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5. The Beast Within
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5 The Beast Within Freudian Overtones in Endore's Classic The vigor and inventiveness of the pulp stories found few echoes in the werewolfnovels of the 1930S, most of which were routine potboilers revolving around stock situations. One ofthe few to rise above the general mediocrity was The Wolf's Bride (1930) by the Finnish author Madame Aino Kallas. Imitating the style and language of the old Norse chronicles, it tells of the tragic events that occur after Pridiik the hunter takes the lovely maiden Aolo for his bride. For a while the couple are blissfully happy, but the situation changes dramatically after the Forest-Daemon magically transforms Aolo into a werewolf. By day she is the same gentle, loving wife that she was before, but at night she undergoes a terrifying metamorphosis and runs with the wolf 144 The Beast Within pack, committing acts ofwanton savagery. The double life of the enchanted spouse is finally terminated when her husband learns her dreadful secret and shoots her with a gun that fires silver bullets. Alfred H. Bill's popular historical thriller The Wolf in the Garden (1931) treats the theme in a more stereotypical fashion. Set in the early 1800s, the story centers on the sinister activities of a French nobleman, Le Comte de Saint Loup, who has come to live in America after fleeing from the French Revolution. Shortly after his arrival in a quiet town in northern New York State, several local residents are attacked by a giant wolf that, strangely enough, seems to pick only on those who have shown animosity toward the count. This leads the local minister to suspect that the disagreeable newcomer is a werewolf, and when confirmation of this is finally obtained he uses his knowledge of the occult to help a group of townspeople put a stop to the shapechanger 's reign ofterror. The most famous werewolf novel from the 1930S is undoubtedly Guy Endore's The Werewolf ofParis, which has rarely been out of print since its initial publication in 1933. Regarded by critics as the only modern werewolf text of any literary quality, it now enjoys the same preeminence that Bram Stoker's Dracula achieved in its particular field. Another common denominator is that both novels were inspired by the inhuman deeds of real people. In Dracula it was the ruthless fifteenthcentury Wallachian warlord Vlad Tepes who was the 145 [3.231.217.209] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:16 GMT) The Beast Within model for the central character, while in Endore's magnum opus it was the equally notorious Sergeant Fran<;:ois Bertrand, the nineteenth-century French soldier who robbed graves oftheir corpses and devoured the rotting flesh. Although generally regarded as a ghoul, Bertrand 's link with lycanthropy emerged during his trial, at which he claimed that he turned into a wolf while committing his atrocities. Bertrand Caillet, the hero of The WerewolfofParis, is a more sympathetic character than his real-life counterpart . Born on Christmas Eve, the bastard son of a lecherous priest, Caillet's life is cursed from the outset by tainted ancestry. Even as an infant his appearance has a marked canine resemblance, and during his early childhood he develops peculiar physical characteristics, such as hairy palms, thick eyebrows that meet above the nose, interlocking teeth, and, most tellingly, a tendency to howl like a wolf. By the time he has reached adolescence he begins to experience realistic dreams in which he assumes lupine form. At the same time his condition is further aggravated by his emerging sexual urges. Bertrand's guardian, Aymar Galliez, has his suspicions about his ward's lycanthropic nature confirmed after the local forest warden wounds a marauding wolf with a silver bullet, and this projectile is later found embedded in the boy's leg. After this incident, Aymar locks the youngster in his room at night and tries to appease his craving for blood by putting him on a diet 146 The Beast Within of raw meat. But these precautions only postpone the inevitable, for once Bertrand has reached manhood his wolfish nature reasserts itself After sexually assaulting his mother and brutally murdering the forest warden, Bertrand flees to Paris to escape prosecution. From then on his affliction gets worse, and his subsequent one-man crime wave (which includes the violation of graves and the mutilation of the corpses within) brings even more horror to a city already in a state of turmoil following the collapse of the Third Empire and the commencement of a bloody struggle for power. As a cover for his activities, Bertrand joins the National Guard and rents a cheap basement room, conveniently located at the rear of the house. A window, which he leaves open at night, allows him to depart and return unnoticed. He is by this time fully aware ofhis condition and always knows when an attack is coming on: During the day he would have no appetite. In the evening he would feel tense and both tired and sleepless. Then he would lock his door, and having taken his precautions, he would lie down. Frequently he would wake in the morning, in bed, with no recollection ofwhat had happened at night. Only a wretched stiffness in the neck, a lassitude in his limbs, that could come from nothing but miles of running; scratches on his hands, and feet, and an acrid taste in his mouth argued that he had spent the night elsewhere. On such occasions, however, full 147 The Beast Within conviction awaited him when he rose. Under his bed he caught a flash of white. It was a human forearm! A man's. The fingers were clutched tightly into a fist. Hair, as if torn from a fur coat, protruded from the interstices between the fingers. Just when it seems that his excesses are certain to bring about his capture, Caillet meets and falls in love with the beautiful Sophie de Blumenberg. A bizarre sadomasochistic relationship quickly develops, and Sophie willingly yields some of her blood while they make love. This new focus in Bertrand's life miraculously brings about the sudden cessation of his lycanthropic seizures and reveals the true nature ofhis affliction . It shows that he is not irredeemably evil but is one of those anguished individuals in whom the soul of man and beast are constantly at war. Whatever weakens the human soul, either sin or darkness, solitude or cold, brings the wolf to the fore; and whatever weakens the beastly soul, either virtue or daylight, warmth or the companionship of another human being, raises and strengthens the human soul. For a while it seems that Sophie's love will be the means of Bertrand's salvation, but his incessant demands for larger quantities ofhis lover's blood eventually place her life in jeopardy. At night, as they lie in each other's arms, Bertrand constantly fights against the overwhelming desire to sink his teeth into Sophie's carotid artery and drink his fill. One evening, when the 148 The Beast Within torment becomes unbearable, he rushes out into the street and attacks the first person who comes along. But the intended victim, who happens to be a fellow soldier, fights off his attacker and puts him under arrest . Declared insane at his court-martial, Bertrand is incarcerated in an asylum, where he finally puts an end to his miserable existence by committing suicide. Years later when his coffin is disinterred, the skeleton of a wolfis found inside. One of the most intriguing aspects of this novel is the way the author links cruelty with sexuality. Bertrand , for instance, represents the sadist whose desire to dominate his partner manifests itselfin a compulsion to injure, to torture-to inflict pain. Sophie, on the other hand, displays masochistic tendencies and derives pleasure from pain, which is brilliantly depicted in the passage describing the lovers' first meeting. At Bertrand's tentative attempt to show affection, Sophie rebukes him: "Don't hurt me! Oh please don't hurt me!" But when he releases her from his embrace she is filled with contrition and implores him to embrace her once more: "You must hold me tighter," she said. "Tighter still," she whispered. Such a bliss flowed through her from his body pressed close to hers that her head grew dizzy, her breath came and went. Her body tensed and then seemed about to dissolve in liquid. If only he would press harder. If only he would crush her, tear her! Mutilate her! In desperation she cried out: "Hurt me! Bertrand, hurt me!" 149 The Beast Within On reflection, it seems strange that, prior to this novel, so few werewolf stories had stressed the psychosexual aspect of lycanthropy. In the mid-nineteenth century the French and English "Decadents" had concluded that the sadistic component of the sexual instinct is ideally represented by the werewol£ Baudelaire , for instance, maintained that lycanthropy was merely another name for sadism; and the idea of pain as an integral part ofsexual pleasure was a major obsession ofthe whole Romantic movement. Translated into Freudian terms, Bertrand's violent behavior patterns point to him being psychologically arrested at the oral stage of sexuality. This is particularly evident in his lovemaking, during which he makes small incisions in Sophie's naked body with a sharp knife and sucks out the blood. Later this lust for the warm fluid oflife becomes almost vampiric as he strives to extract ever larger amounts. For like all individuals in the thrall of oral desire, Bertrand has what psychoanalysts describe as an unconscious desire to devour the beloved object; and though he struggles valiantly against it, he realizes toward the end that these powerful urges must ultimately triumph. Significantly, the author who had the greatest influence on Endore was the infamous German writer Hanns Heinz Ewers, whose classic horror novel Vampire (1922) revolves around an almost identical sadomasochistic relationship. Another similarity between the two novels is that, like Frank Braun in Vampire, Endore's 150 The Beast Within hero has been divested ofall the supernatural attributes associated with the monster he represents, thereby giving greater credibility to his actions. There is also no attempt by the author to sensationalize the events in the story, which adds to its believability and gives parts of the narrative a documentary realism. There are, for instance , no theatrical transformation scenes nor are there any graphic descriptions of Bertrand's graverobbing activities. Nevertheless, there are occasions when this understated approach seems inappropriate, and several potentially horrific scenes are told in such a matter-of-fact manner that they lack any shock value. Readers used to the gross violence of contemporary horror novels may find the opening chapters here too bland for their liking; but the latter half of the book, which has its fair share of "blood and gore," will certainly repay their perseverance. Finding a copy should not be a problem either, since there have been several paperback editions published in recent years. Compared to this innovative work, F. LaylandBarratt 's Lycanthia (1935) is positively anachronistic. The highly derivative plot revolves around the activities of a female werewolf, Lycanthia Kritzulescu, the daughter of a Polish count and an Englishwoman. Mter her father's death Lycanthia goes to live with her aunt in England, who has no idea that she has invited a flesh-eating monster into her home. Following the usual pattern of stich stories, Lycanthia proceeds to prey on the local community in the form of a wolf. 151 The Beast Within Equally predictably she is shot and mortally wounded during one ofher nocturnal rampages, and after death, reverts to human form. Meatier fare is provided by J. U. Nicolson's Fingers of Fear (1937), in which the residents of a secluded English mansion all suffer from a form of homicidal pseudo-lycanthropy. Inevitably this leads to a succession of horrific incidents, including some very grisly murders. If this weren't enough to keep the proverbial pot boiling, the author deems it necessary to introduce ghosts, hidden corpses, vampire-women, and a living portrait into the plot. Unfortunately, by letting his imagination run riot in this way, Nicolson spreads on the horror with too heavy a hand so that the reader's credulity is stretched much too far. Another novel with a typically British setting is Grey Shapes byJack Mann. Published in 1938, this is one ofa series ofcrime thrillers featuring Gregory George Gordon Green, a private investigator specializing in bizarre cases, who is known to his friends and associates as Gees. On this occasion a wealthy landowner hires him to exterminate wolflike creatures that have been attacking his flock of sheep. As a result of his investigations, Gees becomes suspicious ofhis client's reclusive neighbors , Diarmid and Gyda McCoul, who live nearby in a half-ruined castle. When more killings occur, including that ofa shepherd, Gees sets a trap for the perpetrators, and both werewolves are killed. The dead forms then assume human shape and are identified as the McCouls. 152 [3.231.217.209] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:16 GMT) The Beast Within It is later revealed that the werewolves were seven hundred years old and had lived at their ancestral home since the reign ofHenry III ofEngland. Two thrillers in a similar mold-except that they have rationalized endings-are John Dickson Carr's It Walks by Night (1930) and Eden Phillpotts's Lycanthrope : The Mystery ofSir William Wo!f(1937). Most of the short stories published in the 1930S with a werewolfmotifhave already been mentioned in the previous section about the pulp magazines, but a few found their way into hardcover collections. The majority of these, however, were run-of-the-mill and are deservedly forgotten today. A rare gem among the dross is Peter Fleming's "The Kill" (Creeps by Night, 1931), which is justly famous for its surprise ending. As the story opens, two men are sitting in the otherwise deserted waiting room ofa small provincial railway station in the West ofEngland. Fog has delayed the arrival of their train, and the younger ofthe two men decides to engage the other in conversation. To pass the time he tells the stranger about the misfortunes that have lately beset his uncle, Lord Fleer, with whom he has been staying. The wealthy nobleman, who lives in a castle on a nearby country estate is, the young man explains , a bachelor, but had an adopted daughter who would have been his heir had she not been recently murdered. Disturbingly, Lord Fleer's troubles had started a few weeks previously with reports that an unidentified predator had been killing sheep on his land, 153 The Beast Within recalling to mind events that had taken place a quarter of a century earlier. The narrator reveals that in his youth the nobleman had been involved in a brieffling with his fiery Welsh housekeeper, but when he found out she expected him to marry her, he abruptly broke off the relationship. Packed off to an unused wing of the castle, the spurned mistress later gave birth to a son, then she died almost immediately afterward. With her dying breath she warned Lord Fleer that there was a curse embodied in the child, which would fall on anyone who was made heir over his head; to add to Fleer's alarm he subsequently discovered that the infant had a physical peculiarity: the third finger on each hand was longer than the second, signifying-according to ancient superstition-that he would become a werewolf. Disowned by his father and fostered by a local woman, the motherless child ran away when he was ten. Now, some fifteen years later, Lord Fleer suspects the young man-wolf has returned to get revenge and claim his inheritance. Determined to stop him, the rich landowner and his nephew, together with a posse of retainers , scour the woods on the estate, but the werewolf is nowhere to be seen. On their return, however, the nobleman's fears are realized when the dead, mutilated body of his adopted daughter is found lying on the drive outside the house. The final twist in the story is precipitated by the storyteller's final revelation, and the stranger's unexpected reaction to it: 154 The Beast Within "It is a wild and improbable story," he said. "I do not expect you to believe the whole of it. For me, perhaps, the reality of its implications has obscured its almost ludicrous lack of verisimilitude. You see, by the death of my uncle's daughter I am heir to Fleer." The stranger smiled: a slow, but no longer abstracted smile. His honey-colored eyes were bright. Under his long black overcoat his body seemed to be stretching itself in sensual anticipation. He rose silently to his feet. The other found a sharp, cold fear drilling into his vitals. Something behind those shining eyes threatened him with appalling immediacy, like a sword at his heart. He was sweating. He dared not move. The stranger's smile was now a grin, a ravening convulsion of the face. His eyes blazed with a hard and purposeful delight. A thread of saliva dangled from the corner ofhis mouth. Very slowly he lifted one hand and removed his bowler hat. Of the fingers crooked about its brim, the young man saw that the third was longer than the second. Several stories by other British writers showed a similar subtlety in their treatment of the theme. In Hugh Walpole's "Tarnhelm" (All Souls' Night, 1933) an elderly warlock living in a quiet suburban neighborhood in England is able to transform himself into an evil-looking mongrel dog by placing on his head a small gray skullcap, which he calls his tarnhelm (a reference to the shapeshifting device in The Ring ofthe Nibelungs). More exotic in their choice oflocale are two 155 The Beast Within stories by Lewis Spence, "Enchantment on the Unicorn " and "The Temple of the Jaguars," both ofwhich come from his collection The Archer in the Arras and Other Tales ofMystery (I932). In "Enchantment on the Unicorn" the crew ofa ship manned by Scotsmen fleeing from their disastrous defeat by the English in 1745 is plagued by an outbreak of lycanthropy after one of them is bitten by Mexican natives belonging to a jaguar cult. "The Temple of the Jaguars" is set in Central America and features a lycanthrope whose condition is caused by a virus. C. H. B. Kitchin's adult fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" (A Century of Creepy Stories, I934) has the novelty of a woman-panther and a mantiger as its enchanted protagonists; while H. Russell Wakefield's Mrican voodoo tale "Death of a Poacher" (A Ghostly Company, I935) boasts awere-hyena. "Taboo" by Geoffrey Household, in which lycanthropy is depicted as a mental illness, was probably inspired by the real-life case of Denke the Butcher, which scandalized Europe in the years immediately following World War I. Originally from the collection The Salvation ofPisco Gabar and Other Stories (I939), this tale appeared more recently in Realms ofDarkness (Chartwell Books, I988). Household also wrote a routine yarn called "The Night of the Werewolf" (I938), which has sunk into oblivion-a fate also shared by Mrs. L. Baillie Reynolds 's "The Terrible Baron" (The Terrible Baron and Other Stories, I933), and E. H. Visiak's "In the Mangrove 156 The Beast Within Hall," which has not been seen since its appearance in the bumper anthology Masterpiece o/Thrills (1936). ShiftingTastes:The Influence of Unknown In the 1940s In common with the previous decade, werewolf stories from the 1940S can be divided into two groups: those that appeared in hardcover books (i.e., anthologies and single-author collections) and those from the pages of the weird-fantasy magazines. In the United States the latter again formed the majority and were generally superior to their upmarket counterparts. As in the thirties the pick of the werewolf stories from the pulps were published in Weird Tales, which continued to be the primary forum for masters of macabre fiction, despite the fact that some of the legendary authors associated with the magazine were either dead or had moved on to better-paying markets. One prominent member of the old guard who was not lured away was the ever-popular Seabury Quinn, whose numerous contributions to Weird Tales in the forties included two additional werewolf stories, bringing his tally to eight in all. The first of these, "The Gentle Werewolf" (July 1940), is set in the Holy Land in the period following the Crusades and centers on the plight of a Frankish maiden, Sylvanette de Gavaret, who is transformed into a wolf by a witch whose wrath 157 The Beast Within she has incurred. To add to her woes the unfortunate young woman is told that she is doomed to remain in this form until "some noble lord shall kiss thy hairy beast's-lips and declare his love for thee." Despite her savage appearance, the newly created werewolf loses none of her innate gentleness, and after being forced to flee into the wilderness finds she hasn't the heart to kill animals for food. She becomes a scavenger and exists by helping herself to the remains of kills made by real wolves. Mter many trials and tribulations the curse is eventually lifted when the "gentle werewolf" comes to the rescue of a former suitor, who fulfills the condition of the curse by rewarding his savior with a kiss. Quinn's last werewolf story for Weird Tales was "Bon Voyage, Michele" (January 1944), which, unusually for him, takes place in the future. Prejudging the outcome ofWorld War II-which was still in progress when the story was written- it concerns a revanchist plot by a group of German were-folk, who have been secretly stockpiling weapons to mount a resistance to the Allied Army of Occupation. Reluctantly drawn into their machinations the story's plucky heroine, Michele Mikhailovitch, is transformed into a wolf against her will and valiantly tries to prevent her lover from suffering a similar fate. Both of the above-mentioned stories were included in Is the Devila Gentleman? (Mirage Press, 1970), a collection of Quinn's best stories selected by the great man 158 The Beast Within himself. One suspects, however, that most of Quinn's fans, had they been given the same opportunity to select his two finest werewolf stories, would have chosen "The Phantom Farmhouse" and "Uncanonized." The incomparable Clark Ashton Smith, whose exotic fantasies had helped to give Weird Tales its unique flavor in the 1930S, rarely wrote about werewolves, preferring monsters of his own creation. One of the few occasions he made use of the theme was in "The Enchantress ofSylaire" (July 1941), which is set in a magicalland ruled by a glamorous femme fatale. One ofher discarded lovers is a wizard named Malachie du Marais, who has been magically transformed into a werewolf after being duped into drinking water from a lycanthropous pool. Although this has greatly diminished his occult powers, he is able to throw offhis wolf-shape temporarily by eating wild garlic. Outstanding though Smith's decadent other-world fantasy is, it was not typical ofthe werewolftales then in vogue. Most ofthe other stories used contemporary settings , and humor and clever wordplay were much more in evidence as authors increasingly searched for new and unusual angles on which to base their stories. Epitomizing this new trend were the stories in Unknown (later retitled Unknown Worlds), which was the only fantasy magazine to seriously challenge Weird Tales' supremacyduring the 1940s. More literary than its legendary counterpart, it broke new ground by publishing slick stories satirizing standard weird-fantasy themes. A 159 [3.231.217.209] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:16 GMT) The Beast Within typical example is Anthony Boucher's novelette "The Compleat Werewolf" (April 1942), a delightfully wacky romp in which the unlikely hero, a professor of Old German, gets involved in some hilarious adventures when he discovers he can metamorphose into a wolf simply by saying the word ''Absarka.'' Morally unaffected by the change from man ro beast, he demonstrates his public spiritedness by helping the authorities round up a Nazi spy ring. Another story from Unknown with a World War II setting is Jane Rice's "The Refugee" (Ocrober 1943). An ingenious reworking of Saki's "Gabriel-Ernest," but with a much punchier ending, it concerns a battle of wits between a resourceful American woman living in war-rorn France and a naked young man found lurking in her garden. The interloper claims to be a refugee, but he is really a hungry werewolfwho plans to devour the woman after sundown. However, she adroitly turns the tables on him with a cunning stratagem. Boldly inviting the stranger into her house and lulling him into a relaxed mood, she nonchalantly drops a chocolate into his mouth while at the same time jabbing him violently with a hairpin. The shock forces the werewolf to swallow the innocent-looking confection; but unbeknown to him a silver bullet is hidden inside it, and within a few minutes he is dead. Now, at last, the full import ofthe heroine's actions become clear: By killing the werewolfbefore sundown she has not only disposed of a serious threat to her life but has also acquired a 160 The Beast Within welcome supply ofa rare commodity in those troubled times- fresh meat! Some of the most innovative works of fiction published in Unknown/Unknown Worlds resulted from the magazine's policy of encouraging authors to submit stories that demythologized well-known myths. For example , traditionally supernatural monsters like vampires and werewolves were rendered more believable by giving them a quasi-scientific rationale. A classic example is Jack Williamson's novel Darker Than You Think (December 1940), which is based on the premise that in the remote past there existed another humanoid species on earth called Homo lycanthropus, identical in appearance to Homo sapiens but genetically different. Predatory and rapacious by nature, the males feasted on the flesh of true men and impregnated their womenfolk . Their dominion over the more numerous Homo sapiens was due to their magical powers, chiefly the ability to assume the shape of any animal by using a technique similar to astral projection. The witch-folk, as they were known, were also able to communicate by telepathy and possessed other such highly developed mental faculties as clairvoyance and the gift of prophecy . Undisputed masters of the earth, they looked down on primitive humankind, whom they enslaved and used as a source offood. Despite their apparent invincibility , the witch-folk's reign of terror came to an end when ways to counteract their magic were discovered ; the turning point in the long struggle came when 161 The Beast Within true men acquired a weapon that brought about the virtual extermination oftheir oppressors. The intriguing presumption made by this thoughtprovoking novel is that the long period of terror and subjugation endured by our early ancestors before their deliverance has left an indelible impression on our unconscious minds, and consequently every myth about vampires, werewolves, and evil spirits that has come down to us is a racial memory of this dark period in human history. The bizarre events depicted in Darker Than You Think take place in the twentieth century and are set in motion by the return to the United States of the Humane Research Foundation expedition, which has spent two years in a remote part ofthe Gobi Desert excavating prehistoric burial sites. On their arrival at the airport, the leader of the team of scientists, Dr. Mondrick , dramatically reveals to the waiting reporters that they have brought back with them a sealed wooden box whose contents will have an earth-shattering impact on the way we view the origin of human life. But, before he can add any more to this statement, he suddenly chokes to death for no apparent reason. The hero, Will Barbee, who is one of the newsmen covering the return of the expedition, finds himself drawn into the mystery surrounding the noted anthropologist 's death after meeting a beautiful redhead named April Bell, who claims to be a witch. Taking Barbee into her confidence she reveals that she belongs 162 The Beast Within to an underground movement whose members are descendants of the outlawed race of shapeshifters, and she makes no bones about the fact that she used her magical powers to kill Mondrick. What's more, she intends to permanently silence the other members of the expedition and destroy the contents of the wooden box, which is thought to contain the ancient weapon used so successfully against the witch-folk. Although shocked to hear about her plans-especially since members of the Humane Research Foundation are his friends-Barbee becomes more amenable to April's viewpoint when he discovers that he, too, has the blood ofthe witch-folk flowing through his veins. When April awakens powers in him similar to her own, Barbee begins to experience realistic "dreams" in which he leaves his body behind and joins the witchwoman in hunting down and killing the remaining expedition members while in a variety offearsome animal guises. The first time this happens he metamorphoses into a wolf, and April changes into a white she-wolf. On another occasion he takes the form of a sabertoothed tiger, and the flame-haired femme fatale sits astride him in the nude, urging him on as he pursues his terrified victim. As Barbee learns more about the witch-folk, he discovers that they have infiltrated all walks of life, and those in high positions have secretly manipulated the course of history to the advantage of their species. In the centuries since their downfall they have built up 163 The Beast Within their numbers by crossbreeding with humans, and now they are ready to reassert themselves and establish a new order, which will be ushered in by the coming of a Messiah-the Child of Night. In a final twist it emerges that Barbee has been specially bred to take on this role. Clearly a lot ofresearch and deep thought went into the writing of Darker Than You Think, and it must be acknowledged that the theories advanced to substantiate the novel's premise are convincingly presented, to the extent that one could almost believe they have a basis in fact. The novel's only flaw is that it is difficult to sympathize with the hero, who not only goes around bumping offhis friends but is also in league with a subversive group who are plotting to seize power from the human race and place them in bondage. An expanded version of Williamson's novel was published in hardcover by Fantasy Press in 1948, and several paperback editions have appeared since. The refreshingly different stories featured in Unknown soon caught on with the fans, and other weirdfiction magazines-including Weird Tales-felt obliged to introduce stories in a similar vein. Among the regular contributors to Weird Tales in the 1940S the one best equipped to counter the challenge from Unknown was Robert Bloch, who had abandoned the corny Lovecraft pastiches ofhis youth and was well on the way to developing his own inimitable style. Some of Bloch's best 164 The Beast Within stories from this period involve ingenious murder plots, with one spouse in an unhappy marriage trying to kill the other but ultimately suffering the fate intended for their partner when their plans go horribly wrong. A prime example is "The Man Who Cried 'Wolf'!" (Weird Tales, May 1945), in which a writer begins an illicit love affair with a beautiful Indian girl while on vacation with his nagging wife in the Canadian backwoods. Eager to make this new relationship a permanent one, the writer hatches a plan to drive his wife insane by making her believe she is being stalked by a werewolf However, he had not bargained for the unexpected discovery that his lover is, in reality, a werewolf , finding out on the night of the full moon when she suddenly transforms in his presence. Nonetheless, being a writer he takes it all in, mentally recording every detail: It was fascinating to watch her skull change shapeas though the hands of an invisible sculptor were kneading and molding the living clay, squeezing the very bony structure into new conformations. The elongated head seemed miraculously shorn ofcurls for the moment, and then the fine fur sprang up, the ears flared outward, the pinkish tips twitched along a thickened neck. Her eyes slitted upward, while the features ofthe face convulsed, then converged into a protuberant muzzle. The grimace ofinvoluntary rictus became a snarl, and fangs jutted forth. Her skin darkened perceptibly-so that her 165 The Beast Within image was akin to that ofan over-developed photographic print "coming up" in the hypo bath. Lisa's clothing had dropped away, and I watched the melting of the limbs as they foreshortened, furred, and flexed anew. The hands that had pawed the earth in agony now became paws. Once over the shock, the writer sees this unexpected development as an advantage in his efforts to get rid ofhis wife. But his carefully laid plans start to go wrong when the besotted wolf-girl becomes jealous of the woman she hopes to displace and bites her on the throat. Although not fatal, the attack leads to a police investigation, which culminates in the "wolf" being hunted down and killed. The bullet-riddled body then undergoes a transformation into human form, but a more shocking change occurs when the dead girl rapidly ages to a hideous old hag. Shortly afterward the unfaithful husband makes a full confession to his wife, but any hope of a reconciliation is dashed when the wound on her throat finally takes effect, and she metamorphoses into a raging wolfbent on revenge. Bloch's fondness for things that go bite in the night provided him with the inspiration for two other stories in the forties. In the first of these, "Nursemaid to Nightmares" (November 1942), a man encounters a werewolf and other mythical creatures when an eccentric collector hires him to look after his private zoo. In the other story, "The Bogey Man Will Get You" (March 1946), the heroine meets a sticky end when she pokes 166 [3.231.217.209] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:16 GMT) The Beast Within her nose into the affairs of her handsome neighbor. Mistakenly, she believes the signs all point to him being a vampire but discovers, too late, that he is a werewolf. One author capable of matching Bloch when it carne to thinking up offbeat plots was Manly Banister. He had seven stories published in Weird Tales in the forties, four ofwhich had a werewolf theme-"Satan's Bondage" (September 1942), "Devil Dog" (July 1945), "Loup-Garou" (May 1947), and "Eena" (September 1947). When "Satan's Bondage" appeared in the magazine the editor heralded it as "a werewolfwestern" and appended the following caption: "You're going to get the werewolf's slant on life-as you read how these accursed man-beasts roam the American West in a hellish quest for human food!" A bogus piece ofwerewolflore common to this story and "Devil Dog" is that the lycanthropes must bathe in a certain stream in order to transform into wolves, and bathe again in the same stretch of water before sunrise to avoid having to remain in lupine form until the following evening. There are some splendidly macabre moments in all ofBanister's werewolfstories, but his masterpiece ofthe form is undoubtedly "Eena." In this poignant tale a sensitive writer named Joel Cameron, who lives among homesteaders in the vicinity of Wolf Lake, sows the seeds of tragedy when he takes in and rears a stray albino wolf cub against the advice of his neighbors. Despite the strong bond that develops between them, Eena (as the foundling is called) escapes from her compound 167 The Beast Within upon reaching maturity; and soon stories arise about a great white she-wolf, who has been seen leading a pack ofgray wolves in raids on the homesteaders' livestock . The plot then takes a dramatic turn when Eena suddenly changes into a beautiful young woman and henceforward alternates between human and wolf form. In her sensual womanly guise Eena embarks on a passionate relationship with her former protector, who is completely unaware ofher real identity. The truth finally emerges as a result of the irate homesteaders joining forces to stop the white wolf's attacks on their cattle . As the hunters close in for the kill the sound of their guns brings Joel to his cabin door, just in time to see the enormous, pale form of a wolf leap from the forest edge and charge toward him. Mistakenly thinking his life is in danger Joel shoots the oncoming beast, which falls mortally wounded at his feet. Then, to his dismay, the wolf metamorphoses into the form of his lover; and he is overwhelmed by despair as she dies cradled in his arms. This final scene is extremely moving and makes a memorable climax to one ofthe best werewolfstories ever written. The first pulp story to challenge the stereotypical image of the werewolfwas Fritz Leiber's "The Hound" (Weird Tales, November I942), which has a modern urban setting. The werewolf-like monster is depicted as a shadowy creature of uncertain appearance, making it difficult to codify or define. To its intended victim it 168 The Beast Within is the monster of his dreams made flesh and bloodsimilar to a wolf, yet malformed and giving off a sickening stench- but seen through the eyes of a witness to the attack the creature seems so outlandish it is impossible to describe. A few original touches are also to be found in other pulp stories of the period. In Paul Selonke's "Beast of the Island" (Strange Stories, October 1940) the hero hits on an effective substitute for silver bullets by slaying a werewolfwith a silver crucifix fired from his gun; Carl Jacobi's "The Phantom Pistol" (Weird Tales, May 1941) tells of a firearms' collector who possesses a pistol expressly designed for killing werewolves; and in Henry Kuttner's "The Seal of Sin" (Strange Stories, August 1940) a ring bearing the seal ofSolomon gives a scheming occultist the power to recruit a gang of lupine henchmen. Further variations on the man-into-beast theme can be found in E. A. Grosser's "The Psychomorph " (Unknown, February 1940); Emerson Graves's "When the Werewolf Howls" (Horror Stories, May 1940); and Clifford Ball's "The Werewolf Howls" (Weird Tales, November 1941). Included in Prince Godfrey (1946), a little-known collection of short stories by the Polish author Halina Gorska, is a remarkable story grandly titled "Prince Godfrey Frees Mountain Dwellers and Little Shepherds from a Savage Werewolf and from Witches." The voracious werewolfmentioned in the title-which is virtually a story in itself-consumes numerous goats, sheep, 169 The Beast Within cows, and a bull, not to mention two shepherds and several children. He also sports what appears to be a pair ofhoofs, but these turn out to be outsized bunions! The best-known werewolf novel from the 1940S is Franklin Gregory's The White Wolf(1941). Purportedly an attempt at an adult treatment of the theme, it centers on the evil activities of a wealthy businessman's daughter, Sara de Camp d'Avesnes, who goes on a killing spree in the form of a white wolf after getting involved with a Satanic cult. Sara's father, who is alarmed by the sudden change in her personality, stumbles upon the truth about his daughter's double life when he consults ancient family records. These reveal that she was predestined to become a werewolf as part ofa deal made with the Devil by a twelfth-century ancestor (predictably called Hugues) who was granted occult powers after accepting the condition that every seventh heir of his family would inherit the curse oflycanthropy. Two fantasy novels with a werewolf element that appeared in pulp magazines prior to book publication are Henry Kuttner's The Dark World (Startling Stories, summer 1946) and L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's The Castle ofIron (Unknown, April 1941). An interesting fragment dealing with Asian shapeshifting is "The Fox Woman" by the great fantasy writer A. Merritt. This uncompleted novel was discovered after the author's sudden death in 1943. Set in Yunnun in China, the story chronicles the strange experiences of an American woman after she is rescued from 170 The Beast Within a band of thugs by a supernatural being called a Fox Woman-a class of nature spirit peculiar to the Far East, which Merritt describes as follows: These spirits have certain powers far exceeding the human. They can assume two earthly shapes onlythat of a fox and that of a beautiful woman. There are fox men, too, but the weight of the legends are upon the women. Since for them time does not exist, they are mistresses oftime. To those who come under their power, they can cause a day to seem like a thousand years, or a thousand years like a day. They can open the doors to other worlds-worlds of terror, worlds of delight. They can create other illusions . Phantoms, perhaps-but if so, phantoms whose blows maim or kill. They are capricious, bestowing good fortune or ill regardless of the virtue or lack of it of the recipient. They are peculiarly favorable to women with child. They can, by invitation , enter a woman, passing through her breasts or beneath her fingernails. They can enter an unborn child, or rather a child about to be born. In such cases the mother dies-nor is the manner of birth the normal one. They cannot oust the soul of the child, but they can dwell beside it, influencing it. This fragment was later completed by Hannes Bok and published as The Fox Woman andthe Blue Pagoda in 1946. The original version appeared in a collection titled The Fox Woman and Other Stories (1949), which contained all of Merritt's short fiction. One of the "other stories" in this volume was "The Drone," in which a group of explorers recount the uncanny experiences they have had with the phenomenon of shapeshifting 171 The Beast Within In vanous parts of the globe. During the course of their anecdotes about were-hyenas, leopard men, bird people, and the like, one of the explorers conjectures that "man's consciousness may share the brain with other consciousnesses-beast or bird or what not." He further speculates that "all life is one ... a thinking and conscious force ofwhich the trees, the beasts, the flowers , germs and man and everything living are parts, just as the billions of living cells in a man are parts ofhim. And that under certain conditions the parts may be interchangeable." This, he thinks, may be the source of the ancient tales of the dryads and the nymphs, the harpies, and the werewolves and other were-beasts. Changing with the Times: Postwar Trends The immediate postwar era marked the beginning of the end for the pulp magazines, and by the early 1950S most had ceased publication. Taking their place initially were handier digest-sized magazines, which would in turn face stiffcompetition from pocket-sized paperback books later on in the decade. In the weirdfantasy genre, as in other forms of popular fiction, authors had to contend with an increasingly sophisticated readership no longer content to be fobbed offwith stale plots and outdated images. Werewolf stories were no exception and needed to change with the times in order to retain their appeal. Out went supernatural monsters and rural settings, and in came a new breed ofwerewolf 172 The Beast Within who stalked his victims among the streets and alleys of modern cities. Werewolves also invaded the pages of science fiction magazines, invariably disguised as shapeshifting aliens. One of the best short stories ftom this period is Bruce Elliott's "Wolves Don't Cry" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1954). Written from a nonhuman perspective, it centers on the dilemma faced by a natural wolf when he suddenly metamorphoses into a human being. Up to this point, Lobo (as the wolf is called) had reconciled himself to a life of captivity in a zoo; but following the miraculous change in appearance his reasonably contented existence is irrevocably destroyed. Thereafter he has to cope with learning to wear clothes and adapting to alien modes of behavior. He cannot understand, for instance, why he has to do such absurd things as encumber his legs with cloth that flaps about and gets in his way, or why he needs to balance precariously on his hind legs. It transpires , however, that Lobo's transformation is only skin deep, for when he impregnates a young woman she gives birth to a baby werewol£ The offbeat humor of Elliott's yarn is reflected in other stories from the 1950S. In Frank Robinson's "The Night Shift," a story from the February/March 1953 issue ofFantasy Magazine, a vampire sets the fur flying when he tries to muscle in on the werewolves who control Chicago. Theodore Cogswell's "Wolfie" (Beyond Fantasy Fiction, January 1954) concerns a man who 173 [3.231.217.209] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:16 GMT) The Beast Within wants to become a werewolf for a limited period. A doctor, whose contract allows his patients to commit crimes by supernatural methods, helps him to achieve his odd objective. In Anthony Boucher's "The Ambassadors " (Startling Stories, June 1952), the lupine Martians loathe primate Earthmen but manage to maintain diplomatic contact by exchangingwerewolves andwereapes as ambassadors. Another futuristic story with a sting in the tail is Clark Ashton Smith's ''A Prophecy of Monsters" (The Magazine ofFantasy and Science Fiction , October 1954). Set in the twenty-first century, where werewolves and vampires have survived as a consequence of mass skepticism, the story relates how a werewolfmeets his match when he attacks an android. The most famous werewolf story from the 1950S, James Blish's "There Shall Be No Darkness" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1950), bucked the trend by utilizing one ofthe most cliched formulas in popular fiction. Like countless murder mysteries ofthe 1920S and 1930S, all the action takes place in and around an isolated country house where a party is being held. Two ofthe guests, an artist named Paul Foote and Christian Lundgren, an eminent psychiatrist, observe that one oftheir number, the great Polish pianist Jarmoskowski, exhibits all the stigmata associated with the werewolf-eyes bloodshot with moonrise, first and second fingers ofequal length, pointed ears, domed prefrontal bones, and elongated upper cuspids. When challenged later that evening, Jarmoskowski metamorphoses into a wolf, but he is forced 174 The Beast Within to flee from the house and hide in the woods, where he evades an attempt by the others to capture him. As a precaution, traditional werewolf repellents are placed around the house to ward offnocturnal attacks, but the following morning everyone is shocked by the discovery of Lundgren's horribly mutilated body. Taking charge ofproceedings, Foote gathers all the remaining houseguests together to discuss the situation; he then stuns them by announcing that Lundgren was not killed by the obvious suspect but by another werewolfsomeone who has become afflicted after accidentally coming into contact withJarmoskowski's tainted blood. As he is about to examine their hands for telltale cuts, the unknown werewolf's identity is startlingly revealed when a woman in the group suddenly takes on wolf form and becomes a raging monster. But before she can do any serious harm, she is bludgeoned to death with a heavy silver candlestick. Jarmoskowski's unnatural existence is eventually terminated when he is shot by Foote, who catches him unawares as he is attempting to recruit another houseguest to his cause. The only fresh idea in "There Shall Be No Darkness " is the pseudoscientific theory the author has devised to explain the existence of werewolves. At one point in the narrative, Lundgren (an expert on hormone-created insanity) claims that lycanthropy is caused by a rare aberration of the pea-sized pineal gland in the brain. Asked how a werewolfmaintains his lupine shape, he replies: 175 The Beast Within "Oh, that's the easiest part. You know how water takes the shape ofa vessel it sits in? Well protoplasm is a liquid. The pineal hormone lowers the surface tension of the cells and at the same time short circuits the sympathetic nervous system directly to the cerebral cortex. Result, a plastic, malleable body within limits. A wolf is easiest because the skeletons are similar." A favorite with anthologists, this suspenseful novelette has been reprinted a number of times. One of its most recent appearances was in Masters ofFantasy, edited by Terry Carr and Martin H. Greenberg (Galahad Books,1992). August Derleth's "The Adventure ofthe Tottenham Werewolf" (in Memoirs ofSolar Pons, 1951) is a tonguein -cheek Sherlock Holmes pastiche, in which a string ofgrisly murders are thought to be the work of a werewolf . The prime suspect is Septimus Grayle, who suffers from seizures during which he gets down on all fours and howls like a wolf; but the real culprit, his scheming sister, is duly unmasked by the brilliant detective . In contrast, A. Bertram Chandler's novelette "The Frontier ofthe Dark" (Astounding Science Fiction, September 1952) is set in the far future, when the Mannschenn Drive has made traveling faster than light a reality. Unfortunately it has an unforseen side effect, causing humans to revert to the bestial form of their own legendary ancestry. In Will F. Jenkins's suspenseful "Night Drive" (Todays Woman, March 1950), a werewolf poses as a female hitchhiker and attacks women 176 The Beast Within drivers who give him a lift. A voluptuous female werewolf is encountered in Manly Wade Wellman's "The Last Grave of Lill Warran" (Weird Tales, May 1951), which is based on the old belief that a werewolf killed in its wolfshape will become a vampire after death; and in Charles G. Finney's "The Black Retriever" (The Magazine ofFantasy andScience Fiction, October 1958), residents of a quiet suburban neighborhood suspect a local spinster is really a shapeshifting witch after they are terrorized by a phantom dog. Not quite in the same class but still enjoyable are Manly Banister's "Cry Wolf!" (The Nekromantikon, spring 1950); Steve Benedict 's "Come, My Sweet" (The Nekromantikon, midyear 1951); Jerome Bixby's "The Young One" (Fantastic, April 1954); Poul Anderson's "Operation Mred' (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1956); Brian Aldiss's "Flowers of the Forest" (Science Fantasy, August 1957); and Gordon Dickson's "The Girl Who Played Wolf" (Fantastic, August 1958). Low-grade stories from the same decade include Ray Cosmic's "Lycanthrope" (Supernatural Stories, May 1954); Bernard L. Calmus's "The Howl of the Werewolf" (Phantom , April 1957); R. L. Fanthorpe's "Call of the Werewolf " (Out of This World, August 1958); Charles D. Hammer's "The Man Who Believed in Werewolves" (Monster Parade, November 1958); Gordon Fry's "Seven Curses of Lust" (Monster Parade, November 1958); Ralph Thornton's "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" (Screen Chills andMacabre Stories, November 1957); Joseph E. 177 The Beast Within Kelleam's "Revenge of the Were-Thing" (Monsters and Things, January 1959); and Leo Brett's "White Wolf" (Supernatural Stories, July 1959). The only werewolfnovel from this period worth remembering is Mario Pei's The Sparrows ofParis (1958). Slightly farcical, it concerns a plot to subvert American culture by means of drugs. Behind this criminal conspiracy is an organization called the Sparrows of Paris, whose leader, a renegade scientist, has dishonestly obtained rare medieval manuscripts from the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The manuscripts contain formulas for powerful narcotic potions capable of inducing theriomorphic transformations. For a time the fate of civilization hangs in the balance, but the forces of law and order step in and save the day. Werewolves called Wargs are among the denizens of Middle-Earth, the imaginary world ofJ. R. R. Tolkien's famous The Lord ofthe Rings trilogy, which was originally published in England in the mid-1950s. The books tell us that the Wargs appeared in Middle-Earth during the Third Age and have remained to plague the wilderness ever after. Unlike true wolves they are phantasms and become real only after dark. Paranoia and Madness in the 1960s After being stuck in the doldrums for several years, weird fiction enjoyed a modest resurgence in the 1960s. As in the latter half of the previous decade, regular 178 The Beast Within professional markets for authors were still limited, but the emergence of a number of small press publications helped to alleviate this situation. The genre also received a boost from the growing popularity of paperback horror anthologies, although the contents ofthese were predominantly reprints. For reasons not easy to pinpoint, the popularity of werewolf stories was still at a fairly low ebb, but the adaptability of the theme guaranteed its survival. As ever, traditional stories continued to appear, but alongside them were others that explored strange and abnormal states of mind, offering stark presentations ofman against the beast within. A superb example of this approach is Joseph Payne Brennan's short story "Diary of a Werewolf" (Macabre, winter 1960), which interprets the protagonist's affliction as a hallucinatory psychosis. The man in question, a vain supercilious aesthete, retreats to the countryside to recuperate from excessive drug abuse; but some mysterious force in the surrounding landscape transforms him into a flesh-eating predator. His wild thoughts about his condition are regularly recorded in a diary, with the most significant entry reading as follows: I suppose [those who read this] will be expecting me to report the growth oflong hair on my legs, a sudden increase in the length of my canine teeth, etc. This is all nonsense dreamed up by hack fictioneersmelodramatic trappings, nothing more. But I am convinced that werewolves like myself have existed for centuries. Harassed peasants may have invented 179 The Beast Within some of the trappings in the first place, but I can clearly see now that there is a solid basis of fact for the many legends which have come down through the ages. There must have been many like me! External trappings invented for effect are as nothing compared to the hidden horrors which exist unseen in convolutions of our brains-brains subjected to who knows what monstrous pressures, derangements , diseases, hereditary taints! At length, the crazed lycanthrope is captured and narrowly escapes being lynched by the irate townsfolk. Declared insane at his trial, he is sentenced to life in an asylum. In Larry Eugene Meredith's "The Last Letter from Norman Underwood" (in Magazine ofHorror, January 1968), the story's mounting horror is conveyed through a series of letters written by a reclusive young man whose only close companion is his German shepherd dog, Heff. The letters (which are received over a period ofweeks by a boyhood chum) graphically detail the letter writer's growing unease about his new neighbora Mr. Groff-who seems to have all the characteristics of a werewolf. Norman's suspicions are eventually confirmed when he is awakened one night by a commotion beneath his bedroom window. He rushes downstairs to investigate and grabs the only weapon at hand-a silver fork. When he gets outside he is confronted by the sight of a wolf attacking a woman, whose terrified screams spur Norman to rush to her aid. Mter a fierce struggle, in which the faithful Heff 180 [3.231.217.209] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:16 GMT) The Beast Within plays a crucial part, the wolfis stabbed to death; by the following morning it has changed into the lifeless form ofMr. Groff. Any hopes that this is the end of the matter are dashed when three brutal murders are committed in the neighborhood, each victim torn apart as if by a savage animal. Norman is convinced that he must be responsible for these outrages, reasoning that the scratches he received in the fight with the werewolf have afflicted him with the dreaded curse. Intending to do away with himself if his worst fears are confirmed, Norman arms himself with a gun that fires silver bullets; but, as his last letter reveals, he has badly misinterpreted the situation . Written on bloodstained paper, the letter describes how he was savagely attacked in his home by a large hunched man whose naked body was covered with coarse brown hair. In his account ofthe violent struggle that ensued, Norman tells his friend that he had managed to shoot and mortally wound his assailant but had sustained terrible injuries himself, which he fears will eventually prove fatal. Norman's lifeless body is eventually found lying beside the mailbox, and the identity of his attacker is finally revealed when the body of his faithful dog, Heff, is found with a silver bullet lodged in its throat. One ofthe most sensational werewolfstories ofthe decade, Dale C. Donaldson's "Pia!" (Coven I3, November 1969), starts offpromisingly, then descends into the sort ofgimmicky plot twists associated with lurid horror 181 The Beast Within comics. In a scenario borrowed from "There Shall Be No Darkness," a group ofold friends attending a house party are shocked when the host suddenly announces that, in the opinion ofan expert on the occult who lives in the apartment above, one of the people present is a werewolf. The news fills everyone with a sense of unease , which quickly escalates into panic when one of the guests is horribly murdered after the lights suddenly go out. The killer-who is subsequently revealed to be one of the female guests-is shot dead after she unexpectedly metamorphoses into a wolf Soon the tension climbs to an even higher level when a second female partygoer transforms into a wolf and terrorizes the other guests. She, too, is fatally wounded; but before she dies she points an accusing finger at the story's narrator, claiming that he is also a werewolf In David Case's masterly novella "The Cell" (1969) the unnamed protagonist convinces his wife that he poses a danger to her-and the community at largeafter developing the typical symptoms of lycanthropy. To counter this threat the couple construct a special padded cell in the basement of their house, and during each full moon the lycanthrope voluntarily submits to being locked inside it so that he can undergo his transformation without hurting anyone. The protagonist 's mental instability remains untreated, however , and his gradual descent into madness and paranoia is evident from the tone of the notes in his journal. Nonetheless, he occasionally shows flashes of 182 The Beast Within inspiration, as the following observation about the nature of his affiiction reveals: The disease must be carried in the blood or, more likely, in the genes. I suppose that it is passed on to one's children in a recessive state, waiting, lurking latently in man after man down through the generations until, once every century ... once every thousand years perhaps ... there is the proper combination to turn it into a dominant trait. And then it becomes a malignant, raging disease, growing stronger as the victim grows older, gaining strength from the body that it shares, and tries to destroy. Mter two women are brutally murdered in the neighborhood, the wife keeps her husband permanently locked up; but she, too, becomes mentally unhinged after observing her husband's transformation into a raving monster through a hole she had cut in the wall of his cell. Years later the contents of the journal come to light when the dead couple's nephew inherits the house. In a final twist, which brings the story to a suitably chilling close, the young man realizes that he is also affiicted with the family curse. This story originally appeared in The Cell andOther Tales ofHorror (Macdonald, 1969), which also contains "The Hunter," an atmospheric werewolfnovella set on mist-shrouded Dartmoor. This tale allegedly formed the basis of the 1974 movie Scream ofthe Wolf, but the resemblance between the two is only superficial. The humorous side of shapeshifting is cleverly exploited in Dan Lindsay's "The BeatnikWerewolf" (The 183 The Beast Within Magazine ofFantasy andScience Fiction, April 1961). An amusing skit on the alternative lifestyle adopted by the Beat Generation, it features a beatnik werewolf who enlists the aid ofa horror-story writer to sort out a personal dilemma. Having convinced the writer that he really is a werewolf, he tells him: "My problem is simple . I'm making it with this chick, see? She wouldn't dig this werewolf bit at all. Man, she'd blow! After 200 years I'm beat. I want to retire like anybody else ... maybe have cubs ... you know. It's square but I'm playing it by ear." A further shock in store for the writer is that the "chick" in question turns out to be his regular girlfriend. Another story with the accent on humor rather than horror is Peter S. Beagle's "Farrell and Lila the Werewolf" (Guabi, 1969). Set in New York toward the end ofthe psychedelic sixties, it features a hippy female werewolfwho attracts every male dog in the neighbor- . hood when she is "in heat." The ensuing mayhem culminates in a hilarious chase sequence in which the metamorphosed heroine is frantically pursued through the alleys and backstreets ofthe city by a bunch ofirate dog owners. In stark contrast, "Mrs. Kaye" by Beverly Haaf (Startling Mystery Stories, winter 1968/69) has not even a glimmer ofhumor about it. A dark, depressing narrative with the quality ofa morbid nightmare, it successfully holds the reader's attention by concealing the identity ofthe werewolf until the final paragraph. 184 The Beast Within Other stories from the 1960s include "Werewolf at Large" by Lionel Fanthorpe (Supernatural Stories, November 1960); "Wolf Man's Vengeance" by Pel Torro (Supernatural Stories, February 1961); "The Werewolf Lover" by Geoffrey Van Loan Jr. (Thriller, February 1962); "Werewolves Are Furry" by Sandor Szabo (Thriller, July 1962); "Howl at the Moon" by A. J. Merak (Supernatural Stories, July 1963); "Moon Wolf" by Lionel Fanthorpe (Supernatural Stories, June 1963); "The House by the Crab Apple Tree" by S. S. Johnson (1964); "Wolf" by Michael Moorcock, writing as James Colvin (The Deep Fix; Compact, 1966); "Full Sun" by Brian W Aldiss (Orbit 2, edited by Damon Knight; Putnam, 1967); "Once Upon a Werewolf" by R. L. Davis (Coven I3, November 1969); and "The Werewolf ofSt. Claude" by Ronald Seth (50 Great Horror Stories, edited by John Canning; Hamlyn/Odhams, 1969). None ofthe werewolfnovels published in the 1960s are particularly outstanding. More original than most is Adam Lukens's Sons ofthe Wolf (Avalon, 1961), in which a group of werewolves from the Middle Ages are mysteriously relocated in the twenty-first century and find themselves thrust into an alien environment. In another science fiction novel of the period, Andre Norton's Moon ofThree Rings (Viking, 1966), werewolflike beasts are encountered on another planet. Clifford Simak's The WerewolfPrinciple (Putnam, 1967; Berkley, 1968) rationalizes shapeshifting in terms ofalien psi talents and features an android with multiple personalities, 185 The Beast Within only one ofwhich is wolflike. More like the genuine article are Leslie H. Whitten's Moon ofthe Wolf(Doubleday , 1967; Ace, 1968), a mystery-suspense novel about a lycanthropic serial killer, which one unimpressed critic described as "a museum of cliches," and Peter Saxon's The Disorientated Man (Mayflower, 1966), in which a mad scientist creates a seemingly invulnerable werewolf . Other sixties novels that utilized the theme were Leonard Holton's Deliver Us from Wolves (Dell, 1963); John E. Muller's Mark ofthe Beast (Badger, 1964); Kenneth Robeson's Brand ofthe Werewolf(Bantam, 1965); Barbara Michaels's Sons ofthe Wolf (Herbert Jenkins, 1968); and Salambo Forest's Night ofthe Wolf(Ophelia Press, 1969). 186 ...