“Wolf … gypsy woman … murder! What is this!?” Ralph Bellamy utters the above words as a police inspector investigating a series of strange attacks in a sleepy country village. Lon Chaney Jr. plays the title character, a local aristocrat who is bitten by a wolf one night and soon finds his legs looking like out-of-control Uggs. The Wolf Man is one of those “classics” that stretches the definition of the term. It holds up, to be sure, thanks to the definitive period atmosphere – studio fog was perfected in these Universal horror films – and Chaney’s iconic werewolf. He may appear to have had a bad run-in with a hair dryer, but he’s still the definitive villain as tragic hero.
