The Werewolf of Washington (1973)

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Veteran actor Dean Stockwell has grown up from that little MGM child star to a fairly handsome man, but most of that is hidden behind a costume that looks like something out of a cheap production of "Alice in Wonderland". This cheaply made horror film is cast with mostly New York theater and soap actors who take the script seriously as if it was Shakespeare, but it's really rather amateurish at times and often unintentionally funny.The story surrounds a reporter who ends up being bitten by a werewolf while in Hungary and the effects it has when he returns to Washington D.C. Several prominent citizens are viciously attacked and mutilated, and eventually, the President himself (Biff McGuire) becomes a target. One of the scarier scenes occurs when Stanton attacks a black man on steps of the Lincoln memorial as Hus girlfriend screams inside a phone booth absurdly placed at the foot of the stairs. He then pushes the booth over and tries to attack her, no glass having been shattered. A chatty society matron is attacked while stumbling home drunk from a function, while a female reporter gets it too while trying to get into a closed gas station. This isn't terrible, but it's far from successful in its attempts to become a retelling of the classic horror tale.

"Marian, will you leave my chains alone!"Some films boggle the mind. WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON is such a movie. Okay, Dean Stockwell (in a zombie-like performance) is a White House press secretary bitten by a gypsy werewolf in Budapest, which curses him with the mark of the beast. So the film seems to be a political satire but veers into moments of sheer bizarreness that you just have to see it to believe it. Stockwell has these instances where the werewolf begins to emerge, and he must move his teeth, pretending that the transformation is taking over, which is rather corny. The transformations take forever—I mean, we're talking minutes here, folks. The werewolf in a suit routine (hearkening back to RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE) is rather hilarious, as well as, the grey hair which Stockwell sprouts when he turns into a lycanthrope. Lots of exteriors of Washington used to fool us into believing that the characters are actually operating business in the White House. Stockwell's Jack Whittier remains with a mostly frozen expression of aloofness for most of the film until the end when he is allowed to explode into hysterics while chained to a chair. Then there's this out-of-nowhere, what-the-hell scene which has to have derived from some sort of acid trip where Jack the Werewolf prowls into the inner bowels of what I guess is the White House (it looks like the inside of a nuclear building) and comes across a midget mad scientist with a Frankenstein monster—you think that is strange wait until you witness Jack the Werewolf licking the midget's face! Wow, that was unexpected and random! Oh, the midget returns briefly to meet with the President of the United States in the bathroom! I can't make this up people. I guess this is supposed to be a comedy because it has all these absurd scenes such as a representative of Communist China meeting with the President in Air Force One as Jack transforms into his grey-fur werewolf, and this erupts into a full scale attack—now imagine this for a minute, a werewolf in combat with the President of the United States, and there are no secret service agents who charge the beast, nope. Hell, the President even uses his coat as if he was a matador and the werewolf a bull. This is the kind of movie typical of the drive-in schlock one was accustomed to back in the 70s. It certainly is the appropriate sort of cinematic slop that would indeed wind up on a show hosted by Elvira. Fans of rancid cinema might eat this up, but for most WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON will be considered a hunk of excrement .

Werewolf of Washington, The (1973) * 1/2 (out of 4)Washington Press Secretary (Dean Stockwell) is banging the President's daughter when he is sent to Transylvania where he is bitten by a werewolf. He returns to Washington and starts killing off various members of congress. This could certainly benefit from the "so bad it's good" thing because this turkey is all over the map. The director doesn't seem to know if he wants to make a political satire, a horror spoof or an actual horror film. The werewolf makeup is rather pathetic but there are a few funny spoofs including the wolf constantly acting like a dog. One scene has the werewolf licking up a dwarf, which must be a first for werewolf films.

My son recently surprised me with a gift that game in the form of "Tales Of Terror" (A 50 DVD Movie Pack). This collection of "horror films that most people have never heard of" included "The Werewolf of Washington" which featured actor Dean Stockwell as a "political lycanthrope". It might surprise you to know that Stockwell was nominated for one Oscar, four Emmy Awards, and won two out of his six Golden Globe Nominations. The thing that I remember most about him was the fact that he looked a lot like the late great James Dean, and for a time there was a lot of talk about him playing Dean in "The James Dean Story". Warner Brothers later decided to make the film into a documentary. I have often wondered what an actor of Stockwell's talent could have done with that role. Having said that... I now can fully appreciate Stockwell's sense of "professionalism" if not his talent after viewing "The Werewolf of Washington". Stockwell puts forth his best effort in this comedy spoof type of rip off of the old Universal Studio version of "The Wolfman". The script seems to have a mind of it's own as it wanders around aimlessly in numerous directions trying to find itself. Actor Stockwell finds himself in a quandary as to whether to play the scene "straight" or as some kind of "comedic foil" and who could possibly blame him? I think what really transpires in this film is a series of disconnected "comedic skits" that range from the lead getting his fingers stuck in bowling ball to a President trying to break into a locked bathroom stall to a midget mad scientist (Michael Dunn)advising the President while standing next to what appears to be the Frankenstein Monster. Maybe Dean Stockwell should have received some kind of special award for just appearing in this film!