'The Curse Of The Werewolf' is one of the very best of the early Hammer horrors, yet gets rarely mentioned, probably because it doesn't feature either Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee. It was Hammer's only attempt at a werewolf movie, which is a shame because to me it is almost as good as Universal's classic 'The Wolf Man' with Lon Chaney, Jr. The werewolf here is played by Oliver Reed, and much like Chaney's Larry Talbot, he is doomed to his fate which gives the character a strong tragic element. Even more so in this story, because Reed's Leon Corledo isn't bitten by a werewolf but damned from birth after his mother (Yvonne Romain, 'Circus Of Horrors'), a mute servant girl, is raped by a demented beggar (Richard Wordsworth, 'The Quatermass Xperiment') who has been falsely imprisoned by a sadistic Marques (Anthony Dawson, 'Dr.No'). The baby is born on Christmas day, and in this version of the tale that makes him cursed. The young child is adopted by the kindly Don Alfredo Corledo (Clifford Evans) who raises him as his own. After a few hiccups the boy grows into a young man who seems to have his condition under control, but when he makes his way in life he soon finds that that is not the case, with gruesome results. I enjoyed this movie a lot. It takes the material seriously, and the early parts of the movie are very dark. Reed gives a great performance and the aforementioned supporting cast are all very good, especially Wordsworth and Dawson who have some memorable scenes at the movie's beginning. There's also nice cameos from Hammer regular Michael Ripper as the town drunk and Warren Mitchell (Alf Garnett) as a watchman. Another great thing about the movie is much of the werewolf action isn't explicitly portrayed, making it very much in the Val Lewton tradition, and the viewer has to wait almost until the end to see a transformation scene. 'Curse Of The Werewolf' is a first rate werewolf movie and is recommended to all classic horror fans.