tavm In continuing to review werewolf movies in chronological order, I'm now at 1973 with something called The Werewolf of Washington. Dean Stockwell is a presidential associate in Hungary when he gets bitten by a wolf. I'll stop there and just say this was quite a funny and maybe a little horrific satire of presidential politics. In fact, I think it was meant to make fun of the Nixon administration! The low budget shows and some of the acting seems on the low energy side but this was so entertaining, I can forgive those flaws. In summary, The Werewolf of Washington is such an obscure treat!

Anthony Pittore III (Shattered_Wake) With some added enjoyment of Elvira on her "Movie Macabre," "The Werewolf of Washington" looked to be the typical dumb cheese that the Mistress of the Dark liked to show. And, while it may be dumb cheese at times, at its roots, this flick is actually quite a fun and interesting little political satire. . .In an opening narration, we meet Jack Whittier (Dean Stockwell), one of the "best and brightest" (his words) young journalists in Washington. After having an affair with the president's daughter, he's reassigned to Hungary. This only lasts a short while, because he is bitten by a werewolf (or a German Shepherd) and transfers BACK to D.C. where he, you guessed it, starts to work for the president again. Soon after his return, again you guessed it, dead bodies start turning up around the nation's capital and Whittier must find a way to cease his curse and end the murders.If you haven't yet noticed by the title or plot or that it was on Elvira's show, "The Werewolf of Washington" isn't a film that's meant to be taken very seriously. In fact, it's actually much more a satirical comedy poking fun at our central government with a wry sense of humour (even though it contains about equal parts intentional and unintentional comedy here) than a horror film. For example:"He possessed the sign of the pentagram.""Ah! The Pentagon is behind all this!"Too funny.The entire film is full of great one-liners (or two-liner, here, I guess?) like this, along with a big dose of heavy satire (most notably the apparent Nixon-wannabe as president and the hints at Watergate). And, if you can watch a film for elements like that, well, you'll have to for this one. Why? Because there isn't another good element about it. The direction & cinematography (which occasionally try to be artsy or creative) but just ends up being silly for the most part. This unrestored copy's terrible audio and video make it nearly unwatchable at points. I found myself cranking the volume just to ear a single line of dialogue, then having my eardrums blasted out when the sound returned to workable. The acting is painful and, as Elvira pointed out, it seemed that some of the actors were occasionally forgetting their lines (especially the funny little Gypsy woman). The majority of violence is exchanged for random people just screaming and looking scared, though there is a good bit of blood & gore on occasion. Luckily, a flick like this doesn't need strong film-making. It has a werewolf. In Washington. And that's enough.It's a hard time trying to rate a film like this, however, as it can barely score a 1 as a real film. . . but it can easily grab a 10 just for the endless fun. So, we'll even it out to a. . .Final Verdict: 5/10 You know just from the title whether or not this movie is for you.-AP3-

Lee Eisenberg I don't know specifically whether "The Werewolf of Washington" was intended as a political satire, but it sure comes across as such. It probably helped that the movie was released around the time of Watergate (and at one point, we even get a glimpse of that very building).The opening voice-over monologue begins with something like "How could it happen here?", before White House press secretary Jack Whittier (Dean Stockwell) explains his predicament. I believe that Upton Sinclair wrote a book called "It Can Happen Here", about the possibility of fascism coming to America. Anyway, after Jack has an affair with the president's daughter, the prez sends him to Hungary - ah, a jab at the Cold War - where he gets bitten by a wolf. When someone warns Jack about the pentagram, he thinks that the person says Pentagon (what aren't those warmongers behind?).When he arrives back in the states, the president is angry about how the media reports negatively on the current state of affairs, especially since it makes the nation's youth protest things so much; the prez's solution: martial law! If that isn't a rip at the Nixon administration, then I don't know what is! But sure enough, Jack starts seeing the pentagram in people's palms, and...well, you know what happens once there's a full moon.So even if it was intended as a straightforward horror flick, this certainly elicits a sense of political satire. With comments about the Black Panthers and other stuff, it's just the sort of thing that we need nowadays. I totally recommend it.

scroffy2001 Voting for this one is tough, it's either a one star or a 10 star! I picked it up the other night as an impulse buy when getting gas...there at the counter for $9.99 was a 10 movie, 3DVD crap compilation called "Werewolves, Vampires and Zombies." This was the movie that sold me on the package...ow had I not heard of this one? Technically, it's awful. Sound and visual quality are very spotty, as is usually the case with these cheap compilations. Heck, spotty implies there may be some good moments, so let me change that assessment to horrible. Continuity is an afterthought, camera shots attempt to be arty, from shots up through the bottom of a toilet bowl to dizzying handhelds.Perhaps the biggest plot issue is the appearance of the mysterious and diminutive Dr. Kiss, performing his Frankensteinian experiments in the White House basement. He seems to be some sort of power behind the throne, but we never discover more than that. Everything about the good doctor, from the deference of the president, his experiments, to his disappearing with a peculiar sunglassed man into the same stall of a bathroom, makes no sense whatsoever. It really seems like one day on the set someone said "hey look, we got a midget! Write him into the story!" Sure, it makes no sense, but after the movie you and your fellow viewers will be laughing and wondering wtf it was all about.The political humor has it's moments, lots of hippie hating and attempts by the administration to control the hated and feared media (the pres holds an unscheduled press conference to announce an agreement with the Chinese, he and his handlers hope it will deflect attention from his declaring martial law in D.C. to take care of the problems of the murders and the damned hippies).There are an abundance of laugh-out-loud moments, whether intentional or not, but more than anything else the greatest thing of this movie is its ability at the end to leave you with an overwhelming feeling of "what the heck was that?"