Blue Moon (Song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Blue Moon” | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | 1934 by Robbins Music |
| Composer(s) | Richard Rodgers |
| Lyricist(s) | Lorenz Hart |
“Blue Moon” is a classic popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934. It may be the first instance of the familiar “50s progression” in a popular song and has become a standard ballad. The song was a hit twice in 1949 with successful recordings in the U.S. by Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé.
In 1961, “Blue Moon” became an international number-one hit for the doo-wop group The Marcels, on the Billboard 100 chart and in the UK Singles chart.
Marcels version
| “Blue Moon” | |
|---|---|
| Single by The Marcels | |
| from the album Blue Moon | |
| B-side | “Goodbye to Love” |
| Released | February 1961 |
| Recorded | 1961 |
| Genre | Doo wop, R&B |
| Length | 2:15 |
| Label | Colpix |
| Songwriter(s) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart |
| Producer(s) | Stu Phillips, Danny Winchell |
| The Marcels singles chronology | |
| “Blue Moon“ (1961)”Summertime“ (1961) | |
Background
The Marcels, a doo-wop group, recorded the track for their album Blue Moon. In 1961, the Marcels had three songs left to record and needed one more. Producer Stu Phillips did not like any of the other songs except one that had the same chord changes as “Heart and Soul” and “Blue Moon”. He asked them if they knew either, and one knew “Blue Moon” and taught it to the others, though with the bridge or release (middle section – “I heard somebody whisper …”) wrong. The famous introduction to the song (“bomp-baba-bomp” and “dip-da-dip”) was an excerpt of an original song that the group had in its act.
Reception
The record reached number one on the Billboard Pop chart for three weeks and number one on the R&B chart. It also peaked at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. The Marcels’ version of “Blue Moon” sold a million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Marcels doo-wop version is one of three different versions used in the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London with this version appearing at the end credits of the film. A version by Bobby Vinton plays during the film’s opening titles while a version by Sam Cooke plays during the film’s famous werewolf transformation scene. The Marcels’ version of the song is referenced in the 1962 Academy Award-nominated animated short Disney musical film, A Symposium on Popular Songs during the song, “Puppy Love Is Here to Stay” written by Robert & Richard Sherman.
Chart performance
| Chart (1961) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | 1 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| US R&B Singles | 1 |
Over the years, “Blue Moon” has been covered by various artists, including versions by Frank Sinatra,
Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke,
The Platters, The Mavericks, Dean Martin,
Yvonne De Carlo, for Masterseal Records 1957,
Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart. Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album On the Happy Side (1962).
Cowboy Junkies recorded the song on their album The Trinity Sessions.
It is also the anthem of English Football League club Crewe Alexandra
and English Premier League football club Manchester City, who have both adapted the song slightly.
Background
Rodgers and Hart were contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in May 1933. They were soon commissioned to write the songs for Hollywood Party, a film that was to star many of the studio’s top artists. Rodgers recalled, “One of our ideas was to include a scene in which Jean Harlow is shown as an innocent young girl saying—or rather singing—her prayers. How the sequence fitted into the movie I haven’t the foggiest notion, but the purpose was to express Harlow’s overwhelming ambition to become a movie star (‘Oh Lord, if you’re not busy up there,/I ask for help with a prayer/So please don’t give me the air …’).” The song was not recorded (the movie was released without Harlow in 1934) and MGM Song No. 225 “Prayer (Oh Lord, make me a movie star)” dated June 14, 1933, was registered for copyright as an unpublished work on July 10, 1933.
Hart wrote new lyrics for the tune to create a title song for the 1934 film Manhattan Melodrama: “Act One:/You gulp your coffee and run;/Into the subway you crowd./Don’t breathe, it isn’t allowed”. The song, which was also titled “It’s Just That Kind of Play”, was cut from the film before release, and registered for copyright as an unpublished work on March 30, 1934. The studio then asked for a nightclub number for the film. Rodgers still liked the melody so Hart wrote a third lyric: “The Bad in Every Man” (“Oh, Lord … /I could be good to a lover,/But then I always discover/The bad in ev’ry man”), which was sung by Shirley Ross.
After the film was released by MGM, Jack Robbins—the head of the studio’s publishing company—decided that the tune was suited to commercial release but needed more romantic lyrics and a punchier title. Hart was initially reluctant to write yet another lyric but he was persuaded. Robbins licensed the song to Hollywood Hotel, a radio program that used it as the theme. The cover of Robbins’ 1934 sheet music edition credits Ted Fio Rito (vocal by Muzzy Marcellino) as introducing the song, recorded on Brunswick 7315, October 19, 1934. The song charted in the Top Ten for 18 weeks in Variety, reaching number 1 on January 26, 1935. The song was also recorded by Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra for Decca Records in November 1934
and Connee Boswell for Brunswick Records in 1935.
Blue Moon (original Al Bowlly, 1936)
It subsequently was featured in at least seven MGM films, including the Marx Brothers’ At the Circus (1939)
and Viva Las Vegas (1964).
There are two introductory verses in the original Robbins sheet music edition. Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart sang the first verse in their 2004 version of the song (Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Volume III). The last line of the first verse is: “Life was a bitter cup for the saddest of all men.”
On September 16, 2018, a New York Times article disclosed that Liz Roman Gallese, a documentary filmmaker, has provided evidence on her website of a 1936 lawsuit contending “Blue Moon” was written by her late father, Edward W. Roman. The family story was “that her father had sold the song for $900 to buy a car, or maybe that he had ‘settled’ with the rich and famous Rodgers and Hart for that amount.” Ted Chapin, the chief creative officer of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, said that he had not heard of Gallese’s story and that it seemed “a little far-fetched. ”
Billy Eckstine version
| “Blue Moon” | |
|---|---|
| Single by Billy Eckstine | |
| B-side | “Fools Rush In“ |
| Released | 1947 |
| Format | 10-inch 78 rpm record |
| Recorded | 1947 |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Label | MGM |
| Songwriter(s) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart |
Background
American swing era singer Billy Eckstine did a cover version of “Blue Moon” that reached the Billboard charts in 1949. It was released by MGM Records as catalog number 10311. It first reached the Juke Box chart on March 5, 1949, and lasted three weeks on the chart, peaking at number 21.
Chart performance
| Chart (1949) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard | 21 |
Mel Tormé version
| “Blue Moon” | |
|---|---|
| Single by Mel Tormé | |
| B-side | “Again” |
| Released | 1949 |
| Format | 10-inch 78 rpm record |
| Recorded | 1949 |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Label | Capitol |
| Songwriter(s) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart |
Background
American jazz singer Mel Tormé did a cover version of “Blue Moon” that reached the Billboard charts in 1949. It was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 15428. It first reached the Best Seller chart on April 8, 1949, and lasted five weeks on the chart, peaking at number 20.
The record was a two-sided hit, as the flip side, “Again“, also charted.
Chart performance
| Chart (1949) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard | 20 |
Billie Holiday version
| “Blue Moon” | |
|---|---|
| Song by Billie Holiday | |
| from the album Billie Holiday Sings | |
| Released | 1952 |
| Format | 10-inch 78 rpm record |
| Recorded | March 26, 1952 |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Label | Clef |
| Songwriter(s) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart |
Background
American jazz singer Billie Holiday recorded a cover of “Blue Moon” in her 1952 album Billie Holiday Sings.
Elvis Presley version
| “Blue Moon” | |
|---|---|
| Single by Elvis Presley | |
| from the album Elvis Presley | |
| A-side | “Just Because“ |
| Released | August 31, 1956 |
| Recorded | August 19, 1954 |
| Genre | Ballad |
| Length | 2:31 |
| Label | RCA Victor/ RCA Camden/ RCA |
| Songwriter(s) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart |
Background
“Blue Moon”‘s first crossover recording to rock and roll came from Elvis Presley in 1954, produced by Sam Phillips. His cover version of the song was included on his 1956 debut album Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Records. Presley’s remake of “Blue Moon” was coupled with “Just Because” as a single in August 1956.
“Blue Moon” spent seventeen weeks on the Billboard Top 100, although it reached only No. 55.
In Jim Jarmusch‘s 1989 film Mystery Train, the three distinct stories that make up the narrative are linked by a portion of Presley’s version of “Blue Moon” (as heard on a radio broadcast) and a subsequent offscreen gunshot, which are heard once during each story, revealing that the three stories occur simultaneously in real time.
Mavericks version
Background
American country music group the Mavericks covered the song for the soundtrack of the 1995 film Apollo 13. Their version peaked at number 57 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. It also charted on the RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, peaking at number 15. A music video was produced, directed by Todd Hallowell.
Chart performance
Rod Stewart version
Background
British singer Rod Stewart recorded the song with Eric Clapton for Stewart’s 2004 album Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Volume III. Their version was released as a single in early 2005 and peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in the US.
Chart performance
| Chart (2005) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Adult Contemporary Chart | 23 |
- The Supersonics – Blue Moon
- Heidi Feek – Blue Moon
- Cybill Shepherd – Blue Moon (Moonlighting)
- Francis Goya – Blue Moon
- Ella Fitzgerald – Blue Moon
- Chris Isaak – Blue Moon
- Azul Jazz – Blue Moon
- Diane Shaw – Blue Moon
- Yukari Ito 伊東ゆかり- Blue Moon
- Sha Na Na – Blue Moon
- Guitar Melody – Blue Moon
- Tommy Emmanuel – Blue Moon
- Blue Moon, arr. Victor López
- Orange and Lemons – Blue Moon
- New Edition – Blue Moon
- Nat King Cole – Blue Moon
- Joscho Stephan Trio feat. Costel Nițescu – Blue Moon
- Santo And Johnny – Blue Moon
- Julie London – Blue Moon
- Brenda Lee – Blue Moon
- Tony Bennett – Blue Moon
- Glenn Miller – Blue Moon
- Celeste and Sir Tom Jones – Blue Moon
- Lisa Hannigan – Blue moon
- Flora Martínez – Blue Moon
- Peggy Lee – Blue Moon
- Billy Vaughn – Blue Moon
Billy Vaughn – Blue Moon (Different version)
- Chromatics – Blue Moon
- Jo Stafford – Blue Moon
- Ray Conniff – Blue Moon
- Ray Anthony – Blue Moon
- Anthony Ventura – Blue Moon
- Andre Kostelanetz – Blue Moon
- Ben Webster – Blue Moon
- Gunhild Carling – Blue Moon
- Bert Kaempfert and Orchestra – Blue Moon
- The Ventures – Blue Moon
- Cliff Richard feat The Shadows – Blue Moon
An American Werewolf in London (Film)
| An American Werewolf in London | |
|---|---|
| |
| Directed by | John Landis |
| Written by | John Landis |
| Produced by | George Folsey Jr. |
| Starring | David Naughton Jenny Agutter Griffin Dunne John Woodvine |
| Cinematography | Robert Paynter |
| Edited by | Malcolm Campbell |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
| Production companies | PolyGram Pictures Lycanthrope Films Limited |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures (United States) Barber International Films (United Kingdom) Producers Sales Organization (International) |
| Release date | August 21, 1981 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Countries | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5.8 million |
| Box office | $62 million |
An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 comedy horror film written and directed by John Landis. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, the film stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne and John Woodvine. The title is a cross between An American in Paris and Werewolf of London. The film’s plot follows two American backpackers, David and Jack, who are attacked by a werewolf while travelling in England, causing David to become a werewolf under the next full moon.
Landis wrote the first draft of the screenplay for the film in 1969 and shelved it for over a decade. Prospective financiers believed that Landis’ script was too frightening to be a comedy film and too humorous to be a horror film. After achieving success in Hollywood with the comedies The Kentucky Fried Movie, National Lampoon’s Animal House and The Blues Brothers, Landis was able to secure financing from PolyGram Pictures to produce An American Werewolf in London.
An American Werewolf in London was released in the US by Universal Pictures on August 21, 1981. It was a critical and commercial success, winning the 1981 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and the inaugural Academy Award for Best Makeup. Since its release, it has become a cult classic. A sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris, was released by Hollywood Pictures in 1997 and received mostly negative reviews upon its release.
Plot
Two American graduate students from New York City, David Kessler and Jack Goodman, are trekking across the moors in Yorkshire. As night falls, they stop at the Slaughtered Lamb, a local pub. Jack notices a five-pointed star on the pub’s wall. When he asks about it, the pub-goers grow hostile, and he and David leave.
The pub-goers warn the pair to keep to the road, stay clear of the moors, and beware the full moon. David and Jack wander off the road and onto the moors, where a vicious creature attacks them. Jack is killed and David is seriously injured. The beast is shot and killed by some concerned pub-goers who followed the two young men. Instead of an animal carcass, David sees a nude dead man lying next to him before passing out.
David wakes up three weeks later in a London hospital. Inspector Villiers interviews David and informs him that the locals reported that an escaped lunatic attacked him and Jack. David insists a rabid dog or wolf attacked them. An undead Jack later appears to David and explains that they were attacked by a werewolf; since David was bitten, he is now a werewolf too. Jack is cursed to walk the earth in limbo, neither dead nor alive, until the wolf’s bloodline is severed. Jack urges David to kill himself before the next full moon so he does not harm anyone.
Dr. Hirsch visits the Slaughtered Lamb to investigate, suspecting that David might have been influenced by local superstitions. When asked about the incident, the pub-goers deny any knowledge of David, Jack, or the attack. However, one distraught pub-goer privately tells Dr. Hirsch that David will endanger other people when he transforms.
Upon being released from hospital, David stays with Alex Price, the pretty young nurse who cared for him.
Alex tells David that she is worried about his mental state. Jack, now even more decayed, appears and warns David that he will become a werewolf the next night, and again advises that he kill himself to avoid killing innocent people. David refuses to believe him but when the full moon rises, David transforms into a werewolf.
He prowls the streets and the London Underground, killing six people.
He wakes up the next morning naked on the floor of a wolf enclosure at the London Zoo, with no recollection of what happened, and returns to Alex’s flat.
After learning of the previous night’s murders and realizing that he is responsible, David unsuccessfully attempts to get himself arrested in Trafalgar Square.
He calls his family to say he loves them, then loses the courage to slit his wrists with a pocket knife. David sees Jack, whose skeleton is now showing, outside an adult movie theatre. Inside, Jack introduces David to his previous night’s victims, some of whom are furious with David and suggest different suicide methods to free them from their undead state.
David transforms into a werewolf inside the cinema. He decapitates Inspector Villiers and wreaks havoc in the streets, killing several motorists and bystanders.
The police surround and trap David in an alleyway. Alex arrives and runs down the alley and tries calming David by saying she loves him. Although David’s consciousness briefly appears to recognize Alex, he lunges forward and is shot dead by the police, reverting to human form.
Cast
- David Naughton as David Kessler
- Jenny Agutter as Nurse Alex Price
- Griffin Dunne as Jack Goodman
- John Woodvine as Dr. J. S. Hirsch
- Don McKillop as Inspector Villiers
- Frank Oz as Mr. Collins
- Paul Kember as Sergeant McManus
- Sydney Bromley as Alf
- Frank Singuineau as Ted
- Will Leighton as Joseph
- Geoffrey Burridge as Harry Berman
- Brenda Cavendish as Judith Browns
- Michael Carter as Gerald Bringsley
- Anne-Marie Davies as Nurse Susan Gallagher
- Albert Moses as Hospital Porter
- Linzi Drew as Brenda Bristols
- Nina Carter as Naughty Nina
- Paula Jacobs as Mrs Kessler
- Brian Glover as Chess player
- Rik Mayall as 2nd Chess player
- Lila Kaye as the Barmaid
- David Scofield as the Darts player
Production
Development
John Landis came up with the story while he worked in Yugoslavia as a production assistant on the film Kelly’s Heroes (1970). According to Landis, he and a Yugoslav member of the crew were driving in the back of a car on location when they came across a group of Romani people. The Romani people appeared to be performing rituals on a man being buried so that he would not “rise from the grave.”
Landis wrote the first draft of An American Werewolf in London in 1969 and shelved it for over a decade. Two years later, Landis wrote, directed, and starred in his debut film, Schlock, which developed a cult following. Landis developed box-office status in Hollywood through the successful comedy films The Kentucky Fried Movie,
and The Blues Brothers before securing $10 million financing from PolyGram Pictures for his werewolf film.
Financiers believed that Landis’ script was too frightening to be a comedy and too funny to be a horror film. Universal Studios execs were pressuring the director to cast Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as David Kessler and Jack Goodman but Landis went with unknown actors instead.
Filming
Filming took place between February and March 1981 because director John Landis wanted the film to take place during poor weather.
The moors were filmed around the Black Mountains in Wales, and East Proctor is in reality the tiny village of Crickadarn, about six miles (9.7 km) southeast of Builth Wells off the A470. The Angel of Death statue was a prop added for the film, but the red phone box is real, though the Welsh road signs were covered by a fake tree.
The pub shown in the film known as the Slaughtered Lamb was actually a cottage located in Crickadarn, and the interior scenes were filmed in the Black Swan, Old Lane, Martyrs Green in Surrey.
An American Werewolf in London was the first film allowed to shoot in Piccadilly Circus in 15 years. Landis accomplished this by inviting 300 members of Greater London‘s Metropolitan Police Service to a screening of his new film The Blues Brothers. The police were so impressed by his work that they granted the production a two-night filming permit between the hours of 1 and 4 a.m. Traffic was stopped only three times for two-minute increments to film the automobile stunts involving the double-decker bus. Other filming locations included Putney General Hospital, Chiswick Maternity Hospital, Redcliffe Square in Earl’s Court, the area around Tower Bridge, South Kensington Underground station, Tottenham Court Road Underground station, London Zoo, Putney High Street, Belgravia, Hampstead and Southwark.
Filming also took place at Twickenham Film Studios in Richmond Upon Thames.
Music
The film’s ironically upbeat soundtrack consists of songs which refer to the moon.
Bobby Vinton‘s slow, soothing version of “Blue Moon” plays during the opening credits, Van Morrison‘s “Moondance” plays as David and Alex make love for the first time,
Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s “Bad Moon Rising” plays as David nears the moment of changing to the werewolf, a soft, bittersweet ballad version of “Blue Moon” by Sam Cooke plays during the agonizing wolf transformation, and the Marcels‘ doo-wop version of “Blue Moon” plays over the end credits.
The score was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein and recorded at Olympic Studios in London, engineered by Keith Grant. Bernstein’s score can be heard during David’s nightmares, when Dr. Hirsch drives through the moors to East Proctor, and when Alex confronts David in the alley. Though Bernstein wrote and recorded music to accompany the transformation scene, the director chose not to use it. The three-minute passage was eventually released by Bernstein under the title “Metamorphosis”.
Release
Box office
An American Werewolf in London was released August 21, 1981, and grossed $30 million at the box office in the United States and $62 million worldwide against the budget of under $6 million.
Home media
The film was first released in 1981 on VHS and Betamax under the MCA Videocassette Inc. label and on LaserDisc and CED under the MCA Videodisc label. In 1984, MCA Home Video released it on LaserDisc. This would be the last time Universal would release the movie on home video for 17 years. The following year, Vestron Video acquired the video rights from MCA/Universal and released it on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc in 1985. It was released again on LaserDisc in 1989 (under Image Entertainment through Vestron) and 1995 (under LIVE Entertainment), and again on VHS in 1990 under the Video Treasures label and 1991 and 1994 from Vestron Video (through LIVE Home Video).
The film was first released on DVD in December 1997 by LIVE Entertainment according to a LIVE DVD Advertisement. It was presented in a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer and contained the film’s theatrical teaser trailer. Universal eventually got the video rights back and released a 20th-anniversary “Collector’s Edition” DVD on September 18, 2001, making it the first time Universal released the film on home video since 1984. It included an audio commentary with actors David Naughton and Griffin Dunne, interviews with John Landis and Rick Baker, a 1981 promotional featurette, silent outtakes, storyboards and production photographs. A coinciding VHS was released on the same day. The high-definition version of the film was first released on HD DVD by Universal on November 28, 2006. A high-definition Blu-ray Disc and 2-disc standard-definition Region 1 DVD release of the film titled An American Werewolf in London – Full Moon Edition was released by Universal on September 15, 2009. The Region 2 DVDs and Blu-ray were released on September 28 and are known as An American Werewolf in London – Special Edition.
The Region 2 DVD release does not include a scene that is fully intact on the Region 1 release and all previous Region 1 and 2 releases. The scene takes place near the end of the film where the character of David calls his parents from a public telephone box. All but the end of this scene had been cut from the Region 2 release due to a mastering error.
As of October 2009, Universal said that they were scrapping all existing faulty stock and issuing replacement DVDs. All Blu-ray releases, however, are intact.
In 2016, Universal re-released the film on Blu-ray as a “Restored Edition” to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the film’s release. On October 29, 2019, Arrow Video released a 4K restoration as part of a Blu-ray box set that contains all previously released extra material; the documentary Mark of The Beast: The Legacy of the Universal Werewolf; the 2009 making-of documentary Beware the Moon; filmmaker Jon Spira’s video essay “I Think He’s a Jew: The Werewolf’s Secret;” a new interview with Landis; lobby cards and a booklet.
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on reviews from 63 critics, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site’s critical consensus states: “Terrifying and funny in almost equal measure, John Landis’ horror-comedy crosses genres while introducing Rick Baker’s astounding make-up effects.” On Metacritic, the film has a score of 55 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”. Kim Newman of Empire magazine gave the film a rating of four out of five stars, writing that “carnivorous lunar activities rarely come any more entertaining than this”. Tom Huddleston of Time Out also gave the film a positive review, calling it “not just gory but actually frightening, not just funny but clever”.
Halliwell’s Film Guide described the film as a “curious but oddly endearing mixture of horror film and spoof, of comedy and shock, with everything grist to its mill including tourist Britain and the wedding of Prince Charles. The special effects are notable and signalled new developments in this field.” Entertainment Weekly listed it in their 1996 “Greatest Movies Ever Made”, saying that the transformation effects by Rick Baker changed the face of horror makeup in the 1980s.
Roger Ebert‘s review was less favourable; he gave it two out of four stars and stated that “An American Werewolf in London seems curiously unfinished, as if director John Landis spent all his energy on spectacular set pieces and then didn’t want to bother with things like transitions, character development or an ending.”
In his book Comedy-Horror Films: A Chronological History, 1914-2008, Bruce G. Hallenbeck lambasted the film’s inconsistent tone, juvenile humor, poor direction, and emphasis on shock value to the detriment of continuity and plot. He cited Rick Baker’s makeup effects and Jenny Agutter’s performance as genuinely powerful, but concluded that “thanks to the director’s insincerity, slapdash approach and what appears to be a thinly veiled contempt for the material, [An American Werewolf in London] succeeds neither as comedy nor as horror.”
Awards and accolades
At the 54th Academy Awards, An American Werewolf in London won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Makeup.
During the 1982 Saturn Awards, the film won for Best Horror Film and Best Makeup and was nominated for Best Actress and Best Writing.
A 2008 Empire magazine poll of critics and readers named An American Werewolf in London as the 107th-greatest film of all time.
Legacy
Media recognition
An American Werewolf in London is chiefly appreciated as a milestone in the comedy-horror genre and for its innovative makeup effects. The Daily Telegraph stated that it was “the first mainstream hit which managed to make its gross-out effects simultaneously shocking and hilarious” and called the signature werewolf transformation scene “stunningly ingenious, without a computer effect in sight, but also suffused with squirm-inducing agony.” The Telegraph also cited the slew of 1980s genre films which came after An American Werewolf in London and followed the film’s example of blending visceral horror effects with comedy, such as Beetlejuice,
and Evil Dead 2.
Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) cited the movie as a major inspiration for his own film-making and a milestone in the genre. The low budget independent movie The Snarling (2018) was heavily inspired by Landis’s film and contains various motifs and references including a cameo by Albert Moses paying direct tribute to his role in the film.
Pat Reid of Empire, reviewing the film in 2000, thought that the blending of comedic and horror elements “don’t always sit well side-by-side,” but called the transformation scene “undoubtedly a classic” because of its “good old-fashioned makeup and trickery making the incredible seem real.”
Rolling Stone‘s Joshua Rothkopf, writing on the 35th anniversary of the film’s release, called An American Werewolf in London an “allegory of exoticized Jewishness”. This is embodied by the character of David and his growing awareness of his “otherness” as a werewolf alongside his own outsider status as a Jewish American in England. “Hiding a secret deep within one’s body, strange urges, xenophobic glances, accusatory feelings of guilt: David’s condition already has a name, and this won’t be the first film in which Jewish otherness is made monstrous.” The article also celebrated the film as an innovative mix of humor and horror, “a landmark in startling makeup effects”, and “a riotous piece of fish-out-of-water college humor.”
Michael Jackson, who was a fan of the film, chose John Landis to direct and Rick Baker to direct makeup effects for his 1983 “Thriller” music video based on the strength of their work in An American Werewolf in London. It went on to become one of the most lauded music videos of all time.
Director’s regrets
Director John Landis has expressed regret over changing, and even cutting, certain sequences from the final cut of the film in order to earn an R rating in the United States. The sex scene between Alex and David was edited to be less explicit, and an extended scene showing the homeless men along the Thames being attacked by the werewolf was eliminated after a test audience reacted negatively to it. Another showed the undead Jack eating a piece of toast which falls out of his torn throat. Landis also concluded that the werewolf transformation scene should have been shorter—he was so fascinated by the quality of Rick Baker’s effects that he spent more time on the scene than he otherwise would have.
Radio adaptation
A radio adaptation of the film was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1997, produced by Dirk Maggs and featuring Jenny Agutter, Brian Glover and John Woodvine reprising the roles of Alex Price, the chess player (now named George Hackett, and with a more significant role as East Proctor’s special constable) and Dr. Hirsch, respectively. The roles of David and Jack were played by Eric Meyers and William Dufris.
Sequel
The film was followed by a sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris, released in 1997. The sequel features a completely different cast and crew, and was distributed by Disney‘s Hollywood Pictures. It was poorly received by critics and flopped at the box office.
Retrospective documentary
In 2009, a retrospective documentary film, Beware the Moon: Remembering An American Werewolf in London, was released. An accompanying book by the documentary’s director, Paul Davis, was published in 2016.
Proposed remake
In June 2009, it was announced that Dimension Films was working with producers Sean and Bryan Furst on a remake of the film. This has since been delayed due to other commitments. In August 2016, several reports suggested that Max Landis (son of director John Landis) was considering remaking the film. In November 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Max Landis would write and direct a remake.
In December 2017, Max Landis confirmed on Twitter that he had completed the first draft of the script. But beginning in late 2017, accusations by a number of women that Landis had abused them emotionally or sexually began to emerge publicly. In the wake of those allegations, it remains unknown if Landis will be replaced or if the project will be put on indefinite hold.
In November 2019, Variety reported that Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic book series, was in consideration to serve as a producer for a new reboot of An American Werewolf in London.
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