Horor, USA, 1944, 63 min.



As a woman she wanted LOVE! As a werewolf she wanted BLOOD!
At the Latour Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, tour guide Peter Althius relates the legend of Marie Latour, the former mistress of the building, who was rumored to be a werewolf. Later that night, Yan Spavero, the janitor at the museum, visits Celeste, a gypsy princess and Marie's daughter, to warn her that Dr. Charles Morris, the museum's director, has discovered the secret behind her mother's grave and plans to publish it in a manuscript. The following day, Celeste enters the museum and disappears behind a secret panel that is embedded in the mantlepiece of a fireplace. That night, Elsa Chauvet, the doctor's Transylvanian assistant, becomes concerned when she finds a devil doll on the doctor's desk. Scoffing at the doll, which portends death, Morris asks Elsa to meet his son Bob at the airport. After Elsa departs, Peter hears unearthly screams and howls emanating from behind the mantlepiece and enters the secret passage to investigate. Upon returning to the museum with Bob, Elsa notices pages from the doctor's manuscript blazing in the fireplace, and soon after, Peter appears, lumbering in a trance. After they discover the doctor's slain body, the police are summoned and Lt. Barry Lane comes to investigate. Bob discloses that his father was researching the legend of Marie Latour, but Lane dismisses his fears about werewolves until the lab report reveals that wolf fur was found under the doctor's fingernails. Informed by the lab that a woman's hand print was also discovered on the panel door, Lane begins to suspect Elsa, but when her fingerprints fail to match those found at the murder scene, he comes to think that Yan may have been her accomplice. As Bob and Elsa piece together the charred fragments of his father's notes, Elsa voices her belief that the doctor was killed by supernatural causes. Later, as they leave the museum, Bob proposes to Elsa and she accepts. Their departure is watched by Yan, who then sneaks into the lab and destroys the remnants of the manuscript. The next day, the police discover Yan's fingerprints on the lab door and, suspecting that he is the killer, launch a manhunt to find him. Yan seeks refuge at the gypsy camp, but Celeste, fearing that his presence will jeopardize her cover as the gypsy princess, declares that he must die. When Yan's mutilated body is found, Celeste is summoned to testify at an inquiry into his death. At the hearing, Bob learns that the gypsies return to New Orleans once a year to bury their dead, who are stored at the Adamson funeral parlor. Bob then ventures to the funeral parlor, but Adamson refuses him access to the gypsies' records which are stored in the basement. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the gypsies, and after Adamson excuses himself to greet his clients, Bob sneaks into the basement to examine the records. As he reaches for the files, he hears the sound of a woman's footsteps, and when the footsteps turn into the padding of a wolf, Bob escapes into the elevator. Upstairs, Bob meets Celeste, who offers to explain the customs of her people if he will escort her back to the camp. After his visit with Celeste, Bob returns to the museum, bewitched, and informs Elsa that he no longer suspects the gypsies of being involved in his father's death. Realizing that Celeste has put a spell on Bob, Elsa determines to uncover the secret of Marie Latour. Returning to the museum later that night, Elsa is confronted by Celeste, who, out of jealousy, decides to transform her rival into a sister werewolf. Later, Bob hears a cat meowing in the secret passage, and when he opens the door, a dazed Elsa appears and confesses that she killed his father. Suspecting that Celeste has cast a spell on Elsa, Bob summons the police. When Bob suggests that the basement chamber holds the secret of his father's death, Lane and several of his men descend into the passage to investigate. After locating the crypt of the gypsy queen, they hear a wolf growl and begin to fire their guns. Upstairs, Elsa awakens from her trance, and a wounded Celeste appears and incites her to kill Bob. When Bob exhorts Elsa to exercise her own will, Celeste, weakened by her wounds, turns into a wolf and attacks Bob. At that moment, the police burst into the room and slay the wolf. With the death of Celeste, the spell on Elsa is broken, and as Lane examines the body of the wolf, he begins to believe in the supernatural.
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Režie: Henry Levin
Herci: Nina Fochová, Stephen Crane, Osa Massenová, Blanche Yurka, Barton MacLane, více...

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