Skel, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised concerning the alternate Siodmak scenario. image
Scripts went through all kinds of changes in those days.

I appreciate that my take on The Wolf Man wasn't taken as offensive. Hollywood was such a strange place in those days (still is, but in a different way), sending out all kinds of mixed messages, as in Gone With the Wind, sort of an "on the one hand...on the other hand" picture that sought to appeal to Southern audiences and at the same time not offend blacks and liberals. It was a delicate balancing act, and they pulled if off.

As to The Wolf Man's Gypsies, they weren't presented as an inferior race, just different from the native Brits. Maleva, for her part, "adopted" Larry after the wolf bite business, treated him more kindly than his own people, who thought him mad, tied him up, eventually killed him. Poor Larry, he couldn't return to his own tribe and live a normal life, due to his werewolf curse, couldn't become a Gypsy, either.

If there's a subtext to The Wolf Man it's more likely sexual than cultural or racial, and that's in the film itself. As to why Larry should be singled out for punishment for his sexual desires and not others, this is a puzzlement. There's a cluelessness to him, a social awkwardness, however this is due to his having spent so much time in America. There's no reason why he should be singled out for punishment on account of this...unless the real curse is being the son of Sir John, apparently not a fortunate thing to be, as his older brother had recently died. A "bad father" subtext? It's anyone's guess.