An Austrian-Italian co-production filmed at Cinecittà and originally released in Italy in 1961 as 'Lycanthropus' and in Austria in 1963 as 'Bei Vollmond Mord' (literally, 'Murder at Full Moon'). Under either title it would have remained in benign obscurity had it not been crassly retitled 'Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory' by MGM for its US release; as which it has been doomed to wander film history ever since in a dubbed version bearing a 1963 copyright date and subjected to the further indignity of a song over the credits called 'The Ghoul in School' (I guess it proved beyond them to put lyrics to 'Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory').The dubbing is actually competent enough, and the English-language version probably gives a reasonably accurate impression of what the original was like, which was more like a German 'krimi' of the period that anticipated the later Italian 'gialli', and like most of them good looking but plodding and garrulous and structured as a detective film rather than as a horror movie (one of the killings is even committed with a hypodermic by an individual dressed in standard 'giallo' trenchcoat and gloves whose identity certainly makes you sit up when finally revealed); and as usual someone is being blackmailed. The lycanthropic component of the plot seems tossed in rather perfunctorily, his makeup makes the 'Monster' looks more like Mr.Hyde than a werewolf; (SPOILER COMING) and at the end he forgets that only silver bullets are supposed to be able to kill him rather than the conventional ones used here.

Unless your taste runs to blood and gore I wouldn't get too exciting over the titillating title Werewolf In A Girl's Dormitory. Even though this is a special school for girls with behavioral problems they're all quite respectably clothed. There isn't even that much blood in the film although the usual screaming quotient is there.This film also illustrates the fickleness of careers even in one family. Around a time when Maximilian Schell got a Best Actor Oscar for Judgment At Nuremberg and sister Maria Schell was doing things like the big budget remake of Cimarron, brother Carl was busy doing Werewolf In A Girl's Dormitory. He's a new faculty member who actually is experimenting in lycanthropy when bodies start popping up around the school. Naturally suspicion falls on him.All kind of dumb, only for the most addicted horror and gore fan.

This isn't Jack Nicholson or Benicio Del Toro's wolf-man. it isn't even close to Paul Naschy's beast. This one doesn't even have a werewolf face, and only scratches the victims. Maybe that is why they changed the title from Werewolf to Ghoul.But, to see one of the early classics is still worth the time.It is more of a mystery, as Mary (Mary McNeeran) is blackmailing a professor (Maurice Marsac) with some old letters. She is the first victim. Is the professor the killer, or the new teacher (Carl Schell) in school? Priscilla (Barbara Lass) comes into possession of the letters and tries to find out who killed her friend. (NOTE: Lass was briefly married to Roman Polanski, and, believe it or not, this is one of her best roles in a long career.)Several murder and several suspects. Who is the ghoul in the girl's dormitory?

"Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory" is a pretty enjoyable if slightly flawed entry.**SPOILERS**Arriving at an all-girls boarding school, Dr. Julian Olcott, (Carl Schell) learns that his scandalous past will be forgotten and he is expected to perform like any other teacher on campus. Trying not to interfere with the usual antics of the students on campus, a rash of murders from the students manages to find Sir Alfred Whiteman, (Maurice Marsac) as the prime suspect due to his lecherous ways with the students. When student Priscilla, (Barbara Lass) brings forth evidence of this, it throws more heat towards him, but as the deaths continue, they eventually realize that the killer is a werewolf and could be anyone on the staff, forcing them into a race to stop the killings before more are harmed.The Good News: There was a couple of rather good points to this one. The fact that there's a rather good sense of sleaze generated from the school's dealings is pretty nice. It's quite unusual to be able to see this kind of thing put so prominently in a film from the time-period, as the back-stabbing, cheating, adultery and infidelity are all put on display here, and the fact that so much time is devoted to this is where it gets really nice and dirty, since the film is never made out for certain that what's going on is happening to underage women or not. They look close enough for it to be an issue, the intent of the school would fit in well but the gray area with that manages to be even sleazier. There's also some really nice Gothic atmosphere from the film on display as well, from the darkened woods to the really creepy scenes within the dormitory of the creature stalking the others while they're sleeping, and it leaves a rather nice, creepy feeling during these scenes. This is also on display during the rather fun chase through the woods to open the film, as the action is fast and furious, but the creepy surroundings in the woods makes this one even more of a better scene because it's a thrilling encounter within a creepy location, and that always works. The final confrontation in the laboratory that spills out into the town and through to the bar is a good one as well, making for a satisfying ending that pulls a nice twist out of it as well and makes it a positive ending. The last plus here is the rather nice way it manages to hide the identity of the killer, since there's a couple red herrings strewn about and each one has plenty of evidence, rather than calling one a red herring with a lot of evidence toward it, then naming a few others with circumstantial evidence only, while this one spreads that out amongst most of the red herrings, proving for a healthier mystery and a lot of fun during those scenes trying to figure it out. These here are what work for the film.The Bad News: This one did have a few problems to it to hold it down. One of the biggest ones is that, because it focuses on the sleaze factor, not a whole lot of action is in here. The film takes a while to get to it's good parts that some of the middle section here comes off as downright dull. The endless scenes of everyone running around talking to each other about what's happened to the others or what should be done, and it's a pretty dull move for the most part. These just make the film so dull and really lifeless during these parts. Another flaw to this is that the werewolf, which is another somewhat problematic effort, by keeping the creature off-screen for most of the time, which is a good thing as it's so fake-looking. Keeping the title creature off is a bad thought, but having one that looks this bad is somewhat of a good thing, since beyond a couple of craggily features to give shadows on the face and some fangs, otherwise it's hard to believe that, unless we were told otherwise, this one could be anything else and it wouldn't have mattered as this is one of the few werewolves that looks nothing like what the term implies. These here what really hold the film down.The Final Verdict: This wasn't that bad and actually had some good stuff for it when it had got around to showcasing them. Give this one a shot if you're into the cheesy style or are a fan of European werewolf fare, otherwise this one should be treated with extreme caution.Today's Rating-PG: Violence and mild violence against animals