Werewolf Whodunit at an English manor
A wealthy businessman in England (Calvin Lockhart) welcomes five guests to his fenced-in estate in the countryside to join him & his wife (and security man) for a special get-together: One of them is a werewolf and he’s going to find out which and slay the beast! Peter Cushing is on hand as one of the guests, a lycanthropy enthusiast, but it’s a too-small role.
"The Beast Must Die" (1974) is a werewolf flick from an “And Then There Were None” angle with a quaint ‘Werewolf Break’ near the end. The creature, when it finally appears, is not a wolf-man, but rather an ordinary wolf (played by a cost-effective German Shepherd made up to look diabolic). It has elements of “The Devil’s Nightmare” (1971), “Frogs” (1972) and Jack Palance’s “Dracula” (1974). “Howling V: The Rebirth” (1989) borrowed the plot, but switched the events to a Hungarian castle.
While this is the least of these, it has a few highlights: Lockhart makes for a cool protagonist and the climax is creative and thrilling enough (I wasn’t able to guess who the werewolf was and there’s an interesting twist or two). The groovy early 70’s score is incongruous, but some might like it. Lockhart was chosen as the lead at the last second by producers to cash-in on the blaxploitation craze; their original choice was Robert Quarry. It was Lockhart who suggested Marlene Clark to play his wife.
Unfortunately, the bulk of the film isn’t very compelling, which was the case with “Frogs” but not as bad. Not enough focus is put on fleshing out the characters, which makes them uninteresting, although one of them is a member of Styx. (Just kidding, lol). The females, Ciaran Madden (Davina) and Marlene Clark (Caroline), are pretty much wasted.
This was an Amicus production, which is similar to Hammer, but lesser. Both were known for their horror flicks, but they each only did one werewolf movie. Hammer of course did “The Curse of the Werewolf” (1961).
The film runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot at Shepperton Studios, which is just outside of London to the southwest. There are also establishing shots of what looks like the Scottish Highlands and so forth.
GRADE: C+
