Legend of the Werewolf Movie Review

Trailer here.

Legend of the Werewolf is a 1975 horror movie directed by Freddie Francis and starring Peter Cushing, Ron Moody and Lynn Dalby.

The film begins with a woman who is giving birth. She dies soon after. The father is attacked and killed by wolves. They don't kill the child; they adopt it as one of their own. Cut to years later and the baby is now a young wild boy. He is picked up by a man called Tiny and he brought to his camp of circus folk. They use him in a sideshow. The boy is called Etoile(David Rintoul). He grows up into a normal boy. He is not normal, though. He turns into a werewolf one night and he kills Tiny. Tiny lives long enough to tell the others that Etoile is the one who killed him. Etoile heads off to Paris. He goes to a zoo and he sees wolves in there. He pets them. He sees the zookeeper(Ron Moody), who offers him room and board along with a job at the zoo.

One day, Three ladies come to visit the zoo, The zookeeper goes off and leaves Etoile on his own. The three ladies are prostitutes. Etoile likes one of them, Christine(Lynn Dalby). He doesn't realise that she is a prostitute. He goes to visit her and he finds out. He tries to kill the man that she is with. The madam of the brothel is unhappy as it is bad for business. Etoile asks Christine to marry him but she refuses. He is angry. He kills some of the customers from the brothel. Enter Professor Paul Cataflanque(Peter Cushing) who is a forensic pathologist. He has been called in by the police to see if he can give any insight on the killings. He looks at the bodies and he thinks that the men could have been killed by a animal- a wolf, maybe. More bodies arrive and the police go to the zoo to look around.

The next day, Professor Paul goes there too. The zookeeper talks to him about his wolves. He tells him that they are harmless. Etoile shows him that the wolves are placid. Paul discovers that the dead men were frequenting a local brothel and he calls in there and chats to the madam. He wants her to identify the men but she refuses.  He calls to the photographer and wants him to take pictures of the dead men. He brings back the pictures to Madame and she denies knowing them. He asks Christine and she tells him that she knew them and that they visited her on the night they died. He tells her about his wolf theory. The Inspector tells him that the case is closed and the Prefect of Police orders all of the wolves to be destroyed. Etoile has to carry it out and it upsets him greatly.

Christine shows up at the zoo. It is a full moon. Etoile begins to change into his werewolf self. Christine witnesses his transformation and she calls the zookeeper. Etoile heads off on a killing spree. Professor Paul doesn't know what is going on. He finds one of Etoile's victims who tells him that it wasn't a wolf and it wasn't a man. The Inspector and Professor Paul talk about the werewolf. They need to find him. The professor calls to the brothel and talks to Christine. They talk about Etoile. He wants her to go to the zoo and wait for him. He makes a silver bullet. They discover Etoile's tunnel and the professor goes into it. He finds Etoile and he tries to reason with him. Etoile seems to want help. The police turn up and try to kill him. He goes back to the zoo. Christine and Paul are there. The police shoot him with the silver bullet and he reverts back to Etoile. He dies.

This werewolf film wasn't the best that I have watched, but it was enjoyable. The cast were good and you know that Peter Cushing is always entertaining. It is directed by Freddie Francis who directed some great films such as The Evil of Frankenstein, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, The Skull, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. This is not a Hammer movie, but it certainly could be. It is a decent film and if you like werewolf films, this is worth a look. I will give it a 5/10.