I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)

I Was a Teenage Werewolf lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Gene Fowler Jr. and American International Pictures delivered the cult classic I Was a Teenage Werewolf to movie theaters in 1957. Michael Landon plays the lycanthropic teen, with Yvonne Lime and Whit Bissell along for the joy ride.

Herman Cohen Produces I Was a Teenage Werewolf

Herman Cohen produced I Was a Teenage Werewolf for Sunset Productions and American International. Cohen and Aben Kandel, using the pseudonym Ralph Thornton, wrote the screenplay and Gene Fowler Jr. (Gang War, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, The Rebel Set) directed. Paul Dunlap created the original music score and Joseph LaShelle served as cinematographer.

Michael Landon (Tony Rivers) and Yvonne Lime (Arlene Logan) head the cast. Other players include Whit Bissell (Dr. Alfred Brandon), Tony Marshall (Jimmy), Dawn Richard (Theresa), Barney Phillips (Detective Donovan), Ken Miller (Bongo Player), Cindy Robbins (Pearl), Michael Rougas (Frank), Robert Griffin (Chief P.F. Baker), Joseph Mell (Dr. Hugo Wagner), Malcolm Atterbury (Charles Rivers), Eddie Marr (Doyle), Vladimir Sokoloff (Pepe), Louise Lewis (Principal Ferguson) and Guy Williams (Officer Chris Stanley).

Producer and co-scenarist Herman Cohen makes a cameo appearance as the man handling the crime scene photographs.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf Filmed in California

Budgeted at $82,000, I Was a Teenage Werewolf began production on March 14, 1957, at Ziv Studios in Hollywood. Griffith Park in Los Angeles was the setting for some of the outside scenes.

Makeup artist Phillip Scheer was responsible for transforming Michael Landon into the teenage werewolf. Landon didn’t wear a mask, but was fitted with a series of facial prosthetics for his transformational title role. The process was not an easy one for  the 20-year-old actor, with Landon in the makeup chair for as long as two hours every day.  

The police dog employed in the movie was named Anna, and reportedly belonged to director Gene Fowler.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf at Rockdale High School

Detective Donovan is called to Rockdale High to break up a fight involving a student named Tony Rivers, a violent, habitual troublemaker. With encouragement from his girlfriend Arlene and his widowed father, Tony seeks help from psychiatrist Dr. Alfred Brandon.

Dr. Brandon, along with his reluctant assistant Dr. Hugo Wagner, employ regression hypnotherapy and an experimental serum in order to “help” the lad. After Brandon suggests in several of their sessions that Tony was once a werewolf, the troubled teenager becomes one, later killing another teen named Frank.

The police investigate the murder, with Pepi, the cop shop’s janitor who hails from Europe’s Carpathian Mountains region, recognizing the telltale signs of a werewolf bite. Pepi is eventually proved right, as Police Chief Baker issues an all-points-bulletin for Tony following the murder of a female student at Rockdale High.

A confused, desperate Tony seeks help from Dr. Brandon, who unfortunately is only interested in recording his subject’s transformation from passably normal teenager to teenage werewolf. The good doctor and his assistant, however, become Tony’s latest victims, with Chief Baker and Officer Chris Stanley closing in on young Mr. Rivers.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf Release, Reviews

I Was a Teenage Werewolf hit movie theaters on June 19, 1957.

“Whoa there! Enough is too much! Teenagers as rock-n-rollers – probably. Teenagers as hot-rodders – possibly. Teenagers as calypsomaniacs – perhaps. But teenagers as werewolves? Maybe I’m out of touch with the younger set but I haven’t seen a teenage werewolf all year,” reported Ted Holmberg in the Providence Journal (6/57).

“Michael Landon delivers a first-class characterization as the high school boy constantly in trouble, and has okay support down the line. Yvonne Lime is pretty as his girl friend who asks him to go to the psychiatrist, and Whit Bissell handles doctor part capably, although some of his lines are pretty thick,” observed Variety (6/57).

Film Analysis: Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Date Werewolves 

I yi yi, young Michael Landon has some “splainin’” to do in this teen horror exploitation flick out of the Ricky Ricardo/I Love Lucy era. The future “Little Joe Cartwright” from Bonanza and “Pa Ingalls” from Little House on the Prairie garnered his first starring role in this low-budget monster film, playing the murderous confessional title character in what is probably the best screen role of his career.

The operative word here of course is “screen,” as Landon primarily pursued his craft on television, numbering only eight big screen appearances beginning with The Wilder Years (1956). A few of his other films include High School Confidential! (1958) and The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959).

I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a fairly slick horror picture, with Landon the unquestioned star as the troubled teen who is urged to seek professional help from his blond gal pal and others regarding his violent temper. Landon of course makes the classic teenager’s mistake – trusting adults – and winds up in the clutches of evil headshrinker Whit Bissell.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf was one of many films of the 1940s and ’50s that featured the confessional “I” in the title. There was I Walked with a Zombie (1943), I Shot Jesse James (1949), I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957), I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958), et al.

Apparently, the memoir movie was really “keen” back then, but given the quality of some of these productions, a number of the ”I” people should have kept it to themselves.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf Box Office, Notes, Movie Memorabilia, VHS 

• I Was a Teenage Werewolf grossed over $2 million at the American box office, making it one of American International Pictures’ most successful movies.
• “Blood of the Werewolf” was reportedly the movie’s original title.
• The May 1956 issue of the teen magazine Dig features a story titled “I Was a Teenage Werewolf.”
• Michael Landon’s salary for Teenage Werewolf: $1,000
• Dawn Richard was Playboy’s Playmate of the Month for May 1957, posing in tight red pedal pushers with her blouse unbuttoned.  
• Director Gene Fowler Jr.’s other confessional film: I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958).
• I Was a Teenage Werewolf makes an appearance in Stephen King’s 1986 novel It. After several members of the Losers Club watch the movie at a local theater, their nemesis, the evil clown Pennywise, takes the form of a teen werewolf, complete with the high school letterman’s jacket.
• I Was a Teenage Werewolf was paired with another AIP film Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957).
• Auction results for original I Was a Teenage Werewolf movie material, courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries, Dallas, Texas: one sheet poster ($493.54), half sheet poster ($237.81), insert poster ($836.50), combination window card Werewolf/Saucer Men ($31), Belgian poster ($21), set of eight lobby cards ($418.25).
• I Was a Teenage Werewolf is currently available on VHS only.