The Werewolf of Washington

USA 1973
produced by
Nina Schulman for Diplomat Pictures, Millco
directed by Milton Moses Ginsberg
starring Dean Stockwell, Biff McGuire, Jane House, Nancy Andrews, Clifton James, Jack Waltzer, Ben Yaffee, Beeson Carroll, Jacqueline Brookes, Michael Dunn, Barbara Spiegel, Thurman Scott, Dennis McMullen, Lenka Peterson, Katalin Kallay, Henry Ferrentino, Despo Diamantidou, Thayer David, Tom Scott, Randy Phillips, James Tolkan, Stephen Cheng
written by Milton Moses Ginsberg, music by Arnold Freed

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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In Hungary, journalist Jack (Dean Stockwell) is bitten by a wolf, but manages to kill the beast - which oddly enough turns out to be a human when dead. Soon enough, Jack comes to Washington, where he's made press secretary of the President (Biff McGuire), a job that sounds easier than it is, as the president is a bit of a clueless half-wit whose main agenda it is to cover up the shortcomings of himself and his administration and to look good for the press.

Soon, senators start dropping dead, obviously killed by some kind of beast, and Jack has to put a positive spin on this - which he is good at, until he finds out that it was actually he who killed the senators, and he's actually ... a werewolf.

Jack tries to convince everybody from the president to his psychiatrist to the president's daughter (Jane House) he's romantically involved with that he's responsible for the killings and has a lycanthropic condition, but to no avail, so in a helicopter flight with the president and the Chinese premier (Stephen Cheng) he turns again, and ultimately bites the president before being shot dead by his daughter, whom he's given a gun loaded with a silver bullet. But now that the president has been bitten ...

Part low budget horror flick, part political satire, part straight-out comedy, The Werewolf of Washington has its moments ... but misses its mark more times than it hits: Some of the jokes on the Nixon administration are really funny without being overly obvious, but not all work. As for the actual comedy moments: Dean Stockwell in the lead and Biff McGuire as president are both hilarious, mostly, and especially the scene when Stockwell tries to get rid of a bowling ball stuck to his finger without the president noticing it, and him trying to sneak out of a staff meeting with werewolf paws he hides behind his back are hilarious, but there are a few too many "jokes" that are just bad. And the whole thing is hampered by its too cheap and hapless approach to the horror genre, with carelessly done shock-scenes, atmosphere-free spook sequences and cheapish monster makeup.

In all, not a total trainwreck - and you might actually like this if you're like me into 1970's horror B-fare -, but too undecided between genres to excel in either, and not too well-made on top of that.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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