Own the rights?
CURSE OF THE HAWAIIAN WEREWOLF. Terror and horror under a Hawaiian full moon... Jaahaa, sounds cool, doesn't it? Think again...While technically I remember this to be the very first werewolf film - or one of the first - I saw as a tiny little kid on a late night TV channel, I actually remembered little else of it (aside from the ending terrifying me). Probably because of the complete film being, uh, well, pretty much ballocks. What we got here, is a werewolf in Hawaii, in a motion picture flavored with ancient native sorcery (a curse, always scary stuff!), horribly colored shirts and dangerously short sporting shorts. All this could work, but it doesn't.So what did I get out of this film? Well,... a lot of muzak (seriously, will you listen to all those hideous tunes on the soundtrack) and some great textbook examples of experimental cross-cutting. Sergej Eisenstein should see this - he'd be proud. And then there's Robert Foxworth running around in werewolf make-up. I imagine this film to be a very tedious watch for the regular viewer, but if you manage to place yourself in the minds of the people who made this, you'll have a hard time wiping that grin off your face. It's just so ridiculous how they put this movie together. Especially the "cleverly planned" romantic interludes between Foxworth and Barbara Trentham are always a hoot to which you can set a timer. But the most painful thing about this film, is that Foxworth is the actual werewolf. The viewer knows this from the start, but Foxworth's character doesn't (It's you, Foxworth! Wake up, man, it's YOU! ...aw, Christ!). He always wakes up every morning, but has no clue about what he'd been up to all night ("Hmmm, must have been too much sun and alcohol..."). Now, any film in which the viewer knows everything from the first minute, but all the other characters are running around trying to figure things out, is just a plain bore to sit through. In this case, an often funny bore, yes, but you'll be glad to see the credits roll after that final "shocking" surprise end-shot.Finally, I can imagine one of the very first production meetings of this film having went a little as follows. Throw in a producer (P), director (D) and writer (W): P: "Let's make a film about a guy going to Hawaii on a holiday and have him change into a werewolf every night." D: "Great! I love werewolf movies. I want to direct one." P: "Fine! Writer, figure something out to make the guy a werewolf." W: "Okay, we could put a curse on him, because his ancestors were evil missionaries... or something." P: "Wonderful angle! I like it! Anything else?"W: "I could throw in a redundant subplot about a thief, robbing rooms. So the police can run around clueless." P: "Excellent! Who's going to play the leading guy?"W: "I suggest Robert Foxworth. He usually doesn't have a clue about the characters he's playing." D: "Uh, could I direct some romantic interludes too? I like those." P: "Yeah sure. Romance always works." D: "What about tits? I want to shoot some naked breasts too." W: "I could write a gratuitous shower-scene into the script" P: "Okay for the shower-scene. But no tits. Remember, this is going to be shown on television. And put Foxworth in a shower somewhere too, for the ladies. But don't show his butt, D." D: "Aw, darn. I like Foxworth's butt." P: "Okay, all set then. W, you get your script ready in a week. I'll book us some tickets to Hawaii. I could use a holiday myself." D: "Yipii! We're gonna make a werewolf movie in Hawaii!" P: "Shut up, D. Go shoot this movie or you're not getting paid." Sure they got away with this. It was the 70's. They got this movie made.
You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.
