I'll be honest, I hadn't seen this film before this week. I THOUGHT I had seen it, but I think I was getting it confused with 1957's Blood of Dracula which has a similar setting and a somewhat similar aesthetic. However, this is far more engaging that the other, and has a mystery element to it that works well. This is one of the first times I recall seeing the werewolf used in a 'whodunnit' scenario. This gets more common in later films, most prominently I think it The Beast Must Die (1974) and The Howling V: Rebirth (1989), among others.
Made in Italy in 1961 and released under the title Lycanthropus, this film seems somewhat transitional, positioned somewhere between gothic horror and giallo. I've seen it mentioned that it has a lot in common with the West German krimi films of the 50s and 60s, but I'm not familiar enough with those at this time to do more than note it.
The plot centers on a girls reformatory/school, where a new professor has arrived. We quickly see that there is a somewhat seedy side to this place. One of the girls sneaks out at night, to meet with one of the male professors and we learn she's been trading her affections for his assistance in getting released. She then proceeds to blackmail him. The plot kicks off when she returns to the dorm and is attacked and killed. The autopsy concludes it was an animal attack, most likely from the wolves that seem to abound outside the walls of the place, but our main character Priscilla (Barbara Lass) is convinced it was murder and sets out to expose the unknown person responsible. In doing so, she uncovers the blackmail plot and the criminal or at least unethical activities of many of the staff. And gradually, rumor comes out that there is a werewolf at large...
As werewolf movies go... this isn't great. But it is engaging enough as a murder mystery, albeit a REALLY unusual murder weapon.
What's more, it continues a trend I'm seeing of a lot of films of the late 50s and early 60s that push the envelopes of what we generally consider 'acceptable' subject matters. This film not only contains a rather graphic looking corpse, but also deals in a lot of very 'mature' subjects, ranging from blackmail to student-teacher sexual relationships, and sometimes bordering on the inappropriate. The girls in this reform school are supposed to be teenagers, and yet one of them clearly has an affair with an older teacher in order to get blackmail on him, and another one, possibly less predatory relationship, seems to kick off between Priscilla and the new professor (apparently to the envy of the other girls). This film, at times, FEELS a little grimy, but manages to keep it sort of classy, and only bits and pieces are shown, told, or hinted at.
Part of the reason behind the confusion I had about this film is that it does continue the trend at this time of applying pseudo-science to supernatural legends. We've seen this before in I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957), the aforementioned Blood of Dracula (1957), and How to Make a Monster (1958). Here, the acknowledgement of Lycanthropy as an actual medical condition, and the search for a cure for it is pivotal.
All in all, I was surprised by this, and I need to go back and watch it again.
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