Semiquincentennial Movie Project #26: The Werewolf of Washington

 

 

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

Week #26: Washington, D.C. -

 

 

 

The  capitol of the United States, Washington, D.C., was established on July 6, 1790 

Details about Washington, D.C.:

Even though it is not a state, the city does have an- 

Official bird: wood thrush

Official flower: cherry blossom 

Official tree: scarlet oak

Additional historical trivia:

It took over 150 years, but in 1938 Washington, D.C. finally got it's own official "state" flag.

If you look among the gargoyles at the Washington National Cathedral, you'll see a unique one...

 

To date, only one U.S. President is buried in Washington, D.C., Woodrow Wilson.

Surprisingly, the Folger Shakespeare Library in D.C. that has more information about the Bard than any other site in the world.

Residents of D.C. have only been able to vote in Presidential elections since 1961.

While it may not have the most museums of any city in the U.S., D.C. does of the most museums per square mile. And the most visited ones, too.

Famous people born in D.C.: J. Edgar Hoover, Al Gore, John Philip Sousa, Marvin Gaye, Stephen Colbert, Kevin Durant, Goldie Hawn and "bad m-f-er" Samuel L. Jackson  

 

The Werewolf of Washington (1973): 

All current political insinuations aside, this is unabashedly a satire of the then current administration in the White House, President Richard Nixon. It is obvious from the very beginning that the film makers were making a political statement. More than once the film's President echoes Nixon's oft repeated statement:  "Let me make this perfectly clear..." And, after the death of the werewolf, one character echoes, or at least steals, a line from Nixon's past: "Well, you guys won't have Jack Whittier to kick around anymore" (And even the name of the main character is a jab at Nixon... Whittier was the name of the California town that Nixon claimed as his hometown...) Also, Jack lives in the Watergate Hotel, and we all know the story of that famous landmark in relation to Nixon.

The movie is classed as a "horror / comedy", but to tell the truth the horror is taking a back seat to the comical scenes, even the ones that may or may not be intended as "comical". One thing in particular is the transformation of Jack from man to werewolf. The budget must have been very very low. The film makers relied on the outdated, even by 1970's standards, of stop-motion and dissolves. It is hardly even distinguishable from the way the transformation occurred in the 1941 classic Lon Chaney film.

There are many times when the film jags in it's presentation, giving an impression of breaks in the film (and maybe that was only because that's all the studio has left of the original film... I can't say, but I do think it's highly likely that the budget for the film was so low that they couldn't afford to have seamless transitions.) 

Stockwell doesn't help much in the way the film comes off. It's not as if he is just starting out early in his career, however. By this time Stockwell had been around for over 25 years, and he had several decent roles during that time. It's just that he is seemingly at a loss how to play the character. At times he is guilty of "playing to the back of the theater"; overacting out the wazoo. Alternately there are some scenes where his acting is so laid-back that it almost feels as if he is comatose.

At times I think the scriptwriter did not know what to do with his character. There is a lot of stuff that just doesn't click. For one thing, the setup. Jack Whittier (Dean Stockwell) is serving time as a liaison in Europe, specifically Hungary, for some reason, I think it is supposed to be because he had been having an affair with the President's daughter.  But he gets a call to return to the U.S. because he is going to take over as the Press Secretary for the President (Biff MacGuire).

 

 

 

Before he can get the hell out of Dodge (or Budapest, as the case may be), Jack runs into a werewolf. He manages to kill the werewolf with a convenient silver tipped cane he has. (The only way you can kill a werewolf is with silver.) But he is bitten by the werewolf before it (he) dies. And we all know if you survive a werewolf attack you are automatically gifted with the curse of becoming a werewolf yourself.

Before he leaves Budapest he encounters the mother of the man (werewolf) he killed. She is apparently not too distraught over it. Instead she gives him a veiled warning that he is destined to become the next in line for the position of King Wolf. There is some lead up to his leaving, including having some generic official telling him that it was all his imagination, since even the body of the man (former werewolf) has disappeared. Jack believes all of this is some sort of plot by the Communists (although why they would go to this kind of trouble would not make sense anywhere but in a Hollywood movie...) 

Back in Washington, Jack takes on his new job as the President's top PR man. But he keeps having this problem. He sees a pentagram on the hand of people who will eventually become the next victim of the werewolf. Initially the victims are (conveniently) people who are in direct opposition of the President politically. Although they don't really flesh out the potential of the implications of that coincidence. One of them is obviously supposed to represent Margaret Mitchell and another is probably supposed to be Katharine Graham of the Washington Post. 

 

The fist victim, the Margaret Mitchell parody, called Mrs. Captree (Nancy Andrews), is attacked as she stumbles drunkenly through a parking lot late at night. The next scene shows a woman returning to her car after grocery shopping and finds the body in a grocery cart next to her car. And you can't help but wonder... it's broad daylight now. Didn't she see that body when she parked her car at the beginning? 

Concerning the Katharine Graham parody, called Angela (Jaqueline Brookes), her demise is absolutely bonkers. She is out on the road and pulls into a gas station to get some gas, not even aware that the werewolf is riding on the roof of the car. Hmm. A werewolf riding on the hood of a car... where have I seen that before...?

 

 

 

 

 

Gradually Jack becomes convinced he is becoming a werewolf, but whenever he tries to tell any one, no one believes him. In fact, the Attorney General (Clifton James) actually considers the culprit to be a member of the Black Panthers. OK, so they do occasionally try to connect the victims to people opposed to the President, but basically it's only the AG who is espousing that belief. And because he is a stereotypical racist, no one takes his view seriously either. 

 

No matter what Jack does to try to remedy the situation, most people just pass it off as he is severly overworked and just needs to take a chill pill. Ultimately he gets a psychiatrist to chain him up for the final night of the 5 night full moon. But the President's daughter, who still has the hots for him, even though she is supposedly engaged to be married, tries to free him. Somebody frees him, and this dimwit even gets on a helicopter with the President and a diplomat. And of course, he changes. 

 

It's probably not a spoiler alert that Jack ultimately is killed. But that doesn't mean that someone else won't be carrying the banner.

Probably the funniest part of the movie comes at the end. We get the standard disclaimer:

"All characters appearing herein are wholly fictitious and any relation or connection between any of the characters appearing or referred to herein and any actual person is coincidental and accidental."

Yeah, right. That's entirely unintentional that the President comes off as being like Nixon. It's coincidental that Mrs. Captee is quite a bit like Margaret Mitchell. It is just a freak of cinema nature that Angela could be mistaken for Katherine Graham. There is even a mad scientist in the basement of the White House who, although he doesn't even remotely resemble Henry Kissinger, is named "Dr. Kiss"...

One of the things that really bugs me about this movie: In classic werewolf mythology, the werewolf only changes during the full moon. OK, so the full moon only occurs on one night per month, and the werewolf as portrayed in Hollywood gets three days (I'm assuming the night before and the night after). Here, however, it lasts for 5 nights. Just how long is the full moon cycle, anyway?  If 5 is acceptable, then why not 6 or 7? You see? If there is no standard then he could just change any damn time he wanted to... 

And, while we are at it... why does the full moon have to be fully exposed in a camera view before the transformation occurs? Seriously. The camera shows that the moon is full but it is partially hiiden by the Washington Monument. At that point Jack is still in his human form. He only becomes a werewolf after the full moon comes out from behind that monument... 

Probably the biggest downfall for the movie is it is wholly reliant on the current political situation at the time. It is, really, a satire on the Nixon administration, and if you were only a baby, or not even born yet, and only know about the events from studying history, it may not be all that relevant. Unless you want to make it all about the overall politics in general when it comes to whomever might be in power at the time of reading this piece. (To note: the current President is Donald Trump. Whether you view the President of the film as him, or any of the previous or forthcoming holders of that office is up to you. Or, you could just, I don't know, maybe read a book about Nixon?  The horror!)

There are a few cheesy "oh, check this out" moments in the film that can probably been seen as efforts to inject comedy into places where comedy may not be necessary. For instance, at one point Jack plots out the places where the werewolf has attacked it's victims, and whaddya know, it just coincidentally forms a pentagram. And the final place where the next victim will be killed turns out to be... at the Watergate Hotel... Isn't that cute...? 

Despite it's flaws, and there are a few, the film is good enough to garner a watch at least once. Myself, I'll probably never revisit it, but I was entertained for and hour and half, at least. But then, if you have been reading a while, you know I like cheesy movies.

See you next time. Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy