I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

Review #1912: I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

Cast: 

Michael Landon (Tony Rivers), Yvonne Lime (Arlene Logan), Whit Bissell (Dr. Alfred Brandon), Malcolm Atterbury (Charles Rivers), Barney Phillips (Detective Sgt. Donovan), Robert Griffin (Police Chief Baker), Joseph Mell (Dr. Hugo Wagner), Louise Lewis (Principal Ferguson), Guy Williams (Officer Chris Stanley), Tony Marshall (Jimmy), and Vladimir Sokoloff (Pepe, the janitor) Directed by Gene Fowler Jr.

Review: 

Admittedly, making a movie about teenagers in horror could be an interesting time, if only because the 1950s had plenty to work with for audiences to enjoy, as evidenced by the output generated by American International Pictures. There were plenty of successes and failures with this studio, where a week was all one needed to make a movie like this, made on a budget of $82,000. This would be the first of a teenage craze with AIP, with Blood of Dracula and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein being released in November 1957 as a double feature that saw teenagers transformed into a vampire and a Frankenstein's monster, respectively. How to Make a Monster (1958) featured teens being hypnotized to kill while in werewolf and Frankenstein makeup. The film was directed by Gene Fowler Jr. He was more known as an editor, participating in films such as Tales of Manhattan (1942) and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Fowler directed dramas and Westerns in his seven-film career of directing (1957 to 1959), with two exceptions: this film and I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958).

Meh, it's not particularly interesting when compared to the slew of teenage-infused movies that came in its wake such as say, The Blob (1958), but there are a few nice things to say about its 76-minute runtime. It is at least a movie that tries to say something about teenagers and anxiety: kids sure get weird when you get on their case. In a way, it might remind one of another oddball werewolf movie in The Werewolf (1956), which had a werewolf transformation different from the usual full moon terror. In this case, the werewolf is triggered by some sort of "scopolamine serum" that helps someone in reverting their personality to primitive instinct (so yes, the doctor gives him a serum, then gradually convinces a teen that he was once a werewolf because somehow it will be good for the future of mankind...okay). This film just happens to have a janitor from the Carpathian Mountains who recognizes the threat, too. Honestly, the movie is also like the other one in not really knowing what to do with its creature (besides having both villain and victim be the same person), seemingly trapped in not doing anything more with its lead beyond the occasional line about being an ultra-aggressive dude. Landon would actually become a noted presence in television for three decades beginning in 1959, having been discovered by an agent while working as a gas service attendant near Warner Bros. (after hurting himself out of an athletic scholarship for javelin throwing at USC). He does okay with what is needed for impulse before the inevitable effects happen. After that, he kind of falls by the wayside when it comes to true dilemmas, as the movie doesn't really go farther than that when it is talking about someone being a wolf and being weird about it. Well, that or being a guy who can't control his temper, I guess. Bissell is the only other presence to focus on, since he plays the mad scientist type to about what you would expect, which basically means that if there was no mad scientist, the movie might even be more boring. So yeah, it is inevitable to see where these two go once they meet up, but you could only imagine how worse it could get. The teenagers are pretty stock, while the only noticeable support comes from future TV star Williams or the exposition-heavy Sokoloff. Besides, the body-count is pretty light, probably because the werewolf makeup comes and goes to varying effect. As a whole, it is a movie that has the blueprint for drawing a certain audience that ends up being a middling curiosity relic of its time, one that will either work out for those who desire something light and quick or not. For me, I can't quite recommend it as a good movie, but I recognize the staying power generated by an AIP flick like this one.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.