“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.”
In 1941, Universal Pictures decided to make the iconic werewolf movie. Again. The studio’s previous effort, 1935’s The Werewolf of London, didn’t click with audiences the way Frankenstein and Dracula had, but Universal was determined to add another monster to their stable and was looking to the moon for inspiration. Up-and-coming novelist Curt Sodimak was hired to write the script, and Lon Chaney, Jr. was cast as world-weary Larry Talbot, the film’s titular Wolf Man. Did Universal succeed in creating another horror icon? Well, when was the last time anyone even thought about The Werewolf of London?
The Wolf Man comes to us in wave one of Sideshow Toys Universal Monsters series. The figure stands 8 inches tall and features 12 points of articulation. The Wolf Man came with a sculpted base with nameplate, plus a nifty “silver-tipped” cane and bear-trap.
This is the “Silver Screen Edition” of the figure. Silver Screen Editions are identical to the original wave one figures, except the characters are painted in gray tones to closer resemble their on-screen counterparts. This guy only become a display figure because my original “colorized” version took a brutal 6-foot shelf dive to a hardwood floor. The clear plastic pins used on the 8-inch Universal Monster’s joints were so brittle they often broke in package, so you can imagine the effect of a 6-foot fall.
Let’s start with the good. We have another strong sculpt from Oluf W. Hartvigson (and if that’s not a household name by now, I haven’t been doing my job). It’s a great likeness of Lon Chaney Jr. in his most memorable role (or second-most if you count Bruno from Spider Baby). Universal makeup wizard Jack Pierce had designed this makeup for The Werewolf of London, but star Henry Hull had refused to wear it citing the unique discomfort that comes from having 10 pounds of yak hair and latex rubber glued to your face. Chaney, knowing an opportunity when it smacked him on the snout, suffered the makeup gladly and became a horror icon.
The Wolf Man is sculpted in a perpetual crouch, which creates some serious posing issues. With no ab crunch to speak of and the same v-crotch that plagues all Sideshow figures, he’s locked into one static position. His head is perpetually looking down on a swivel joint that prevents him from howling at the moon. While I understand the rationale (Talbot does spend all his time as the Wolf Man hunched over), a ball-jointed neck would have done wonders here.
The figure’s poor posture doesn’t do the limited articulation any favors. A pegged neck keeps the Wolf Man from making eye contact with all but the shyest of monsters and the aforementioned V-crotch leaves the knees swinging back and forth impotently. The swivel at the waist helps kinetically, allowing some flow-motion, but with a character like the Wolf Man, you can’t help but expect a little more.
Silver Screen Editions of these figures leave something to be desired. A character like the Metaluna Mutant has enough contrasting detail to get away with a grayscale figure, but the Wolf Man just ends up a large, dark mass of plastic. While the color version wasn’t exactly jazzy, the green and gray clothing provided at least some contrast to the brown fur. Here, everything is just muddled. Areas like the face and hands do stand out, but that has just as much to do with the drab color palate as the paintwork.
From an accessories standpoint, the Wolf Man came with the usual sculpted base with nameplate, plus a wolf’s head cane and bear-trap. I lost many of my bases and accessories during an ambitious basement cleanup, so here’s an official product photo in their place:
Unless you’re a real die-hard, I would recommend the regular version of this figure over the Silver Screen Edition. It was an interesting concept, but ultimately it’s far more gray than “black and white,” leaving the figure drab and uninspiring. The articulation is barely serviceable and the sloppy paintwork smothers a great sculpt, which is a bozo no-no. That said, this figure is still better than no Wolf Man at all, at least on my shelf.
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