A pregnant woman fleeing Russia gives birth to a boy at midnight on Christmas Eve. She then dies and her husband is killed by wolves. The wolves do not kill the baby but protect it and raise it. Years later the owner of a small traveling circus, Maestro Pamponi (Hugh Griffith), his wife, and his assistant, Tiny (Norman Mitchell), come across the wild child and take him in. Pamponi puts him in his show and advertises him as a “Wolfboy”. He is named Etoile (Mark Weavers). By the time he is an adult he can no longer be shown as an attraction, but Pamponi’s wife is fond of him. He stays with the small circus since they are all the family he knows.
One night, during a full moon, the now adult Etoile (David Rintoul) turns into a werewolf and kills Tiny. Pamponi tries to shoot Etoile, but he runs away. Eventually he wanders into the city of Paris. Etoile comes across a tiny zoo. Seeing that he has a way with animals the zookeeper (Ron Moody) gives him a job as his assistant. While working at the zoo Etoile sees three young women enter. The girls, Zoe (Hilary Farr), Annabelle (Elaine Baillie) and Christine (Lynn Dalby) are prostitutes from a nearby brothel. They go to the zoo every day to have their lunch. Christine strikes up a conversation with Etoile.
Etoile becomes smitten with Christine but eventually finds out that she is a prostitute. She tells him her life story and how she came to work at the brothel. Etoile wants to marry her, but she refuses knowing that it wouldn’t work. That night is a full moon. Etoile changes into a werewolf, and, using the sewer system to navigate the city, kills all the men that were entertained by Christine.
The bodies end up at the police morgue. The head surgeon is Professor Paul Cataflanque (Peter Cushing). At first Paul believes the men were killed by a wolf. The more bodies that pile up the more he begins to believe that there is something even more sinister going on.
“Legend of the Werewolf” was released in 1975 and was directed by Freddie Francis. It is a British horror movie. This is one of those films that have all the earmarks of being a Hammer Film but isn’t. The director, writer, producer and some of the actors in the film were associated with Hammer Films at one time or another but this film was produced by Tyburn Film Productions. Tyburn was a short-lived production company with only a few films to their name. I believe it was created by Director Freddie Francis’ son Kevin Francis.
The werewolf transformation is not great, and the werewolf make-up is rather lame. It reminds me of the makeup used for Hammer’s werewolf film “The Curse of the Werewolf” 1961. The film also started out somewhat bland. However, as it went along it got a lot more interesting. It ended up being rather enjoyable despite its drawbacks, most likely due to the performances of Peter Cushing and Ron Moody. I especially liked Moody as the drunken crusty zookeeper who ended up more kindhearted than he pretended to be.
When Dr. Paul visits the photographer studio he asks for the owner, Monsieur Daguerre. Louis Daguerre was the inventor of the Daguerreotype. A Daguerreotype was a photographic process using a polished silver surface on a copper plate. The plate was exposed to light and a chemical process to create a picture. Daguerreotypes were popular during the 1840s and 1850s.