Main Cast: Don Porter, June Lockhart, Sara Haden, Jan Wiley, Dennis Hoey
Release Year: 1946
Country: US
Run Time: 61 minutes
Plot
This thriller is set in early 20th-century London where a series of nasty murders have recently occurred. An aunt then tells an innocent young girl that the blood of the werewolf flows through her veins and that she is responsible for the deaths. The distraught lass immediately breaks off her engagement. Fortunately, her lover is sufficiently devoted to her to begin investigating the strange case on his own. He soon finds the real culprit and is reunited with his lady love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
With a tepid story reminiscent of silent-movie days, where every seemingly supernatural occurrence proved to be a mere hoax, Universal's She-Wolf of London should have come with a disclaimer. There is no "She-Wolf" in this quasi-horror opus, just a greedy old dame (Sara Haden) "gaslighting" poor, anemic June Lockhart in order to inherit the girl's fortune. Yet the studio packaged the film as part of its horror cycle, releasing it on a double-bill with the equally dishonest The Cat Creeps (1946). The screenwriters were of no help to horror fans: Why everyone should automatically assume that a werewolf is loose in London -- and a "She-Wolf" at that -- is never properly explained. And what exactly was the "Curse of the Allenbys," the film's European-release title? Scenes featuring Joan Wells as Miss Lockhart as a child and Clara Blandick as her nanny may have explained this curse, but unfortunately they ended up on the cutting room floor. Director Jean Yarborough and cameraman Maury Gertsman did their best to liven things up with odd camera angles and moody mise-en-scène, but all this was merely wasted on a typical Universal "B" cast that ranged from scenery-chewing (the redoubtable Miss Haden and various Cockney "bobbies"), to matter-of-fact (Don Porter and Jan Wiley), to downright weird (Eily Malyon -- who had replaced Una O'Connor). What the heavily-accented Martin Kosleck was doing playing a character named "Dwight Severn" is anybody's guess. Oddly, She-Wolf of London was released the same week as PRC's all-too-similar Devil Bat's Daughter (1946), in which a young girl (Rosemary LaPlanche) is led to believe that she is a vampire by her greedy guardian (Michael Hale). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Abraham Grossman - Art Director, Jack Otterson - Art Director, Jean Yarbrough - Director, Paul Landres - Editor, William Lava - Musical Direction/Supervision, Maury Gertsman - Cinematographer, Ben Pivar - Producer, Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer, Leigh Smith - Set Designer, Dwight V. Babcock - Screen Story, George Bricker - Screenwriter
Phyllis Allenby is a young and beautiful woman who is soon to be married to lawyer and boyfriend Barry Lanfield. Phyllis is living at the Allenby Mansion without the protection of a male, along with her aunt Martha and her cousin Carol and the servant Hannah, and when the wedding date approaches closer, London is shocked from a series of murders at the local park, where the victims are discovered with throats ripped. Many of the detectives at Scotland Yard begin murmuring about werewolves, while Inspector Pierce believes the opposite and suspects of strange activity at the Allenby Mansion (which is near the park), where the "Wolf-Woman" is seen prowling from it at night and heading for the park. Phyllis begins becoming extremely terrified and anxious, since she is convinced that she is the "Wolf-Woman", deeply believing in the legend of the so-called "Curse of the Allenbys". Aunt Martha tries to convince Phyllis how ridiculous the legend sounds, while she (aunt Martha) and Carol are suspicious in their own ways. Phyllis each day denies of Barry visiting her, and when a suspicious detective is murdered soon after he visits the mansion in the same way the other victims perished, Barry begins believing that something else is beside the so-called "Werewolf murders" and makes his own investigations both to the park and to the mansion.
