Jack Nicholson in Wolf (1994)

Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer in Wolf (1994), image courtesy Columbia Pictures

Director Mike Nichols and Columbia Pictures delivered the offbeat horror film Wolf to movie theaters in 1994. Jack Nicholson plays the editor/werewolf, with Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader and Kate Nelligan along for the hairy ride.

Mike Nichols Directs Wolf

Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick wrote Wolf for Columbia Pictures. Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Catch-22, Charlie Wilson’s War) directed. Ennio Morricone created the eerie music score and Giuseppe Rotunno served as cinematographer.

Jack Nicholson (Will Randall) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Laura Alden) head the cast. Other players include James Spader (Stewart Swinton), Kate Nelligan (Charlotte Randall), Richard Jenkins (Detective Bridger), Christopher Plummer (Raymond Alden), Eileen Atkins (Mary), David Hyde Pierce (Roy), Om Puri (Dr. Vijay Alezais), Ron Rifkin (Doctor), Prunella Scales (Maude), Brian Markinson (Detective Wade) and Peter Gerety (George).

Wolf Filmed in New York and California

Budgeted at $70 million, Wolf was filmed in New York, California and Vermont. Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, served as the movie’s in-house production facility.

One minor incident took place during filming in which Christopher Plummer, who plays Michelle Pfeiffer’s father, got carried away, accidentally slapping the actress across the face.

Wolf: Jack Nicholson Goes Lupine

Wolf opens in the snowy Vermont countryside where book editor Will Randall hits a wolf with his car. Exiting the vehicle, Randall believes the animal is dead and approaches the carcass. The wolf suddenly springs to life, biting Nicholson and retreating into the woods.

Randall is treated by his doctor for the wolf bite, receiving a rabies inoculation. In the meantime, the old publishing house where Randall works has been taken over by wealthy Raymond Alden, who has replaced Will as editor-in-chief with young upstart Stewart Swinton. Adding insult to injury, Swinton is having an affair with Randall’s wife Charlotte.

But Will Randall has other problems, as he begins to take on the characteristics of a wolf while simultaneously romancing Raymond Alden’s young daughter Laura. His senses are now much sharper, and at the appearance of a full moon he changes into a werewolf, heading out into the woods and hunting prey or kicking the bejesus out of would-be muggers.

When Randall unexpectedly bites Stewart Swinton, the young, conniving editor also begins to show lupine traits. Swinton’s subsequent murder of Randall’s estranged wife brings the police to Will’s door. Later, the two werewolves battle it out with Laura looking on in horror.

Wolf Release and Reviews

Wolf scurried into theaters on June 17, 1994.

“Wolf is a decidedly upscale horror film, a tony werewolf movie in which a full roster of fancy talents tries to mate with unavoidably hoary, not to say, hairy material,” reported Todd McCarthy of Variety (6/13/94).

“Unfortunately, the movie’s big surprise – and that’s for paying moviegoers only – throws Wolf among the Godzillas. But by then, nothing really matters any more. Nichols has allowed Wolf to evolve from a well-mounted, supernatural drama to goofy camp,” observed Desson Howe of the Washington Post (6/17/94).

Film Analysis: I Was a Middle-Age Werewolf

For those who enjoy a decent offbeat horror flick, Mike Nichols’ Wolf may be the ticket. The movie combines the werewolf legend and bruising office politics, with the latter set at an old-line Manhattan publishing house now headed by prissy Christopher Plummer.

Jack Nicholson has the title role, sort of, playing the editor-turned-werewolf who, while not running down deer by the light of the moon, wins his job back through his sharpened senses of eyesight, hearing and smell. Nicholson uses the latter with great success, sniffing James Spader’s scent on wife Kate Nelligan’s clothes and then marching over to Spader’s place where he confronts the two backstabbers.

The scenes featuring Nicholson as Lon Chaney Jr. incarnated are wild camp. His wolf makeup appears be a little thin (not enough hair, try Rogaine next time) and his athletic leaps and bounds are a bit shaky, hyped by camera effects which really can’t hide the fact that we’re dealing with a sedentary 57-year-old actor.

Wolf might be the modern day equivalent of Universal Pictures’ The Wolf Man (1941), but it doesn’t belong in the same classic horror film category. Instead, view Wolf more along the lines of a previous movie in this genre, I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) starring Michael Landon. Just note the differences and similarities: Landon uses Clearasil and Nicholson employs Grecian Formula, but both have big time women trouble.  

Wolf Box Office, Notes, DVD

• Wolf grossed $65.002 million at the American box office, earning the #19 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1994.
• Wolf was a pet project of Jack Nicholson and author/poet Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall), who had been trying to get the movie made for some 12 years.
• Nicholson in Wolf appears on the cover of the April 1994 issue of Vanity Fair. The inside interview by Nancy Collins is titled “Wolf, Man, Jack.”
• On DVD: Wolf (Columbia Tristar, 1997)

“I’m just marking my territory, and you got in the way,” Jack Nicholson tells James Spader after urinating on the latter’s shoes.

Yep, that’s what a wolf does, though not in the men’s restroom…