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10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
No Larry Talbot, BUT..., 26 December 2006

Author: docdespicable from Los Angeles, CA

There are far worse ways to spend an hour or so of your time. This movie was more than likely made for pocket change and contractual obligations, true; but despite not having someone like Val Lewton (who could conjure up palaces out of orange crates) behind it, this isn't at all bad. Nina Foch is quite capable and sympathetic, and ably supported by a raft of character actors who are old hands at this sort of thing.

There's plenty of atmosphere and suspense, with just enough mystery to keep your attention. As with some of the best of the afore-mentioned Lewton's work, until the denouement, you're never quite sure whether this is all in someone's mind or if there's a real bogeyman (or bogeywoman) stalking the night. Lon Chaney Jr's reputation is safe - or even Henry Hull - but the mug who called this the nadir of werewolfery is being a little harsh. With THE WOLF-MAN, Universal set the bar pretty high, after all. But if you're looking for some good old-fashioned fun, you could do much worse. If nothing else, it's an entertaining example of what can be done with some talent, care and craftsmanship, even if you couldn't quite buy dinner for a family of four to six people with the existing budget. Definitely check it out!

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Cry of the Werewolf, 31 October 2007

Author: Scarecrow-88 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I was a bit disappointed with this horror tale as Columbia Pictures decided to take a stab at their own werewolf flick as Nina Foch stars as a gypsy high Priestess, Celeste, whose mother was a lycanthrope passing the affliction to her. She kills a museum owner who has been delving into Foch's mother's history. The man's scientist son, Bob(Stephen Crane) and future Transylvanian wife, Elsa(Osa Massen) decide to follow a few leads through some burnt written words that his late father was penning for a forthcoming novel to be published about the infamous Marie La Tour and her werewolf lineage. The great Barton MacLane stars as Lt. Barry Lane, on the case to discover who murdered Bob's father. While the film certainly has that wonderfully polished B&W noirish look Columbia Pictures is known for, there aren't enough juicy bits with the werewolf that I desired, but Foch is striking in the lead role. No werewolf transformations except some shadow changes on the wall with Foch turning to a regular wolf. The film is more about the search for the killer of the museum curator, with Foch's Celeste using her mind-control black magic powers to persuade Bob and Elsa off her tracks. Too short with a conclusion that I found rather hastily finished. But, good cast and production values helps significantly. The idea of a woman werewolf certainly is interesting and I wish this film could've established that a bit more. Yeah, a woman in a werewolf costume would've definitely satisfied me, to tell you the truth.

8 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Nadir of werewolvery, 5 June 2002
Author: lorenellroy from United Kingdom

I may possibly have seen worse werewolf movies than this but if so have mercifully expunged them from my memory bank The plot while perfunctory is adequate-a Romany princess is descended from Marie Laveau,and like her late mother can turn herself into a wolf when required.This she deems is a skill she needs when a team from the local museum discover the whereabouts of Ms Laveau's tomb which the Romanies decree must be kept secret.Thus she begins to work her way through the team by metamporphosing into a wolf The budget does not extend to on-screen transformations but the budget is not the problem.Val Lewton never had much in the way of money to spend when creating masterpieces like The Cat People,The Leopard Man or Bedlam.What he did have was imagination and flair -qualities lacking in this trudge through cliche after cliche Badly acted and directed and made by people with no feel or enthusiasm for the horror genre

Avoid.

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Worst Werewolf of 40s, 27 February 2008
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

Cry of the Werewolf (1944)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A gypsy woman is cursed by being a werewolf in this Columbia film. After five minutes I had to pause this film so that I could pass out candy and I must say that this was a lot more fun (and scary) than watching this film, which is incredibly dull and it's quite shocking that this would come from a major studio. The werewolf transformation scenes are laughable and the story seems to be about everything except for the actual werewolf. The cast is extremely dull and lifeless and the direction isn't any better. I had seen this years ago but forgot just about everything so that's why I watched it again and I've got the feeling that I'll have forgotten the movie by morning. Check out The Undying Monster instead.

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Not a bad film..........., 10 January 2008

Author: Norm Vogel (nvogel1@tampabay.rr.com) from United States

I enjoyed this film precisely due to the reasons that another reviewer DIDN"T! It was interesting to have a woman as a werewolf, there was no werewolf costume used, and there was an element of mystery in the proceedings.

I enjoyed the Val Lewton-ish scene in the mortuary basement where the hero is being stalked by the werewolf!

I myself am glad that the werewolf transformation scene was done in shadow (the Val Lewton touch), as the special effects of the time were far removed from today's slick computer-created animations. Anything other than the way it was done would've looked SILLY.

A nifty, seldom-seen film! Norm

(PS. Hull's makeup looks MUCH more "wolfish" than Cheney Jr's!).

9 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
I strikes a nerve with me., 17 February 2002

Author: jackchris1111 from Bristol, VA USA

For strange personal reasons, but that's okay, since I have a hard time defining it myself. CRY OF THE WEREWOLF is full of that . . . jeeze, how to describe it? . . . "life - is - shitty - Why - was - I - born? - Why - do - I - have - to - do - awful - things - to - other - people - just - to - pass - my - time - on - the - road - to - a - predestined - inevitable - eternal - damnation - that - nobody - else - has - to - endure?" kind of overwhelming fatalistic cosmic horror that pushes all the right buttons with me. Which, as I said earlier, is strange because my personality is the polar opposite of that kind of cursed nihilism (I never even think about that kind of thing unless a film like that hits me in the face with it). And maybe because that kind of thing is so diametrically opposed to my nature is the reason I find so much horror in the theme, no matter the other deficiencies a film like that may have.

Remember, I'm the guy who thinks FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN is the second-best of the series, for much, if not all, of the same reasons. Nobody else seems to pick up on that, or if they do, it doesn't resonate with them like it does with me. And that's all right, too . . . some people are afraid of heights, some of wide-open spaces, some of crowds, and so on. I suppose the possibility that inexplicable misery inflicted by basically-good human beings on others is not an act of "personal responsibility" but, in effect, is the result of intentional programming done "somewhere else" must be my own personal bete noir . . . and nobody else can have it!

Besides, it has Nina Foch in a perfectly-cast-and-executed role, arguably the best supporting cast ever assembled for a Columbia thriller, the gypsy thing, New Orleans (my favorite city in the United States). Sure, it's not for everybody, but the whole thing pushes a hell of a lot of my own personal buttons.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
One Of The Least Frightening Werewolf Movies I've Ever Stumbled Across, 24 October 2011

Author: sddavis63 (revsdd@gmail.com) from Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada

There have certainly been some bad werewolf movies made over the years, but perhaps there have been none that have simply been lacking in so many ways as "Cry Of The Werewolf." This was a poorly acted, cliché- ridden (which was unfortunate, and I'll expand upon that in a moment) and completely atmosphere free film whose basic redeeming quality is that it's very short and therefore doesn't waste too much of your time. There were a couple of things that broke free of the usual Hollywood treatment of the subject that gave this some potential, which was largely wasted. The first was that this stayed more true to actual werewolf legends. The werewolf was actually a person who became a wolf, and not some hybrid wolf-man beast, and the werewolf was a woman - not unheard of, but unusual for the most part in the genre. There might have been some meat there; there was also the potential for atmosphere - the story revolves around a mysterious gypsy tribe and much of the action takes place in a mysterious house complete with a secret chamber and crypt. Neither was used to create much atmosphere, though, and both are admittedly part of the cliché-ridden part of the story.

Other clichés? People from Transylvania abound in this, and there's even a kind of goofy cop involved in the investigation (not central to the film thankfully and overshadowed - again thankfully - by a more competent superior.) The acting was poor to fair at best. Especially poor was the woefully lacking in passion performance of Stephen Crane, who you'd think would be a bit more passionate, given that his father has just been torn apart by some wild beast! There's nothing even remotely frightening about this, and as mysteries go - well, there wasn't much. I kept watching to see if a potential plot twist might show up in the end that would have at least come as a surprise, but no. What you see from the beginning is basically what you get. It's very disappointing, and seemed basically to be put together by people who had no idea how to make a werewolf movie work. (2/10)

Bad Doggie!, 28 October 2011
Author: dougdoepke from Claremont, USA

Apparently werewolf genes are inheritable as a young woman becomes one because of her mom; then, in a hairy mood, she goes after nice young couple who know about her problem.

This Columbia studio production shows why Universal had the franchise on the half-human half-wolf. Instead of going the Universal route by using big-time make-up and blended dissolves, Columbia employs an actual German Shepherd dog, (not even a real wolf, mind you), as the fanged menace. And the nice doggie all but wags his tail while "menacing" the humans. Needless to say, this turns a potential horror movie into a version of Lassie Goes Bad, despite the best efforts of a strong supporting cast— e.g. Abbott, Leiber, Yurka.

Then too, the war thinned out the ranks of Hollywood leading men, leaving lightweights such as Stephen Crane to haul the goods. Good thing he went into the restaurant business instead of staying on the stage. And what a waste of the talented Nina Foch who doesn't get nearly the screen time her character deserves. Instead, that goes to Osa Massen, a decent enough actress, but without Foch's special brand of haughty disdain.

No need to waste time on this B-movie disappointment. Columbia simply cut too many budgetary corners with not enough imagination to produce anything more than a sometimes amusing misfire and a general waste of acting talent.

Where's the werewolf??, 23 October 2011
Author: moorlock2003 from Los Angeles, CA

I couldn't agree more with those who called this a turkey. The running time is just over 60 minutes but it feels like 3 hours. Slow, turgid crime drama with a supposed horror element is what you get. Nina Foch plays the gypsy girl who turns into a werewolf, but in reality she turns into a regular wolf, an entirely different animal. Even "She Wolf of London" is better than this, and that one is no epic either. Stephen Crane is an awful actor; a lousy romantic lead. The gypsy queen comes off best, but still she's hardly Maria Ospenskya. The other Columbia entry into horror, "Return of The Vampire" proved that not every movie studio was up to doing horror films well. At least that one had a good demise of the vampire at the end. Best stick with Universal horror films of the era.

Excellent pieces make a less than good thriller, 12 January 2009

Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

In the house where Marie Latour, a woman supposedly a werewolf, once lived a museum dedicated to the occult is set up. Latour had disappeared years before after killing her husband who discovered her secret. Years later the daughter of Latour returns and takes steps to make sure that her mother's grave and the secret temple are not desecrated. Confused and confusing supernatural tale seems to be trying to do Cat People one better but actually ends up several worse. Honestly this film is a bit of a mess story-wise. Watching this on DVD I even watched some scenes twice and had no idea what was going on. I honestly had no real idea what was going on and what the point of it all was. The problem is not so much the individual scenes but the complete lack of an idea about what the film is about. Yes the film has plot branches, but it doesn't have a central trunk, or at least a strong one to support all of the ideas. I'm not sure the film is really worth seeing. Pieces are, the opening of the film with a tour of the museum is fantastic. (Actually all of the bits are really good) The trouble is it never amounts to much beyond the pieces.

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