with some facial features and gray hair added to make him look older, but he still resembles Larry.
- #019
The lightning bolts on the grille of Sir John Talbot's car indicate that it is an Isotta Fraschini, a luxury vehicle manufactured in Italy until 1935, when the company halted pre-war car production. Today Isotta Fraschinis sell at auction for six-figure sums, some for over $1 million.
Production Story (1)
- #020
In the first version of the screenplay, Larry was not Sir John Talbot's prodigal son and was in no way related to him. He was an American engineer who came to repair Sir John's telescope and ultimately fell victim to the werewolf curse.
Behind the Scenes (3)
- #021
The Wolf Man fights a bear in one scene, but unfortunately the bear escaped during filming; the few scenes that were shot were included in the theatrical trailer.
- #022
Jack P. Pierce created the Wolf Man's iconic makeup primarily with a rubber nose and Tibetan yak hair that was curled with a curling iron and glued to Lon Chaney Jr.'s face, arms and legs with spirit gum. Applying Chaney's makeup took six hours and removing it took three. Chaney Jr. did not much enjoy the makeup process and once complained: "What upsets me after work is that when I'm feverish, itching and tired, and Pierce is nearly killing me pulling off what he put on me in the morning, I have to sit in that chair for forty-five minutes."
- #023
The silver top of Larry's wolf-headed cane was made of vulcanized rubber, so that none of the actors or stuntmen would be injured if struck by accident.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #024
In Curt Siodmak's original script for The Wolf Man, it was left ambiguous whether Lawrence Talbot actually underwent a physical transformation into a wolf man or whether the transformation occurred only in his mind; the Wolf Man was never meant to appear on screen. Ultimately the studio decided that Talbot genuinely turning into a wolf man would be more appealing to audiences and therefore more profitable, and the script was revised accordingly. The remake starring Benicio Del Toro returned to that idea, having its version of Lawrence Talbot committed to a mental institution for lycanthropy-induced "delusions."
Deeper Meaning (3)
- #025
The film popularized a number of werewolf legends, such as that the only way to kill a werewolf is with a silver bullet and that werewolves and their victims are marked with pentagrams. Part of the mythology, such as a werewolf's bite turning another person into a werewolf, was taken from the earlier film Werewolf of London (1935), while other elements were original concepts created by writer Curt Siodmak. Actual werewolf folklore is extremely varied: in some versions a person becomes a werewolf by being cursed or by making a deal with the devil, can transform at any time, is mortal and can be killed by traditional means. Later films added the detail that werewolves are immortal, which was likewise a Hollywood invention and essentially an excuse to keep bringing the character back for sequels.
- #026
"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright." Some sources list this quote as an authentic Gypsy or Eastern European folk saying, but writer Curt Siodmak admitted he made it up. The rhyme would go on to appear in all of the Wolf Man's future Universal films and is also quoted in Van Helsing (2004), albeit slightly altered, using "the moon is full and bright" instead of "the autumn moon is bright."
- #027
According to a documentary on the recently released Wolf Man DVD collection, the script of The Wolf Man was influenced by writer Curt Siodmak's experiences in Nazi Germany. Siodmak had been living a normal life in Germany, but when the Nazis took control he was thrown into chaos and had to flee, just as Larry Talbot's normal life is thrown into chaos and he finds himself on the run when he becomes a wolf man. The Wolf Man himself can also be seen as a metaphor for the Nazis: a man who is otherwise good transformed into a savage, deadly animal, and who knows who his next victim will be when he sees the pentagram (that is, a star) symbol on them.
Related pages
- Cursed — The Wolf Man comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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