An American Werewolf in London
An American Werewolf in London is an endearing, funny, and gory film that has a dated feel, both visually and culturally. The movie seems like two different films. Lovable David Kessler, played by David Naughton, charms viewers, then goes off in wolf form to commit gratuitously violent attacks. Those scenes have a different tone than others in the film. They are lurid and crude, where the rest is delightful—droll, smart. The film won an Oscar for the pre-CGI wolf transformation. But to my twenty-first-century eyes, the effects seem clumsy.
At the beginning of the movie, David and Griffin Dunne's Jack quickly get lost on the moors after being advised to stay on the road. An unearthly howl frightens them, which causes the two friends to exchange hilarious wisecracks. "It's Heathcliff!" quips David. "But Heathcliff never howled," Jack retorts.
My favorite David-as-the-werewolf scene is the chase in the Underground. Michael Carter, as Gerald Bringsley, is priceless as the Englishman with a stiff upper lip. "I can assure you that this is not in the least bit amusing," he admonishes the beast, with an ironic understatement he will grasp soon enough. "I plan to report this," he adds, clearly well-practiced at intimidating the lower classes. Even after Bringsley has become a corpse, he still scolds David, making the distinction, "whereas I am a victim of your carnivorous lunar activities." That is one delightful mouthful.
I looked up the movie poster on the staircase because it seemed so bizarre. According to Wikipedia, "See You Next Wednesday is a recurring gag in most of the films directed by John Landis, usually referring to a fictional film that is rarely seen and never in its entirety. Each instance of See You Next Wednesday in Landis's films seems to be a completely different film. Landis got the title See You Next Wednesday from the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is the last line spoken by Frank Poole's father during Poole's video letter from his parents… SYNW is a porn film being shown in a seedy London pornographic theater. Advertised as "A Non-Stop Orgy", scenes from the movie are actually shown as the characters talk in the theater." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_You_Next_Wednesday
Along the lines of SYNW, An American Werewolf in London contains echoes of the swinging 60s and 70s "free love" culture. A nurse takes a patient—who may be psychologically unstable—back to her home, where they immediately jump in bed. (Apparently, all David has to do is bat his eyelashes to receive free lodging.) And there is full frontal nudity in the zoo scene, where it's not strictly necessary to move the plot forward. You don't see that nowadays.
Speaking of Alex, the nurse, I was surprised to learn that Jenny Agutter played the woman on the World Security Council in the Avengers movies. Natasha Romanoff disguised herself as this character in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Frank Oz appears as the American embassy rep, very funny in delivering his line to Dr. Hirsch, "These dumb ass kids. They never appreciate what you do for them."
I loved the clip of Naughty Nina. Apparently, she was an actual celebrity back in the day. There is nothing like hair and makeup from a bygone era to add unintentional humor to the airing of one's earnest, “first-world” concerns to the public.
An American Werewolf in London is as charming as David. It's funny, even sweet. I can't reconcile the two halves of the movie, though. I love the buildup to David's change into the werewolf, but when he embarks on his rampages, things are so gory and cheap-looking that the film falls apart for me a little. The one exception is the scene in the Underground, which is perfect in its suspenseful tone. The overhead shot of the werewolf creeping into view is the most successful in the film. I don't know what to make of the multiple car-crashes and silly-looking decapitation of the Scotland Yard inspector. I assume these antics are meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but again, they are gratuitous. Violence is never fun for its own sake, in my view.
The film ends abruptly--too abruptly. In the final shot of the beautifully posed, nude David, the camera cuts away quickly. The timing seems off. But I will watch this movie again for "the good parts"—its lovable human interactions.