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Somewhere in the vast Canadian forests: Bannister (George Chesebro) is
the upright foreman of the Ford Logging Company. However, his company's
main competitor, the Consolidated Lumbering Corporation, and their foreman
Deveroux (Roy Watson), try every trick in the book to put the Ford Logging
Company out of business, like shooting and injuring its workers.
Eventually Bannister knows no other way than to ask the owner of the
company, whom he never met, for help and ask him to bring a surgeon.
To everybody's surprise, the owner is not an old businessman but a
young woman, Edith Ford (Marguerite Clayton), who brings along her
fiancé, Doc Horton (Ray Hanford) - incidently a surgeon. But fiancé or
no fiancé, Edith and Bannister soon seem to fall for each other, much to
the dismay of Doc Horton.
Then Bannister decides to fight it out with Deveroux man to man ... and
he loses, and Deveroux leaves him in the forest to die - but dieing
Bannister doesn't, rather he is found by local bootlegger Jacques Lebeq
(Milburn Morante), who brings him to his hut, then calls for the surgeon -
Doc Horton. Horton realizes there is only one way to save Bannister, who
is suffering from a severe bloodloss - he needs a blood transfusion. But
since there is no human donor at hand, Horton decides to use Lebeq's wolf,
despite the incalculable risks involved with such an action ...
Bannister gets better from day to day, but the fact that about half of
his blood is now that of a wolf freaks everyone out, and soon enough
Bannister himself starts to fear that his wolf persona will take over, and
not even Edith is able anymore to calm him down. Ultimately he believes to
hear the call of the wolves, and one night runs away in a frenzy ... and
the next day, Deveroux turns up dead, his throat ripped like by a wolf.
And now Bannister himself is certain that he has turned into a loup
garou, a human wolf or werewolf.
In the end, it's once more bootlegger Jacques Lebeq who saves the day
when he tells everyone he has seen Bannister and Deveroux fight, fair and
square with no wolf in sight, and only later was Deveroux, weakened from
the fight, attacked by a regular wolf and killed. And now, Doc Horton
admits that there is no reason that a man with wolf's blood should turn
into a loup garou, he only hinted at it because he was jealous of
Bannister.
The day is saved, and Bannister and Edith are about to be married ...
A very naive, even silly love story with some gothic undertones ... but
at the same time, this film was a precursor for all later werewolf films -
most prominently Wolf Man from
1941 - that present the werewolf not as a beast but a tragic romantic
hero. Taking Wolf Blood by itself, it is not really a great movie,
the silly story alone prevents that. That said it is on the other hand
beautifully filmed, and the many outdoor shots of the Canadian forests are
simply impressive. Definitely worth a look.
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find Wolf Blood at adultvideouniverse.com
