The Werewolf (1913)

Director:

Henry MacRae

Writer:

Ruth Ann Baldwin (story)

Release Date:

13 December 1913 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror | Short | Fantasy

Plot:

An old Indian legend tells of the supposed ability of persons who have been turned into wolves through magic power to assume human form at will for purposes of vengeance.

Plot Keywords:

Werewolf | Navajo | Man Beast | Curse | Lost Film

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Clarence Burton	...	Ezra Vance, Prospector and Trail Blazer
Marie Walcamp	...	Kee-On-Ee, as a Young Woman
Phyllis Gordon	...	Watuma, daughter of Kee-On-Ee
Lule Warrenton	...	Kee-On-Ee, Years Later
Sherman Bainbridge	...	Stone Eye
William Clifford	...	Jack Ford

Runtime:

18 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Canada

Company:

Bison Motion Pictures

A piece of werewolf history, unfortunately lost.

The first werewolf movie ever filmed is a long-lost silent film from 1913, 18 minutes in length, unfortunately destroyed by a fire in 1924. It was the only film which examines the old Indian legends of people turned into wolves through magic power for purposes of vengeance, who can assume human form at will.

A Navajo woman named Kee-On-Ee believes she has been abandoned by her husband, who has actually been killed, and so she becomes a witch. Her daughter, Watuma, is taught to hate all white men and seeks vengeance by attacking the invading whites in wolf form, until she encounters a friar and his cross. She returns from death 100 years later to kill the sweetheart of the reincarnation of the man who shot her lover. A real wolf was used in the transformation sequence, involving simple camera dissolves.

Directed by Henry MacRae, who directed over a hundred films prior to 1930, mostly exotic adventure shorts, and produced early classics such as the Flash Gordon series.