Daily Poster - The Curse Of The Werewolf (1961)

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Hammer films often had great posters, sometimes better than the movies they were advertising. This is not the case with The Curse of the Werewolf; the film is great, one of Hammer's best. Featuring Oliver Reed as Leon the werewolf and the stunning Yvonne Romaine, Curse has strong performances, great, bestial werewolf make-up and a hard, exploitative edge (for example, Reed's character is the product of the rape of Romaine, who dies in childbirth).

The poster is a good advertisement for the film, although it isn't exactly playing fair with potential viewers. With multiple images of the werewolf and his victims (although the prone, buxom woman below the central wolf image looks like it is mother, not a vicitm) and the promise that he will "kill...Kill...KILL!" the movie takes a considerable amount of running time before we see the monster and has a light body count (Reed's character only kills four people). The first act is set before Leon's birth. The film also spends time developing Leon's character as a child (played by Justin Walters), before transitioning to the adult Reed. The film is not boring; but it does take its time building up to a pretty spectacular werewolf rampage in the film's finale.

One interesting detail; the color of the werewolf on the poster is brown. In the film its fur is white, as you can see from the image at right. This was an understandable change. While the white color works on the screen, the decision to change the color for the poster was a good one. On film, the unexpected coloration lends the werewolf an even more supernatural, almost ghostly appearance. As a painting, it would have looked odd, maybe even comical. One of the other interesting features is the tiny image form the finale of a mob of torch-bearing villagers having cornered the werewolf; it's not often you see a spoiler on the poster!

What really sells the poster, however, is the energy it conveys. The bold strokes, the up-front image of the monster, the terrified victims and the overblown tag-lines all promise a full-scale, no-holds-barred carnival of terrors. There are a few weird artistic choices that don't quite work. The sky blue on the right side is too much of contrast with the dark tones of the werewolf and the night sky. The light source on the right side werewolf's face is also a strange contrast with the moon behind its head on the left. However, these are mild criticisms of an otherwise exceptional movie poster.

As bonus, here are some images of Yvonne Romaine. Hammer always featured attractive women and she is one of the hottest.