The undead surround me. Have you ever talked to a corpse? It’s boring! I’m lonely! Kill yourself, David, before you kill others.
Today on the Classic Movie Review Podcast, we are taking on the classic horror film An American Werewolf in London (1981). This movie was directed and written by the great comedy director John Landis. It won an Oscar for Best Makeup by Rick Baker[1]. Baker wasn’t happy with how little his creations were shown, but I guess Landis knew what he was doing. This movie has a surprisingly low 7.5 rating on iMDB.com[2]. On rottentomatoes.com it has an 87 percent on the Tomatometer and 85 percent audience[3] approval.
The great film critic Roger Ebert didn’t care for the movie saying: “An American Werewolf in London seems curiously unfinished, as if director John Landis spent all his energy on spectacular set pieces and then didn’t want to bother with things like transitions, character development or an ending.”[4]
Sadly, in 1997, a sequel titled An American Werewolf in Paris (1997) was made. It was terrible, I didn’t even make it all the way through.
Actors
David Naughton played the role of David Kessler, lycanthrope. He was born in Connecticut in 1951. Naughton graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and he later studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He had his professional debut in a Lincoln Center production of “Hamlet.” He got a lot of attention as a singer and a dancer in a Dr. Pepper commercial. He had a minor Disco hit in 1979 with “Makin’ It.”
His biggest role was in An American Werewolf in London (1981). He continues to work in movies and television but has not had another major hit film.
Griffin Dunne played Jack Goodman, who is the comic relief and the “life” of the movie. Dune was born in 1955 in New York City. His father was actor/producer Dominick Dunne. He grew up in LA and in Colorado but moved to New York after high school. He studied at HB Studio in NYC.
He had very little film experience when he was cast in An American Werewolf in London (1981) where he was great. Other movies include After Hours (1985), Running on Empty (1988), White Palace (1990), Once Around (1991), My Girl (1991), I Like It Like That (1994), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), and Movie 43 (2013).
He began directing with a short, the Duke of Groove (1996), where he received an Oscar nomination. He did very well with films such as Addicted to Love (1997), Practical Magic (1998), Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000), Fierce People (2005), and Game 6 (2005).
Jenny Agutter was sexy Nurse Alex Price. Jenny was born in 1952 in England. Agutter’s first film was at the age of 12, with East of Sudan (1964). She then when to work for Disney for a time. The best of her younger work was The Railway Children (1970) and A War of Children (1972). Her bigger roles came in the late 1970s with films like Logan’s Run (1976), the made for television “The Man in the Iron Mask” 1977, The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and An American Werewolf in London (1981). For the next two decades, she worked in film and on television.
Story – An American Werewolf in London 1981
The northern English landscape is shown as ‘Blue Moon’ by Bobby Vinton plays. David Kessler (David Naughton) and his pal Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) are hiking and hitch-hiking in northern England. Jack, who is a really funny guy, is not happy about being in such a cold climate. They unload from a truck full of sheep, and the driver tells them to stick to the roads and stay off the moors.
They plan on going to Italy later where it is warmer. Jack is worried about meeting a girl named Debbie Cline, who is in Italy. They walk down the road to a small town. It is dark by the time they arrive. They find a small pub named “The Slaughtered Lamb” which has a wolf head on a pike with a full moon behind it.
They go inside, and everyone goes silent. They sit down under the stares and are waited on. Jack notes there is a five-pointed star with drippy candles on both sides. David jokes that maybe the owners are from Texas and says, ‘Remember the Alamo.’ The locals start talking about how bad The Alamo (1960) starring John Wayne really is. The tension eases a bit. Jack tells David that the star is a pentangle that is used in witchcraft and that Lon Chaney Jr. and Universal Studios maintain that the symbol is the mark of the Wolf Man.
Jack asks what the star on the wall is for. The men insist that they leave, but the lady gives them a little defense. They are warned to stay on the road and keep off the moors. They are also told to beware of the moon. They head out of town looking for food and maybe a place to stay.
Back in the pubs, the locals are still discussing letting them go and that it is murder. One of the men says they shouldn’t let outsiders know of the local business. In a rainstorm, Jack and David wander off the road and into the moors.
The debate is still going on in the pub when howls are heard in the distance. David and Jack are concerned about the howling. They mention the Hounds of the Baskervilles and Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights because he was on the moors. Jack sees the full moon, and they realize they have gotten off the road. They begin trying to get back to the town but realize they are lost. The howling sound is circling them.
Finally, they start running. David falls down, and Jack reaches to help. Suddenly, a werewolf leaps and tears Jack’s throat out. David runs away but then turns to go help his friend who is being torn apart. Jack is dead when David gets there. The werewolf attacks him. Before the monster can finish him off, men from the town shoot and kill the monster. The wounded David sees a nude man that has been shot beside him before he passes out.
Sexy Nurse Alex Price (Jenny Agutter) is in the hospital room when David wakes calling for his friend Jack. David is still in a coma when Dr. J. S. Hirsch (John Woodvine) comes in to check on him. Hirsh says the police report said Jack and David were attacked by an escaped lunatic.
In David’s head, he is having visions of running through the woods. The voice of the doctor wakes David. David asks about Jack. David freaks a little as the US Embassy man talks to him. Nurse Price gives him a sedative. Before he passes out, he is told he has been there for three weeks. David tells them it was a wolf and not a man that attacked him.
Inspector Villiers (Don McKillop) and his bumbling sidekick Sergeant McManus (Paul Kember) of Scotland Yard come in to interview the doctor. They go to see David, and he sticks with his story that he was attacked by an animal. The police say the matter is closed.
Jack thinks he may be going crazy as he keeps seeing himself running naked through the woods and killing a deer with his bare hands before eating the animal.
Nurse Price is keeping a special eye on David. David is not eating his food. They switch to a first name basis. She sits on the bed and starts feeding him.
Again, David dreams he is running through the woods dress as he was the night of the attack. He sees himself in a hospital bed in the forest with Alex looking over him. The bed version of himself turns into a yellow-eyed, white-faced, fanged monster.
He tells the doctor about his vivid dreams. David tries to convince the doctor to help, but the man refuses. David asks for someone to sit with him, and they send Alex. David tells her she is beautiful. Alex reads to him, and David dreams of his home. He and his family are watching tv when a knock is heard at the door. Zombie Nazis come in and shoot his entire family and forcing him to watch before slitting his throat. He wakes and tells Alex he has had a nightmare. She goes to open the curtains, and another zombie Nazi starts stabbing her. He wakes up for real and is just a little freaked out.
His breakfast is brought in, and before long he sees the animated shredded boy of his friend Jack. Jack says he had to come. Jack talks about Debbie Cline crying at the funeral and then running off with another guy. Jack gives a warning and says they were attacked by a werewolf. He says he will have to walk to earth in limbo until the last werewolf is destroyed and that David is the last werewolf. Jack asks David to kill himself before he kills others. Jack repeats the line beware the moon.
Alex comes in, and Jack disappears. David kisses her and then announces he is a werewolf. He tells her his dead friend was there and told him he will be a werewolf in two days. Alex convinces him it was another vivid dream. Alex then invites this guy to stay at her house. She must be a sucker for hard cases.
They pick up food and ride the tube back to her flat. Ah, she has a Casablanca (1942) poster on the wall. She shows him the bed and said it is not her habit to pick up stray Americans. She gives her entire sexual history. They end up in the shower all kissy-face while ‘Moondance’ by Van Morrison plays.
Later, David leaves the bed and runs into Jack in the bathroom. Jack looks much worse. Jack tells him that the next night is the full moon and he will change into a werewolf. He advises him to kill himself before it is too late. David doesn’t believe Jack is real. When Alex wakes up Jack leaves. She brings David back to bed. In the discussion about David being crazy, David brings up The Wolf Man (1941). Alex thinks it is fun.
Dr. Hirsch drives up to the town where the attack took place. He goes into “The Slaughtered Lamb” and starts asking questions. The locals are very evasive. He asks about the pentagram and is told it has been there for 200-years. Hirsch mentions werewolves and the locals get hostile. Hirsch goes outside, and one of the men from the bar is standing in the churchyard. He tells the doctor that David is in danger and it was a mistake to let them leave. He says he will change on the full moon. Another man from the bar comes out and screams ‘that’s enough.’
Alex has to go work, and she leaves David at home alone. David has locked himself outside and has to climb in a window. A cat arches and hisses at him. Inside, David examines his teeth. He turns on the television and finds Naughty Nina (Nina Carter) in News of the World. Carter was married to Rick Wakeman of the band ‘Yes.” To the tune of CCR’s ‘Bad Moon Rising’ David is bored and not hungry. He wanders around the apartment like a caged animal.
As night falls and the moon rises, the song changes to ‘Blue Moon’ by Sam Cooke. David screams out in pain and begins ripping his clothes off. It is probably the best transformation scene ever. His hands stretch to a paw as hair grows all over. The bones crack as he transforms into a quadrupedal werewolf. A lot of these techniques were used by Michael Jackson for the ‘Thriller’ video hiring John Landis to direct and Rick Baker for makeup in the 1983 shoot. A lot of David’s transitions were shot with his head sticking out of a hole surrounded by foam and hair werewolf parts.
Later he can be heard howling. A young couple is going to see friends. They go to the back of the apartment to scare their friends. The werewolf attacks and kills the two.
Dr. Hirsch returns to the hospital to talk to Alex about David. The doctor tries to call Alex’s flat. Of course, David is not there. Hirsch thinks David is in danger and will believe he is a werewolf. Hirsch calls the police. David, as the werewolf kills three homeless men by the river. Apparently, the details of the attack were cut because they were too graphic.
Another man is killed in the tube station. Just before he is attacked, he is by a poster for “See, You Next Wednesday” a non-stop orgy. In the morning, David wakes nude in the wolf pin at the local zoo.
Alex is in contact with Hirsch, but David has not come back. He steals some balloons from a small boy for cover, and then he steals a red lady’s coat. Hirsch reads in the newspaper about the killings and dismemberments. He shows back up at Alex’s flat and tells her that he woke up in the zoo. She takes it very well. He kisses her, but shouldn’t he have bloody werewolf breath. Hirsch calls and tells Alex about the murders. Hirsch orders her to bring David into the hospital. David is feeling really frisky, but she gets him in a cab. The driver starts talking about the murders and the demon barber of Fleet Street. David has the cab pull over, and he runs away as Alex chases him. David tries to get a bobby to arrest him, but the cop is too nice. David tells Alex he loves her, but he thinks he did some terrible things.
Hirsch and Alex meet with Scotland Yard folks, but they are not much help. David makes a collect call to America, but his parents are not home. He asks his sister to tell his parents that he loves them and his brother and sister as well. After the call, he tries to slit his wrist, but he cannot go through with it.
Across the road he sees Jack standing outside of a porno-theater, where “See You Next Wednesday” is playing. Jack looks much worse. David follows Jack into the theater. David sits next to his rotting friend as the movie plays in the background. They talk for a minute, and then Jack introduces the people David killed the night before. For the most part, the dead people are very harsh on David. They tell him he must take his own life. They then all discuss ways that David could kill himself. David mentions the need for a silver bullet and the seven dead people scoff at him.
While David is in the theater, night falls, and the moon begins to rise. David starts to go through the transformation, and it’s no so different from the normal noises of the place. The ticket lady is screaming that there is a mad dog in the theater tearing people apart. A bobby goes in and finds the mutilated parts with the werewolf eating one of the bodies. They pull the sliding door down temporarily trapping the werewolf and request rifles be brought in.
The werewolf jumps through the door and rips the head off Inspector Villiers. The werewolf heads out into Piccadilly Circus snapping and causing mayhem. Hirsch gets Alex, and they head to the scene of the carnage. The police trap the werewolf on a dead-end street. Alex jumps from the cab and runs to the scene with the doctor in close pursuit. Police with rifles shown-up but Alex breaks through and runs down the alley.
Alex comes face to face with the werewolf. She warns the werewolf that they are going to kill him. She says she loves him and wants to help. The werewolf unsnarls its snout as if it understands, before leaping towards Alex’s throat. The police fire and the naked David is shown shot and dead in human form. Then ‘Blue Moon’ by The Marcels kicks in as the credit’s role.
Summary
This movie came out with a spate of werewolf movies that included: Wolfen (1981), The Howling (1981), Full Moon High (1981), The Company of Wolves (1984), Teen Wolf (1985), Howling II: … Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985), Teen Wolf Too (1987); the movie that almost permanently tanked Justin Bateman’s career, and Howling III (1987)[5]. In 1983, Coors Light beer introduced the Beer Wolf. This marketing gimmick lasted until circa 1992[6]. There must be a connection, but I’m not sure what it is. Something in the water? The 40th anniversary of The Wolf Man (1941)?
The most interesting thing I found out while researching this was that in 1539 Protestant reformer Martin Luther accused the Pope of being a Beerwolf[7], another name for a werewolf. Whatever, a beer wolf sounds like a great guy to hang with.
Film director and writer John Landis got the idea for the movie when he was in Yugoslavia working on Kelly’s Heroes (1970). He says a group of gypsies burying a body very deeply and covering it with garlic so it would not rise for the grave.
According to iMDB.com, a fan theory says David and the first werewolf never physically changed. The werewolf is what the person thinks they look like. In the first werewolf killing, he was not shown changing back into a human. Also, when David was killed as a werewolf, Alex did not have a reaction to him changing from wolf to man. So, in their theory, the change is a metaphor for David going insane after seeing Jack killed.
There is a lot in this movie about alienation. The two bulky jackets that Jack and David wore made them look like aliens in tweed land. Maybe it was just 80s fashion. When David is locked out of Alex’s flat, he is becoming more distant from humanity. That is when the dog and the cat act viciously when they encounter him. Of course, waking up in the zoo places David in a liminal state.
Joshua Rothkopf of ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine went further saying the film was an example of an “allegory of exoticized Jewishness.”[8] I don’t know if I would go that far, but it is an interesting idea as Yiddish is used, there are menorahs, and a good bit of talk about circumcision.
World-Famous Short Summary – Beware to moors. Really!
Beware the moors
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082010/awards
[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082010/
[3] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_werewolf_in_london
[4] https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/an-american-werewolf-in-london
[5] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082010/trivia
[6] https://uncletnuc.com/2011/09/27/beer-wolf/
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beerwolf
[8] https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/how-american-werewolf-in-london-transformed-horror-comedy-106516/
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