Happy autumnal equinox, my scrappy yet plucky band of readers! The unmistakable slant of fall light is upon us now, even in the 90-degree afternoons, and with it comes my very favorite season for movie watching. Which means I have decided to quit adhering to the four specific years — 1920, 1940, 1960 and 1980 — that Larry focuses on elsewhere in this blog, and focus on movies that I'm really excited about. What can I say? It was a full moon last night and I'm running amok.

In last week's post I mentioned writer-director Jack Hill's "Spider Baby," a bizarre yet wonderful cult classic that I discovered earlier this year and of which I am inordinately fond. The film was actually shot in 1964 under the title "Cannibal Orgy," but sat around for a while; one imagines people were sitting around wondering what to do with it. Which would be understandable: The black comedy kicks off with a fabulous, "Monster Mash"-style song performed by Lon Chaney Jr. over stylishly animated opening credits, and it just gets zanier from there.

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Well, I am fudging on the year again this week, mostly because I had 1941's "The Wolf Man" in my queue and felt like watching it. And here at From the Vaults, that means I felt like writing about it! Let's go!

Starring lovable lummox Lon Chaney Jr., this is the Universal classic that helped create the modern werewolf trope, embroidering moonlight, silver and pentagrams onto an Old World shape-changer story. (As with "The Mummy," there's no direct source material.) Lycanthropic hero/monster Larry Talbot would go on to be resurrected Jason-style in a string of sequels, all featuring Chaney, whose name became synonymous with the role — his character is even listed in the opening credits as just "The Wolf Man." (I guess there wasn't much point trying to surprise the audience.) To watch this movie is to watch horror history. It's even got Bela Lugosi!

After his older brother's death, Larry comes home to the family estate, still run by his hale and hearty dad (a no-nonsense Claude Rains). As horror heroes go, Larry's not a real cerebral guy — he's not theatrical like Dracula or brainy like Dr. Frankenstein or interested in raiding old tombs like all those "Mummy" guys. He's more of a guy's guy, who likes to fix stuff and check out babes; after repairing his dad's telescope, he's soon using it to spy on beautiful shopgirl Gwen (Evelyn Ankers). Gwen turns out to be engaged, but persistent Larry gallantly escorts her and a friend to a gypsy fair anyway. Big mistake!

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