Admirable film.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

In looking at the list of werewolf movies on Wikipedia and then writing the titles on YouTube to see if a certain title is available for viewing there, I found this among them-a movie I hadn't known about beforehand and having just seen it on YT, was completely charmed by it! It has everything you'd want in a good genre film-suspense, humor, and a satisfying conclusion. And it takes its time in revealing the creature and which one of the characters turned into that particular one. So on that note, The Undying Monster is very highly recommended for any horror fans wanting to watch something obscure like this.

"The Undying Monster" is basically a very routine and derivative '40s horror flick, but there are a couple of aspects that undeniably bring this film to a much higher league. The delightfully sinister title, for one, but more importantly - of course - the skillful directing talents of John Brahm and a couple of extremely progressive footnotes in the script! This was one of 20th Century Fox' first attempts to imitate the tremendously successful horror movies from Universal and it more specifically became a combination between a typical old-dark-house chiller and a classic monster fable. For centuries already, the rich aristocratic Hammond family is plagued by a curse and far too many ancestors died in the claws of a hideous lycanthrope monster. The horror returns to the final heirs, siblings Helga and Oliver, when a young girl is found ripped to pieces on the large Hammond estate. The plot, set-up and particularly the denouement may be clichéd and predictable, but the power of "The Undying Monster" lies in minor plot details and stylistic highlights. The opening sequence, for example, is brilliantly misleading as the camera soberly ventures through the dark interior of the mansion and passes next to a seemingly lifeless dog and motionless female hand. But then the doorbell rings and both the dog and the female rudely awake. What an incredibly imaginative and unexpected scene to feature in a routine horror low-budgeter like this! John Brahm, a director who emigrated from Germany before WWII, here demonstrates a lot of his visionary talents and he would later make a couple of shamefully underrated horror classics like "The Lodger", "Hangover Square" (both starring George Sanders and Laird Cregar) and "The Mad Magician (starring the almighty Vincent Price). Little moments of brilliance in the script include some very progressive theories about lycanthropy AND a very early but powerful manifestation of girl-power and feminism! Female lead Helga Hammond is one feisty lady, to say the least. When she hears fearful screams from within the dark woods surrounding her estate, she unhesitatingly jumps into a carriage and forays into the night to investigate. What a woman! Helga is depicted by an actress named Heather Angel, which is an artist name that would only be chosen by adult film stars nowadays. "The Undying Monster" definitely isn't fundamental viewing, but warmly recommended to fans of spooky black- and-white horror. With a running time of barely 63 minutes, it won't even cost you too much precious time.

Lykanthropia or the werewolf-syndrome is one of the most seldom diseases which is considered belonging to schizophrenia by a part of psychiatry. However, in the legendary versions, the werewolf-motive is often combined with other forms of splitting of personality - like the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-Syndrome. Originally, the werewolf-syndrome is just the believe that the biological border between human and animal can be transgressed. However, the one person who is split at once in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is not transgressing any biological borders, but the ethical border between Good and Evil. For mythological (as well as most common) thinking it is impossible to assume that two exclusive and contradictory logical categories can apply in one and the same individual. If this would be possible, than one person would either split into two different persons, or the two categories would neutralize one another. Since the latter is obviously (according to everyday's experience) not the case, but since the former is neither the case, because we know that one and the same person is either himself and a werewolf or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a horror complex of first rate is born: For the mythological thinking it is completely unacceptable that one body can be the house of two exclusive categories like human and beast or good and evil - like a logical sentence cannot be true and false at the same time."The undying monster" is according to my knowledge the first horror movie that treats the werewolf-motive as a disease. We hear about a "neurological pain" and that the physician and friend of the sick lord tried to treat him with a special "poison". However, Hans Brahm's movie is insofar also indebted to the legendary tradition as it sticks with the idea that the disease breaks out only under specific atmospheric constellations and that is shows the inner change from human to werewolf as an outer change from animal to beast (and back).

"The Undying Monster" is a nice, pleasant surprise for a cheaply-made werewolf film.**SPOILERS**Unconcerned with a family legend about werewolves, Helga Hammond, (Heather Angel) thinks that it's a tale of jealousy until her brother Oliver, (John Howard) is attacked late at night near their family castle. Claiming it to be a strange monster similar to the legend, Robert Curtis, (James Ellison) and his assistant, Cornelia Christopher, (Heather Thatcher) both Scotland Yard inspectors, are called in to help solve the case. The evidence points to a deadly creature from their past, and discovering the creatures motive, they race to stop it from carrying out it's deadly intentions.The Good News: This one really surprised me with how good it actually was. The most important part of the film is that it's really atmospheric. There's a large amount of scenes out in the wilderness with huge heaps of fog rolling in from off-screen, most notably in the opening. From the moon-lit walk through the forest with the fog rolling in that obstructs objects in the distance to the off-screen animal howls that come out of nowhere which add to the proceedings and it makes for some really impressive scenes. The throwaway scene of a carriage arriving at the estate is also shown to be arriving with fog creeping in on the party, and it adds to the fact that no matter where, it's also dark and spooky which gives the surroundings much more creepy feel to them. The ending is the film's best part, as the werewolf finally makes an appearance and attacks the household, which is quite nice. The growls and screams of terror pierce the air at the right frequency and urgency to send a shiver down the spine, and the chase out into the outsides is handled properly to make it a big presence. The fight inside the mausoleum is a nice addition, making nice use of the surroundings and being a bit of a brawl, going back and forth between the combatants and each one getting beat and doing the beating. Nicely stands out from the weak middle as it's during the investigation scenes and it is one of the high points to the film. This really wasn't all that bad and was a nice surprise.The Bad News: There really isn't too much in here that's off. The main thing that's wrong is that the investigation scenes in the middle go on a little too long. It's some nicely written scenes, and they play out nicely in taking the story and giving it some real meat, but they transpire like second-rate detective stories that have been done better in countless different films. Rather than actually being hidden and some real detective work involved, it's all laid out in the open and is all stumbled upon. It doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the detectives when the clues used to deduce the crime from could've been found by just about anyone. It's also completely tensionless, and it could've had some really creepy scenes inside it, but it just drags on in a seen-it-better-before kind of attitude. The lack of on-screen werewolf action, or even the creature itself, until the very end may cause disarray from the hardcore fans, but it's the way the story goes so it's an unavoidable problem. Otherwise, this wasn't all that bad of a film.The Final Verdict: It gets a little talky at points, but that doesn't detract from this being a rather decent affair. It's atmospheric, entertaining and has some good things going for it, so fans of the werewolf genre or of "The Wolf Man" and similar films will want to check this one, as should all fans of classic horror.Today's Rating-PG: Mild Violence