I'm kinda speechless here folks! Nearing the end of Universal's second horror cycle She-Wolf Of London though having no relation to Werewolf Of London in my humble opinion thoroughly surpasses it and I still enjoyed that movie! It's one of very very few movies I've seen where we have essentially an all female leads cast, with June Lockhart playing a young bride to be named Phyllis who seems utterly convinced of a family curse of lycanthropy is hanging over her as murders are discovered in a park near her estate. June plays it so convincingly, seeing this distraught woman go through the wringer mentally easily grabs you and you want to see the best for her. Sara Haden as the authoritative aunt Martha is such an interesting character and despite the film's whopping 1 hour runtime is able to fill out the role amazingly. Then we have Jan Wiley as Martha's daughter Carol who seems the most carefree of the household with her own little romance budding mostly off screen but comes into play in such a shocking way that it honestly left me dumbfounded and floundering for answers, big time love for Jan here. Lastly we have Don Porter as Phyllis' fiancee Barry who I really gotta admit for a 1940s film is one of the most considerate, dare I even say sensitive male characters I have ever seen really saying all the right things with no ulterior motives who simply wants his bride to be safe and loved. That's some progressive as shit casting and character writing for the time! And boy howdy did this film utterly throw me for a loop de loop, throwing out three curveballs that literally left my jaw on the floor each time! I wasn't dreaming of such twists and turns and you think with me seeing as many movies as I have it would be fairly easy to pluck them out but NOPE! I hear even the most hardcore Universal Monsters fans fall silent on this movie and I'm simultaneously thankful and kinda upset about it, because I walked in as blind as possible and found a surprisingly good movie but I wish more recognition could be given to it. Even for a lower budget Universal film the production values are high with great sets, period costuming, enough fog filled woods to satisfy the atmospheric lover within me, with effective writing and a very very good cast that got me invested, intrigued, and truly gobsmacked multiple times! Last damn movie that really swept me away like this in this series was Dracula's Daughter and that is a movie begging to be lauded with as much praise as the most famous monsters of filmland. So I really kicked off this final week with a banger, strong recommendation for a hidden classic, I give it 3 stars and I'll go 8/10 just for how shocking the series of events unfolded. Tomorrow we dig into a legacy continuation with a legend of the entire genre.
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