I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

TWELVE THINGS I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON





An American Werewolf In London (1981)


This classic, directed by John Landis, had and still has in my opinion the absolute best conversion from human to lycanthrope ever. Without CGI or any of that other crap either. Rick Baker rules! Having a particularly bad, sleepless night I re-visited the best werewolf movie I've ever seen. And the first time and the last time John Landis and Rick Baker played nice with each other. But this time I seemed to see things here and there I hadn't noticed before:



1. David Naughton and Griffin Dunne play David and Jack, two students backpacking through England. They keep commenting on how cold they are, but for some reason, you can only see their breath part of the time. They also seem to dry almost instantly, even though it is always damp and sometimes just pouring rain.

2. In the scene in the pub The Slaughtered Lamb, Rik Mayall, who went on to do parts in The Black Adder and Drop Dead Fred, is one of the chess players.



3. In the scenes where Jack is killed and David is injured, everywhere they go, from the pub to the moors, it's lit up like a football field, even though it is night. A full moon may give some light fellas but spotlights? C'mon.

4. David meets Alex Price (Jenny Agutter) in the hospital. If you recognized her you probably have seen Logan's Run, The Avengers, and/or Captain America:The Winter Soldier.



5. There is a scene where David is in Alex's apartment watching TV. He's watching the Muppet Show - specifically Kermit and Miss Piggy. Both muppets appear in the credits as 'Themselves'.

6. Frank Oz (better known as Miss Piggy) got an acting part in the movie as well, playing Mr. Collins.

7. When David's doctor becomes concerned that maybe David's telling the truth, he travels to The Slaughtered Lamb where he chooses a small beer. No matter how many drinks he takes, it's always foaming and always full.

8. An American Werewolf In London managed to keep an 'R' rating despite all the gore and scenes of Jack's rotting corpse trying to talk to David, not to mention several scenes clearly showing David Naughton's genitalia. But not, uh, the full, umm... length. Naughton was not circumcised and umm... yeah I think I'll stop there.


9. The music is conducted by Elmer Bernstein and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. There are also five songs about the moon in this movie (one song is done by three bands so I'm counting them separately): Blue Moon by Bobby Vinton; Blue Moon by Sam Cooke; Moondance by Van Morrison; Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival; Blue Moon by The Marcels (the original version).

10. Not to be ignored, they also give thanks to Jim Henson (Kermit).

11. At the end of the credits, a screen pops up that says: Lycanthrope Films Limited wishes to extend its heartfelt congratulations to Lady Diana Spencer and His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales on the occasion of their marriage - July 29th, 1981. It's been speculated that they did that because in the movie David is trying to get arrested and shouts that the Prince... umm... would never marry.

12. After that we get the screen about everything is fictitious, and any similarity to actual events or persons living, dead, or undead, is purely coincidental.