THE FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (1972)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological*

Most dubbed releases of this 1972 film-- the fourth in the "Hombre Lobo" series, following FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR, a lost 1968 film, and ASSIGNMENT TERROR-- show viewers a film that looks like it had been edited with a meat cleaver. I had long heard of a version in which some extra scenes (mostly sexual) were inserted, and I finally saw that variation, which sports the peculiar title THE WOLFMAN NEVER SLEEPS. The additional scenes don't make FURY any less incoherent, but they do give extra context to scripter/star Paul Naschy's decision to pump up the sexy content of his wolfman series.

Oddly enough, FURY has the makings of a coherent plot-- more so than any other "Lobo" film I've seen so far-- but Naschy doesn't really know how to lay out plot-points. He's claimed that his director was drunk on the set, but most if not all of the Lobo films share the same basic structure. There's a minimal setup to explain how Naschy's lycanthropic character Waldemar becomes afflicted with werewolfism-- a setup that often changes from film to film-- and then the script lurches from one spectacle to another. The characters develop in similar fashion; there's almost always a lead female who falls for Waldemar, though the script doesn't have much to say about what sterling qualities she falls for. There's usually also some other monster around to challenge the Lobo for supremacy, culminating in a battle that the wolfman wins.

This time, though, the monster is tied to Waldemar through the bonds of sex. The viewer doesn't see how college professor Waldemar gets infected with the werewolf curse, but there's some dialogue to explain that he made a trip to Tibet and was bitten by a yeti who gave him the affliction. (The Tibetan thing is probably a call-back to the Universal movie WEREWOLF OF LONDON, and Naschy decided to devote a whole film to a similar Tibetan jaunt in THE WEREWOLF VS. THE YETI.) Nothing daunted, afflicted Waldemar has returned to his teaching duties, where Karin, a female student, moons over him. By convenient coincidence, Karin also works as an assistant to famed scientist Ilona Ellmann (Perla Cristal), and there's also some connection between Ilona and Waldemar, for he confesses the truth of his curse to her, hoping her science, something to do with modifying the human mind, can alleviate his condition. Much later in the film, it's explained that he and Ilona were once lovers, but at some point Waldemar threw Ilona over for his current wife, Erika (Pilar Zorrilla). To further complicate the situation, Erika's having an affair with another man. By apparent coincidence, Waldemar morphs into a wolfman, spots Erika and her lover, and massacres them. The lycanthrope then blunders into a live wire and gets electrocuted, after which the authorities pronounce Waldemar dead and bury him.

But Ilona knows that a werewolf can't permanently die that way, so she unearths and revives him to be one of her many experiments. Despite being a respected scientist, Ilona has somehow managed to establish a whole asylum full of assorted misfits-- some of which look like contemporaneous hippies, while others look like refugees from THE BLACK SLEEP (including a guy more or less dressed like the Phantom of the Opera). Presumably Ilona has perfected her mind-control techniques on these unfortunates, and she subjects the reborn werewolf to her devices. Apparently they work, for in the film's most eye-popping scene, Ilona visits the chained wolfman, lashes him several times with a whip, and then manages to have standing-up sex with him, all without him trying to claw her to death. In one of the more confusing cuts, Waldemar-wolf either breaks free or is released, after which he kills a male student and rapes a female one (without killing her, either). 

Eventually Waldemar changes back to his tormented human self, and he appeals to young Karin for help (as well as having sex with her in a usually-deleted scene). Waldemar ends up getting trapped in the asylum, where he fights with both a crazy guy in a suit of armor and the Opera-Ghost guy. The latter turns out to be the long-lost father of Ilona, and in a separate scene, a minor character makes a big reveal: that Ilona is actually Eva Wulfstein, daughter of a controversial scientist. The mini-subplot with the father doesn't really add up to anything, except to further illustrate Ilona's depravity in that she apparently mutilated her father and drove him insane. Naschy may have tossed in this detail as a shoutout to his original script for the first Lobo film, wherein Waldemar gets lycanthropy from a guy named Wulfstein.

Ilona has her goons overpower Waldemar and chain him up, at which point she reveals new depths of turpitude. The jealous scientist used her mind-techniques to brainwash Erika into committing adultery in order to set her up for execution. Ilona's also aware that Karin slept with Waldemar, so she has Karin bound to a table in the same room with the chained Waldemar. Then, obsessed with finding new ways to humiliate her rivals, she reveals that because Waldemar bit his late wife, Ilona's been able to bring her back to life too. Ilona releases the lupine Erika to savage Karin. In traditional wolfman form, Waldemar-wolf breaks his chains, fights his wife to death, and then kills Ilona. Just as some cops break in for some reason, Karin, who loves Waldemar enough to end his rampage, kills him with a silver weapon.

Though not all Lobo films are combative, this one is, even though Naschy has more fights in his human persona than in his hairy form. The film was also padded with a few incongruous scenes from the first film, which serve to make the choppy film even more jumbled. Still, for all its wackiness FURY OF THE WOLFMAN is one of the most interesting films in the series, and Perla Cristal brings far more intensity to her underwritten role than the script deserves.