I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures (AIP).
Plot
Landon's character is Tony Rivers, a disturbed, angry young man in the James Dean Rebel Without a Cause tradition, who seeks hypnotherapy for his problem. Unfortunately, the practitioner he seeks out, played by Bissell, is also a very disturbed man with definite mad scientist overtones, who successfully regresses his patient into a werewolf with tragic results. He is under the belief that man, instead of moving forward, must go back to their pre-evolution states (for some reason, a werewolf). Tony, meanwhile, knows nothing of this. Tony transforms in the high school gymnasium (after he is startled by the school bell suddenly ringing close to him) and kills a girl who is there practicing gymnastics. Realizing that something is wrong, Rivers goes back to the doctor for help. The doctor hypnotizes him again, making him turn back into a werewolf. As he and his assistant, Hugo, prepare to take pictures of this achievement, the telephone rings, which wakes up Rivers and causes him to kill both the doctor and Hugo. He is then shot by the police as he runs from the doctor's building.
Release
The film was very profitable, as it was made on a very low budget but grossed as much as US$2,000,000 per week in its early weeks of release, huge box office by 1957 standards. Released in June, it was followed five months later by I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and by the sequel How to Make a Monster in July 1958.
In November 1957, less than five months after the release of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, and coinciding with the release of I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, AIP released Blood of Dracula, a film which bears more than a passing resemblance to their summer box office hit. More or less a remake, and with the hero and villain roles now both played by females, Blood of Dracula could have easily been titled "I Was a Teenage Vampire"; Blood of Dracula, with a story and screenplay credit by I Was a Teenage Werewolf writer Ralph Thornton (a pseudonym for AIP producer Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel), features many other similarities to I Was a Teenage Werewolf - for instance, both have (among other things): a teenager with social behavior problems, an adult 'mad scientist' who is searching for the perfect guinea pig under the guise of helping troubled youth, an observer who can tell the killings are the work of a monster, a disbelieving police chief afraid of the press, a song written by Jerry Blaine and Paul Dunlap accompanied by a choreographed "ad-lib" dance number, hypnosis as scientific medical treatment, drug injections, specific references to Carpathia, hairy transformation scenes, and even some of the same dialogue. In addition, two prominent actors from I Was a Teenage Werewolf are also featured in Blood of Dracula, Malcolm Atterbury and Louise Lewis, with Lewis's villain, 'Miss Branding' a practically perfect female version of Whit Bissel's 'Dr. Brandon.' However, few critics have drawn a connection between the two films, and while most reference works consider I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and How to Make a Monster as direct follow-ups to I Was a Teenage Werewolf, not even cinema guru Leonard Maltin speaks of Blood of Dracula as even being related to the trilogy.[citation needed]
Pop culture impact
I Was a Teenage Werewolf helped launch Landon's career, as Bonanza started only two years later. The idea of an adult human turning into a beast was nothing new, of course, but the idea of a teenager doing just that in a movie was considered avant-garde and even shocking in 1957. Today, however, the film is largely regarded as a source of "camp" humor.
The film's Police Gazette-style title (which had already been used by Hollywood previously with pictures such as 1949's I Was a Male War Bride and 1951's I Was a Communist for the FBI) with the inclusion of the adjective "teenage", was constantly mocked in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many sitcom television series in particular had characters go to movies titled I Was a Teenage Dinosaur, Monster, etc., and it was often referenced in monologues by comedians and bits by disc jockeys.[citation needed] An example of this practice is the 1959 "Dobie Gillis" novel I Was a Teenage Dwarf by Max Shulman.[citation needed] The original working title for AIP's 1958 sci-fi film Attack of the Puppet People was I Was a Teenage Doll. Stan Freberg's 1957 radio series included a Madison-Avenue/horror-movie spoof titled "Gray Flannel Hat Full of Teenage Werewolves".[1]
I Was a Teenage Werewolf likely paved the way for Walt Disney to do his version of a Felix Salten shapeshifting novel, The Hound of Florence. Featuring Disney favorite Tommy Kirk as the hapless teenager and A-lister Fred MacMurray as the answer to B-lister Whit Bissell, it was released in 1959 under the title, The Shaggy Dog.[citation needed]
Over the years, the I Was a Teenage... title was played on by several unrelated films — usually comedies — wishing to make a connection with the cult AIP hit, including 1987's I Was a Teenage Zombie, 1992's I Was a Teenage Mummy, 1993's I Was a Teenage Serial Killer, 1999's I Was a Teenage Intellectual and the 1963 Warner Bros. cartoon, I Was a Teenage Thumb. The script title for 1985's Just One of the Guys was "I Was a Teenage Boy", a title that used a year later as an alternate for 1986's Willy/Milly. An alternate title for the 1995 hit Clueless was "I Was a Teenage Teenager".[1] An episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show was entitled "I Was a Teenage Head-Writer".[2] The title for an episode of the TV series The Monkees was entitled "I Was a Teenage Monster".[3]
Scenes from this movie, and from The Day the Earth Stood Still, were included in the 1973 fifties nostalgia concert film, Let the Good Times Roll, featuring Madison Square Garden performances from Chuck Berry and Bill Haley and the Comets.
In April 1997, the movie was mocked directly when it was featured as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.[4]
In a 1987 (fourth season) episode of the NBC-TV series Highway to Heaven entitled "I Was a Middle Aged Werewolf", written and directed by Michael Landon, angel Jonathan Smith transforms himself into a werewolf, initially to scare off some teenage bullies. During the earlier scenes, Jonathan's buddy (played by Victor French) watches the original film, remarking: "You know, the guy in this movie reminds me a lot of you!" After Jonathan thanks him sarcastically, Victor adds, "No, when he's a regular guy, not when he's got fuzz all over his face."
In 2002, Last Gasp published I Was a Teenage Dominatrix, a memoir by Shawna Kenney.
In Stephen King's It several of the characters watch this movie. Afterwards, Pennywise takes the form of a real teenage werewolf to frighten them, particularly Richie. When the Losers Club first attacks Pennywise, it takes the form of the werewolf.
The Cramps (among several other references to terror movies), have a song titled "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" in their album "Songs the Lord Taught Us".
See also
References
- ^ a b "IMDb Search: "i was a teenage"". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=i+was+a+teenage. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
- ^ "I Was a Teenage Head Writer". The Dick Van Dyke Show. CBS. 1963-01-30. No. 19, season 2.
- ^ "I Was a Teenage Monster". The Monkees. NBC. 1967-01-16. No. 18, season 1.
- ^ "I Was a Teenage Werewolf". Best Brains. Mystery Science Theater 30000. [[Sci Fi Channel (United States)|]]. 1997-04-19. No. 9, season 8.
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