It was interesting to see that, the main protagonist Claude Rains was not shown to be a antagonist. Instead it clearly asks the audience to sympathize with the character, and they establish him as a human rather than a human being.
The Opening Credits in which the title appears was expected to be very simple as from the era it was made, however on closer inspection of the font chosen with the background behind it, it makes to an interesting representing of a werewolf and the film. The Font used in "The Wolf Man" - resembles the likeness of strands of hair, that refers to the obvious type of film. it also takes up the main proportian of the screen as would any title, the sheer thickness of the title with the white on black background makes it completley clear to the audiences eye. The Background of the title sequence is one large tree that has no leaves and is bare. This very clever image symbolizes many things - the tree itself is going through a stage of transformation thus linking in with the transformation of the werewolf. It is also symbolizing death. As the tree's leaves have to die in order to transform.
The opening scene of the film was of a man picking up an old thick dictionary - and was flicked straight to the definition of Lycanthropy - which is the medical term for werewolfism. To open the film on the definition inables the film to strick fear straight into the audience. The folklaw and tales of the time were serious matters to some people and were believed in.
Above, is a process of transformation in an early werewolf film.
Universal studios were very wary of what they could and couldn't show so they used discreet cut aways to show transformation - in the one above they used merges early on to show growth in hairlines, and then the actor walked behind a wall, and came out the other side completely transformed. These are techniques we could replicate.
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