Le loup garou de Washington

I've seen some pretty lame horror comedies but this is one rancid hair ball. Your ten year old comes home with funnier jokes than this. So bad it makes you angry at the waste. Dean Stockwell has never looked more ill at ease or has been more miscast that he is in this miserable attempt at satire.It's so noncommittal about it's style of comedy that it takes about ten minutes into the film before you can figure out it is indeed a comedy.I know some of you may be thinking how could it not be with at title like The Were Wolf Of Washington? Well around the same time Dick Clark produced a TV special called The Werewolf Of Woodstock and it was definitely not intended to be comedy though it was so awful it induced howls of another kind.This is so bad it's just bad.Two thumbs up...the keester.

This is a sometimes slow-moving, sometimes cheap-looking but always a what- the-HELL-am-I-watching?! kind of a film. Dean Stockwell, who seems to have walked onto the set of "The Wolfman" at films beginning, gets a silver headed walking stick, encounters some weird gypsy types and becomes cursed with lycanthropy. Part werewolf film, part Watergate satire, Stockwell looks pretty cool with his full wolf make-up on and shows a talent for physical comedy as well. The scene where he gets his hand stuck in a bowling ball, whilst the clueless President fails to notice, is hysterical. This really isn't meant to be a thrilling chiller, but the scene with a girl trapped by the werewolf inside of an overturned phone booth is rather tense and well done. Yes, it's cheap, the acting isn't that great (outside of Stockwell's performance) the sets are lousy and everything screams 70S!!! in all of its tacky hideousness (the flowered wallpaper in the heroine's bedroom is by far the scariest thing about this film) but it's not a total loss. Its a sharp, clever and sometimes very black comedy with some nice make-up effects. It's worth seeing for Stockwell's manic performance alone.

I had a lot of fun watching this completely offbeat film. This is obviously a spoof of horror flicks and a good natured, tongue in cheek comment on American politics during the Nixon era. The editing is horrible, the lighting even worse, and there is no escaping this movie is early seventies to the max. In the end though, all of this only seems to add to this little movies charms which are considerable.

I think the writing is excellent, the idea of a werewolf among the Washington elite is pretty darn original. At times it seems almost like a skit from an early classic Saturday night live show. Very much so actually. There are some very funny moments like the bowling scene which made me laugh out loud. My eleven year old daughter laughed also which is good. The scene with the girl in the phone booth is also hilarious, and the bit with the Chinese diplomat on the plane cracked me up again.

Dean Stockwell is terrific in this movie, he delivers a very edgy performance that amazingly has you laughing at one scene and feeling very sorry for him at other times. His increasing anxiety and frustration over becoming a werewolf actually made me squirm a bit and almost made me stop watching the movie!!!! But then came the bowling scene and you realize its all for laughs. He gets great support from others in the cast especially the actors playing the president and the attorney general(Biff Mcquire and Clifton James), they are both a ton of fun.

I think i have a cool bit of trivia for you. Dean's dad Harry Stockwell makes a cameo appearance in the scene where the president briefs the joint chiefs of staff. Another hilarious scene. In the Harry Stockwell section of IMDb that isn't mentioned, i think it should be. Overall, the Werewolf of Washington is a c movie that delivers and a verl cool comment on a memorable time in American history. I liked it a lot!!!!

This thing is all tongue in cheek. And in some ways it's a bit charming. The president and all his people are a bunch of clueless idiots. If it weren't for six years ago, I would have said this was impossible. Of course, it was 1973 and the country was reeling from Watergate. There was racial tension and distrust. Now we have Dean Stockwell whose career has been dotted with psychos and weirdos. He finds himself at the end of the werewolf chain, having been bitten in Hungary. He serves as press secretary with the mild inconvenience of turning into a werewolf when the moon is full. He kills a little, bowls a little, terrorizes people in telephone booths. He suspects what has happened to him but, of course. no one will buy it. To the bitter end, the President of the United States is insincere and manipulative (and stupid). The film is pretty predictable, but its comic moments are the best. Don't expect to take this seriously. Maybe a scholar will look at it and see it as pure satire. Unfortunately, it's not that good.

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.