Tales of men transforming into wolves date back beyond the Middle Ages. Werewolves
have also been part of movie history nearly from the medium's inception. The Werewolf, a 1913 silent, still
remains the best guess for the first-ever movie of this type, with its tale of a witch raising a daughter who becomes a werewolf.
The Werewolf was made by Universal, the studio which in 1932 announced The Wolf
Man as a starring vehicle for Boris Karloff. The film was not made.
Two years later, Universal revealed that Henry Hull and Bela Lugosi would star in their upcoming
WereWolf of London, to be directed by Kurt Neumann.
Both Lugosi and Neumann fell by the wayside; Stuart Walker, born two years and 100 miles
from fellow Kentuckian [Henry] Hull, stepped in as director. The first classic werewolf movie began production on January
28, 1935, just two days after the date typed on screenwriter John Colton's final draft.
One undredited contributor to the WereWolf script was Aben Kandel, who two decades later
co-wrote one of the 1950s most popular horror hits, I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
Most of the film was shot at Universal. The "Tibetan" exteriors were shot at Vasquez
Rocks, an otherworldy-looking locale not far from Los Angeles.
During production, the film's title was changed to The Evil Hour, but it reverted
to WereWolf of London before release.
