WEREWOLF IN A GIRLS’ DORMITORY (1961)
Tagline: A new high in horror!
(Horror, Mystery, A Werewolf That Looks Like A Vampire) [PG-13]
Note – this movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, so I went with PG-13. It might even be more of "PG" than "PG-13" for some. Back then they just approved stuff, they didn’t care what you thought.
In this one, a new teacher arrives at a girl’s dormitory that is basically full of women that have been accused of something, like killing someone, wearing mismatched socks, or having personalized license plates. The teacher has his own baggage and befriends one of the women who won’t stop sneaking out at night after her friend is killed doing the exact same thing. Brilliant I say! It doesn’t take long before the suspicions start to fly after a few more murders, and this old-school mystery starts to unfold.
First off the acting in this movie is freakin horrid from everyone except the main cast. Priscilla is a girl who stumbles upon an affair between her friend and Dr. Sir Alfred Whiteman who is running the dormitory to an extent. She is played by Barbara Lass who is an extremely competent actress who has 31 credits and was in film from 1958 to 1991. She is probably my favorite character in the movie mainly because even though she does some stupid things, but she’s also fearless and seems to be there based on a misunderstanding anyway. Lass was also the first wife of the famous director Roman Polanski for the film buff kids out there. Whiteman is played by Maurice Marsac who is also pretty good in this, even though he’s playing what turns out to be a low-life womanizer sleaze bag. We also get decent performances from the other two male leads Carl Schell as Dr. Julian Olcott (the new teacher) and Curt Lowens who was still acting up till 2013. Look at the date this movie came out and be amazed. As stated earlier though the rest of the cast is pretty rough.
Where this thing gets pretty damn nuts is in the make-up department. This werewolf looked far more like a vampire than a werewolf. How did someone not say – “Can we get a little more face fur on this dude”. It’s pretty bad. The close-ups of the eyes I guess are okay, but man on man, this werewolf has got to be one of the worst on film. Outside of that, however, very little of this film is as swashbuckling as the title would suggest. It was originally called “Lycanthropus”, but I think that title is pretty boring. The movie does move a little slow in some scenes, but it does keep the intrigue going for quite a bit of its run time.
Overall this wasn’t the goofy horror flick I expected, it’s actually pretty decent and interesting with some creepy atmosphere. Having said that, I think this is a one-time watch for me (maybe twice). I tend to like my black and white a bit more googly-eyed, with arts and crafted-up pots and dishware with auto parts sticking out of them for space ships, but it would fit right in with the UNIVERSAL films if we had gotten some better editing.
If you love 1950’s and 1960’s black and white stuff, this isn’t the worst one out there. I give this movie a 4 out of 7. In this arena, it’s totally fine.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF ROYAL FILM AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. THE ARTWORK IN THE GRAPHIC IS BY KEN TAYLOR.
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