Watching it on AMC.


Such a delite, surprised to see such little fan fare.

In the night...In the DARK...

#28

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I saw this movie once or twice on TV in the 50s and remember it being very suspenseful and having a delightfully eerie set and background. Sadly I cannot recall the whole plot, but the one part that stuck in my mind about this movie all these years was the "jingle," about the werewolf curse of the family...which went something like..."beware thy bane along the lane," (or something like that but can't recall all the jingle's words. Anyone here remember this part?

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According to the User Comments from whpratt1 it is:

"When the stars are bright on a frosty night, Beware the baying in the rocky lane"

Whereas User Wayne Malin thinks it is:

“Beware thy being on the rocky lane”

However I seem to remember 'bane' like you do instead of 'baying' or ‘being’, but it was also back in the 1950s when I last saw this.

Trivia question: Who was the ‘original’ W H Pratt that the first User above is referencing?

(Second childhood? No, this is still the first one.)

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Thanks! The poem cadence is the one I seem to remember....and, like you, I thought the word "baying" was "bane," for both words (though with different meaning) could still apply to the "werewolf" legend. Like you, the last I saw this movie was in the 50s. Good news, though, I see this movie is available through Movies Unlimited.

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The 'bane' part reminded me of the quote used in The Wolf Man, made the previous year (1941). After all these years I am not sure I am remembering 'bane' because it was a link to that earlier movie or if I just heard it that way because of the previous movie.

From The Wolf Man:
"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."

Likewise:
"The way you walk was thorny through no fault of your own, but as the rain enters the soil the river enters the sea, so tears run to a predestined end."

I loved hearing Maria Ouspenskaya recite these. She sounded like a Roumanian car trying to start on a cold morning.


(Second childhood? No, this is still the first one.)

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In the novel it runs like this:

Where grow pines and firs amain.
Under Stars, sans heat or rain,
Chief of Hammand, 'ware thy Bane!

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Could it be William Henry Pratt, better known as Boris Karloff?

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