Werewolves, unlike Dracula and Frankenstein have no literary origin. So, for Universal's second stab at lycanthropy, writer Curt Siodmak concocted a slice of instant mythology in the form of the old Romany rhyme: `Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night, can become a wolf. When the wolfbane blooms and the moon is full and bright.' The movie, set in an improbably Hollywood version of Wales, gave Lon Chaney Jr his chance - excellently taken - to join the pantheon of movie monsters as the reluctant victim of the bite of the werewolf. Helped by make-up wizard Jack Pierce and his painfully applied yak hairs and by splendid special effects from John P Fulton, Chaney gives a memorable and quite moving performance which was to typecast him in horror movies for much of his subsequent career. He played the Wolf Man again for Universal four times, finally meeting his nemesis at the unfunny hands of Bud and Lou in 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. He later donned fur and fangs for an episode of TV's Route 66 and for the 1959 Mexican-made shocker Face of the Screaming Werewolf.

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