This is one of an eight-movie set called The Hammer Horror Series, released by Universal in their Franchise Collection. They were all produced by Hammer in the early 1960s, a time when the studio were trying out each of the classic monsters for the first time. Having made Dracula, Frankenstein, and Mummy pictures, The Curse of the Werewolf was next.
Casting a young Oliver Reed as a werewolf was, in retrospect, a genius stroke. He soon earned a reputation as a boozy wildman, but gained critical attention in leading roles for fellow boozy wildman director Ken Russell (in The Devils and Women in Love). Reed started off doing bit parts, and horror films for Hammer, like Paranoiac and These are the Damned. Famously, he ended his career on the job, causing havoc by passing away halfway through the production of Ridley Scott's Gladiator.
In its heyday, Hammer was trying to match Universal Studios' successful gallery of monsters, but had to carefully avoid copyright problems. They wanted a werewolf, but couldn't copy the make-up design of The Wolfman. They couldn't even call it The Wolfman because that was an original script written for Universal. Instead, they bought the rights to Guy Endore's The Werewolf of Paris, written in 1934.
The werewolf itself is visually unique. Decades later, other werewolves made memorable impressions due to extensive special effects rather than performances. Part of the success of Roy Ashton's make-up is the way we can still see most of Oliver Reed's face. He looks part wolf, but importantly we can still see he's part man. Together with Reed's acting, the glimpses we get of the werewolf are electrifying. His contorted, snarling face, blood dripping from his mouth — it's startling and effective.
However, it's a film from a different era. The 1980s werewolf movies -- like The Howling and An American Werewolf in London — would still play today, providing a rollercoaster of blood, shocks, and in-jokes. Hammer films of the 1960s play more like costume dramas. Curse of the Werewolf is so traditional, it even refuses to veer from a linear narrative by using flashbacks. The story of young Leon and his unfortunate conception is so involved that we don't actually get any scenes with Reed until the film is halfway through.
Amusingly, when he does appear, adult Leon is soon working in a winery, surrounded by bottles of alcohol. Note also that, at the time, Oliver Reed was much more likely to get romantic leading roles, because he had yet to pick up the huge trademark scar down his left cheek. After being 'glassed' in a pub brawl, the young actor thought his film career was over. He was wrong, and the disfigurement rarely meant that he was consigned to baddie roles.
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