THE WOLFMAN (1941)

At some time in the early twentieth century, after learning of the death of his brother, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns to his ancestral home in Llanwelly, Wales, to reconcile with his estranged father, Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains). While there, Larry becomes romantically interested in a local girl named Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers), who runs an antique shop. As a pretext to converse with her, he purchases a silver-headed walking stick decorated with a wolf. Gwen tells him that it represents a werewolf (which she defines as a man who changes into a wolf "at certain times of the year"). Larry dismisses this as childish folklore, but soon realizes the terrifying truth after being bitten by a wolf himself. Director: George Waggner. Cast: Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains, Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Bela Lugosi and Maria Ouspenskaya.