Cry Wolf! (1980)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1980
Running Times: 31 mins
Format: black and white     35mm
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Picture Partnership Prods/Paramount Pictures
Producer: Brian Eastman

SCRIPT
Script: Stan Hey

DIRECTION
Director: Leszek Burzynski
Assistant Director: Simon Channing-Williams

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Robert Krasker
Camera Operator: Brian Elvin

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Margaret Dickinson

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Mervyn Gerrard
Re-Recording: Hugh Strain

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Tom Smith
Costumes: Monica Howe

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Tom Smith

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Don Taylor
Art Director: Michael Minas

CAST
Paul Maxwell (Dr Jack Russell)
Rosalind Ayres (Maria Moore)
Stephen Greif (Professor Ion Porphiriou)
James Bree (Inspector)
Christopher Fairbank (Sergeant)
Gabrielle Daye (Mrs Taylor)
Joseph Brady (Scotsman)

Dr Jack Russell is working late one night at the Institute for Animal Research when his assistant Maria accidentally laces his tea with an experimental canine serum. This causes Jack to transform every full moon into a werewolf and leads him to attack women for their dog food. He seeks the advice of Rumanian lycanthropy expert Professor Ion Porphirou but ends up being shot by silver bullet wielding police. While recovering, he seeks medical attention from a vet...

Brilliantly shot by Robert Krasker who manages to make it look identical to the cheapjack British horrors of the 1950s that it seeks to emulate, Cry Wolf! is a genuinely funny and knowing spoof. Writer Stan Hey clearly knows his stuff, ransacking the back catalogue of low rent British chills for inspiration (he lifts some of his material directly from The Quatermass Experiment (1955)) and packing the brisk 31 minutes with more in-jokes than you can shake a stick at. An overlooked gem.

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount

1980
August
7: UK - theatrical release

1983
October
3: UK - television broadcast (on ITV (Thames))

MAGAZINES

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.47 no.561 (October 1980) p.201 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

Screen International no.237 (19 April 1980) p.67 (UK)
credits, review

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

mad scientists, werewolf

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008