809 - I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF
(6/19/1957; NR; 76m)

a.k.a. I WAS A TEEN-AGE WEREWOLF (variation)
a.k.a. BLOOD OF THE WEREWOLF (working)
a.k.a. LES GRIFFES DU LOUP-GAROU (Belgium)
a.k.a. DE KLAUWEN VAN DER WEERWOLF (Belgium)

co-billed with INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN
(remade as 418-Attack of the Eye Creatures)
also co-billed with I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN

Ad: "EXPLOSIVE! TERRIFYING!
The Most Amazing Picture of Our Time!
You Won't Believe Your Eyes!"

Plot: A doctor medicates and hypnotizes a troubled teen, turning him into a murderous beastie.

Exec: Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson
(*309-The Amazing Colossal Man;
311-It Conquered the World;
313-Earth Vs. the Spider; 315-Teenage Caveman; 317-Viking Women; 319-War of the Colossal Beast; 701-Night of the Blood Beast; 806-The Undead;
807-Terror from the Year 5000;
808-The She-Creature; 912-The Screaming Skull; H01-The Day the World Ended)
Prod: Herman Cohen (Berserk; Konga; Trog; Target Earth)
Dir: Gene Fowler Jr. (419-The Rebel Set; The Oregon Trail)
Asst Dir/PMgr: Jack R. Berne (asst dir/psup/309)
Scr/Sto: Ralph Thornton (Blood of Dracula)
a.k.a. Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel (both/Berserk; Konga)
Cin: Joseph LaShelle (The Apartment; won Oscar for Laura)
Ed: George Gittens (Monster of Piedras Blancas)
Cos: Oscar Rodriguez (411-The Magic Sword; 902-Phantom Planet)
M/U: Philip Scheer (Invisible Invaders)
ADir: Leslie Thomas (I Was A Teenage Frankenstein)
Set: Morris Hoffman (319; Twist Around the Clock)
Sound: James S. Thomson (Bride by Mistake)
Sound FX Ed: Henry Adams (Invisible Invaders)
Score: Paul Dunlap (419; 208-Lost Continent; Target Earth)
Music/Lyrics: Jerry Blaine
Song: Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo (Miller)

Tony Rivers / Michael Landon*
Arlene Logan / Yvonne Lime (112-Untamed Youth; The Rainmaker)
Dr. Alfred Brandon / Whit Bissell (208; TV's Time Tunnel)
Jimmy / Tony Marshall (Rockabilly Baby)
Theresa / Dawn Richard (Legion of the Doomed)
Det. Sgt. Donovan / Barney Phillips (The Sand Pebbles)
Vic / Ken Miller (Attack of the Puppet People; Touch of Evil)
Pearl / Cindy Robbins (Rockabilly Baby; This Earth Is Mine)
Frank / Michael Rougas (Ice Station Zebra; Scarface)
Police Chief Pat Baker / Robert E. Griffin (TV's Bonanza)
Dr. Hugo Wagner / Joseph Mell (When Worlds Collide)
Charles Rivers / Malcolm Atterbury (618-High School Big Shot)
Doyle / Eddie Marr (How to Make a Monster; Roustabout)
Pepi / Vladimir Sokoloff (Monster from Green Hell)
Mrs. Ferguson / Louise Lewis (Blood of Dracula)
a.k.a. Louise Fitch (Opening Night; True Confessions)
Bill Logan / John a.k.a. S. John Launer (The Werewolf)
Det. Chris Stanley / Guy Williams (TV's Zorro; Lost in Space)
Mary Logan / Dorothy Crehan (Reform School Girl)

Classic Line: "That's right. Hide behind your jive talk. People bug ya. Well, people bug me, too!"

Classic Line: "Boom! You throw a carton of milk right at him!"

Trivia: Costing $82,000 (Landon's salary was only $1,000) and grossing over $2 million, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF was the 10th top-grossing film of 1957. Some of its exterior scenes were shot in Griffith Park.

Born Eugene Michael Orowitz, athletic teen MICHAEL LANDON (1936-1991) kept his hair long, probably to hide his large ears, enduring harassment from his short-haired classmates of the conservative 1950's. His ears had to be glued back for this movie, and he had plastic surgery done soon after. Two years after this movie, he would become arguably the most successful producer/writer/actor on television, specializing in very successful programs for family viewing, amazingly never winning an Emmy.

Landon is most famous for his role as Little Joe Cartwright on Bonanza (1959-1973). In an appearance on the Tonight Show shortly before his death, Johnny Carson asked him about the fact that there were only men on the Ponderosa for those many years. Landon quipped that his TV father and brothers weren't gay, but "Thank God, Hop Sing was!"

Serving as producer and writer on his subsequent TV series, Landon portrayed farmer Charles Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie (1974-1982); and angel Jonathan Smith on Highway to Heaven (1984-1989), a 1987 Halloween episode of which was entitled "I Was A Middle-Aged Werewolf." He also produced the series Father Murphy (1981-1984) starring Merlin Olsen.

Never abandoning his infectious sense of humor and raucous laugh, Michael Landon died of cancer, surrounded by his large loving family, before he could get his next series (entitled Us) on the air.

Last Updated: 6/10/1999