The Wolf Man/Awesome


 * The 1941 film is about 70 minutes long. In that time, it manages to establish about five or six reasonably well-developed characters (at least Lawrence, Maleva, Gwen, John, and Bela, arguably Frank Andrews), and be not only a story about a man who gets bitten by a werewolf, but a story about the complex relationship between an estranged father and son, a story about the dual nature of man, a really sad love story ("You wouldn't wanna run away with a murderer, would you?"), and a pretty solid psychological thriller/mystery. It's one of the most tightly plotted movies ever made, but gets no love on account of being known mostly for being the first good werewolf movie.
 * Larry Talbot's werewolf form is a case of the man pulling off an awesome performance.
 * Assuming that refers to the original 1941 version, it's a desperate understatement. Chaney's performance is one of the all-time homeruns of the horror genre, and he made Lawrence Talbot such a memorable, tragic, and lovable character that he was the only one of the classic Universal monsters to never be recast.