An American Werewolf in London

Please note the purpose of this blog is to discuss established classics that I've never seen. As such, the following is laden with spoilers.

Why So Long?
To be perfectly honest, I'd always confused this with An American Werewolf in Paris. I knew that one was considered to be a classic and the other a waste of celluloid, but I could never motivate myself to work out which was which. I was watching a programme with Edgar Wright talking about the film, and decided I had better stick it on before I forgot which was which again.


And? 
A quick look at John Landis's Personal Life entry on his wikipedia entry reveals a man who is a grafter. Starting in the mail room and finding yourself the director of many a beloved classic is not something that happens by accident or fortune alone. He does however, appear to be somewhat of a baciato dalla grazia*, a man who has achieved what he wants in life without appearing to need to exert much effort. There are beloved classics in that canon but how many of them are classic in-spite of themselves (Three Amigos!)? Or on the back of work done by others (Coming to America)? Or in the case of Animal House, grossly overrated?

An American Werewolf in London might just be the counter argument to my point. Without a star, Landis can't simply point the camera at this leading player and hope some magic happens (incidentally, that's the tactic he used in The Blues Brothers). He's helped along by a great performance from David Naughton, but Naughton is hardly Eddie Murphy. Landis also keeps the whole thing to a little over ninety minutes, I haven't looked at the hard data but that must rank as one of his shortest running times. A hint perhaps that Landis was aware of, or at least paying more attention to his duties this time around.

"I'm a werewolf." 

"A werewolf?...Are you better now?" 

"I'll let you know the next full moon."

One can also see the direct line between this and the work Landis did with Michael Jackson on the iconic Thriller video. It's all a loving embrace of the weird-joy and dark laughs that can be mined from the horror genre - there's a particularly great reoccurring joke as a ghost keeps appearing in increasingly advanced stages of bodily-decay. For some reason the Eighties does seem to have the been high water mark for these films - think Beetlejuice and Evil Dead 2. As with those two films, I can't quite see how this film has managed to become an established part of the modern-American canon, but it's definitely one I enjoyed and was glad I finally stuck it on.

Also, young Rik Mayall!


Will You be Watching it Again?
Yes - ideal Halloween viewing for when my kid is about twelve or thirteen.


Has Any Light Been Shone on Some Heretofore Unknown Bit of Pop Culture?
I spent the entire film waiting for Werewolves of London to pop up on the soundtrack. There's a scat version of Blue Moon but no Werewolves of London. Given that this means that the song has nothing to do with the film, this is probably for the best. And besides that song works brilliantly in The Colour of Money, no need to rehash it here.



*it was in article about how the Italian press talk about the managerial career of Roberto Mancini, that's how I know it.