[Revisit Review]
Re-watching George Waggner's The Wolf Man, I was astonished by how damn charismatic Lon Chaney, Jr. was while not in his werewolf makeup. This is particularly apparent in an early scene where he flirts with Evelyn Ankers in her antique shop. Notice how his eyes never leave her face, not even when she starts to show him her wares. He's like a lovesick puppy (pun maybe not intended). It's easy to forget that the film was made almost a decade after the first wave of Universal Monster movies like Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Mummy (1932). Though it was made on a smaller budget than all three of those films, it demonstrates a more confident and deliberate visual style and narrative structure. I was also surprised by just how little you actually see the Wolf Man in this film. I think you may literally see less of him than you do of the shark in Jaws (1975).
8/10
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