The way she walked was thorny…

One of my favorite characters in the 1941 film The Wolf Man is Maleva the gypsy, played brilliantly by Maria Ouspenskaya.

Maria was born in Russia on July 29, 1876. She studied acting directly under Stanislavski, famed creator of the “Method Acting” system. She visited America while performing in a Russian Theater group (the Moscow Art Theatre) and decided to stay in America afterwards.  She co-founded the School of Dramatic Art in New York, teaching Method Acting to intrigued young students.

She inevitably found her way into motion pictures, appearing in 25 films between 1915 and 1949. She received two Best Supporting Actress Oscar Award nominations – Dodsworth (1936) and Love Affair (1939). However, it was a little role as a gypsy fortune teller in The Wolf Man that she would become best known and remembered for – a role which she reprised two years later in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.

The strength of her performance made this an iconic character, one that is synonymous with classic horror. Who can see an old gypsy woman in movies without thinking of The Wolf Man? At least I know I always do.

Maria’s last film was A Kiss in the Dark in 1949. She fell asleep late one night while smoking in bed and her apartment caught fire. Maria died December 3rd, 1949, reportedly from a stroke brought on by her injuries. She was 73 years old.

The Wolfman vs. The Wolf Man

The new upcoming Wolfman movie got me thinking about the casting for the new film. I put together a few pics comparing the actors playing the main roles.

Lawrence Talbot:
In the role of the tortured soul Lawrence we have Benecio Del Toro playing the part made famous by Lon Chaney Jr. I'm really happy about this choice, as Del Toro has a bit of that rugged athletic quality that Lon shared.

The Wolfman vs. the Wolf Man - note the movies spell the title creature differently. Wonder if they did that just to differentiate them more easily? It is a remake, after all - the one word change doesn't really matter all that much, just is interesting. At any rate the new test shots of the makeup for the wolfman certainly look amazing. They enlisted Rick Baker to do this design, and wow - it totally knocked my socks off. Hopefully the computer effects will be minimal, and they'll rely on makeup more - and the wolfman won't change clothes this time around when he transforms!

 

Gwen Conliffe - in the role of Lawrence's love interest we have Emily Blunt playing the Evelyn Ankers role. Emily is gorgeous and sexy, but doesn't really resemble Evelyn too much. But that isn't really necessary for this part, and I think she'll do great in the role.

In the role of John Talbot, Lawrence's father, we have Anthony Hopkins in the Claude Rains role. You need an actor of considerable range to fill these shoes, and you don't get much better than Anthony Hopkins.

 

 Maleva the Gypsy, originally played by Maria Ouspenskaya, is played this time around by Geraldine Chaplin. I don't know too much about her, but according to IMDB she's been in over a hundred movies, mostly foreign. She most likely has the accent that the role requires, and certainly looks the part.

And lastly, in the role of the Inspector Abberline we have Hugo Weaving. Now, this isn't a straight replay of a former character. Best I can tell the new film takes the role of  Colonel Montford, played by Ralph Bellamy (Twiddle, take a note!), and splits it into two characters - Colonel Montford and Inspector Abberline. Montford was the one investigating these murders before, if I'm not mistaken, but this time around we have an inspector to do the investigation. I really like Hugo as an actor, and he'll lend a quirky air to the role.

All in all an amazing bit of casting. I am very much looking forward to this movie, as well as the new dvd release of The Wolf Man! Here's hoping they both live up to expectations!