Larry Talbot

Larry Talbot is a male film character who features in The Wolf Man.

Biography

Lawrence Stewart Talbot was the youngest son of Sir John Talbot. Unlike his older brother John, Jr., it was not expected of Lawrence (or Larry, as he preferred) to take over as the lord of Talbot Castle. As a result, he was free to leave home and do as he wished. Larry moved to America to work on telescopes in California for 18 years until, in 1941, he received news his brother had been killed in a hunting accident.

Feeling that it was his duty to his family, Larry returned to Llanwelly so that he could take John, Jr.'s place as their father's heir. But having been away for so long, Larry was thoroughly Americanized and was a stranger among his own people. He didn't let it get him down though and eventually became interested in Gwen Conliffe, despite her engagement to his father's employee Frank Andrews.

One fateful night, Larry killed what he thought was an ordinary wolf after it had mauled Gwen's best friend Jenny Williams, clubbing it to death with a silver-handled cane which he'd bought from the antique shop run by Gwen's father. Before expiring however, the wolf bit Larry savagely on the chest. He was helped back to Talbot Castle by Gwen and a mysterious gypsy woman known as Maleva. By morning, to his surprise and confusion, the wound on his chest had healed overnight, leaving behind a scar in the shape of a pentagram.

Speaking to Maleva that very night, Larry learned that the curse of the werewolf was upon him, and that at the rise of the full moon he would transform into a brutal, hairy killer. Maleva gvae him a special Gypsy charm to help ward the transformations off, but Larry instead gave the charm to Gwen, hoping it would somehow protect her from him should be transform. Racing home as night fell, he locked himself in his bedroom, and no sooner had the full moon risen than Larry became the Wolf Man, slipping out of Talbot Castle and skulking off into the night, killing an unfortunate grave digger named Richardson.

When Larry awoke, he found that Police Captain Montford had a murder on his hands, and against the sharp insistence of Larry, Montford steadfastedly believed it was a wolf that had killed Richardson. A frantic Larry tried to persuade the jaded authority figures, especially his father, that he had killed Richardson because he turned into a werewolf. None of them believed him, especially not Dr. Lloyd, who insisted that the multiple deaths had laid a huge guilt trip on Larry and that the wolf nonsense was all in his mind. Regardless, Larry turned into the Wolf Man again that very night, and ended up caught in a trap set by Montford's hunting party. He was freed by Maleva, who spoke a special incantation that changed Larry back into a human for the remainder of the night.

Larry's sanity degenerated over the course of the next few days, until Sir John was forced to tie him to a chair and lock him in his bedroom before leaving to join Montford's hunting party for the night, fearful that his son might hurt himself. Before Sir John left though, Larry made him promise to take the silver-handled cane with him for his own protection. Of course, Larry transformed into the Wolf Man yet again and escaped his bonds, running off into the night. He attacked Gwen, who was out searching for him, but was stopped from killing her by Sir John himself, who clubbed him to the ground with the wolf's head cane. In death, the Wolf Man reverted back into Larry Talbot.

But poor Larry did not stay dead for long. Four years later, the Talbot family's tomb was was broken into by greedy grave robber Freddy Jolly, who sought the Talbot family ring which Larry had been buried with. In opening the coffin and removing the ring (and the wolfsbane the late Sir John had insisted his lycanthropic son be buried with), Jolly accidentally awoke the Wolf Man. After killing Jolly, Larry escaped into the countryside and somehow found his way to London before finally succumbing to the still-existent head wound he'd received from the clubbing his father administered to him, which had not healed in his deathlike state.

Found by a passing constable, Larry was taken to Queen's Hospital and put under the care of Dr. Frank Mannering, who mended the man's head wound. Dr. Mannering was surprised at how quickly his patient recuperated from the surgical procedure, and Larry certainly felt well enough to become the Wolf Man once more that night as the full moon rose, sneaking out of the hospital and, purely by chance, killing the same constable who'd found him. After this, a distraught Larry confessed to the murder, which summoned Inspector Owen. Owen did not believe that Larry had killed his man, or that Larry was even who he claimed to be, considering Larry Talbot was supposed to have died four years prior.

While Dr. Mannering and Inspector Owen journeyed to Llanwelly to get to the root of things, Larry managed to escape the hospital yet again, but this time he did not return and instead tracked down Maleva, hopeful that she in her vast knowledge of werewolves could help him find a way to die (as by this point, Larry was firmly convinced that only death would relieve him of the curse). Unfortunately, Maleva did not know how he could accomplish this, but offered to help Larry seek the help of Ludwig Frankenstein to maybe find a way of doing it scientifically. Thus, the two journeyed to Visaria, only to discover that they were too late; Ludwig Frankenstein had already perished in the fire which destroyed his mansion.

The pangs of transformation occured yet again and the Wolf Man claimed another victim, this time a young girl. Sought by the torch-wielding Visarians, the Wolf Man hid in the frozen bowels of Ludwig's mansion. Upon turning back into his human self the following morning, Larry discovered the frozen Frankenstein Monster and freed him in the hopes that he could show him where Ludwig's notes were. The Monster (carrying the damaged brain of Ygor) wasn't much help, but Larry did discover that Ludwig had a daughter, Elsa. Posing as "Mr. Taylor," Larry contacted Elsa and expressed an interest in buying her father's estate, but the truth eventually came out during their conversation and Elsa feigned ignorance of Ludwig's notes.

Soon things began to happen very quickly. Dr. Mannering arrived in Visaria, having followed Larry's trail from London, and the Monster soon went public as it disrupted the Visarian Festival of the New Wine. An uneasy agreement was made between all involved parties: Elsa produced her faher's notes, which Mannering vowed to use for the dual purpose of curing Larry and destroying the Monster, thus ridding everyone of all their problems. Unfortunately, Mannering went insane for unclear reasons and instead of killing the Monster he revived it, and in the process took his attention off of Larry for too long, allowing him to become the Wolf Man once more.

The Monster and the Wolf Man then had a titanic battle in the bowels of Ludwig's mansion, and were then both seemingly destroyed when an irate villager named Vazec dynamited a nearby dam, causing a tidal wave to consume the estate.

Notes

• Larry Talbot was created by Curt Siodmak where he was portrayed by actor Lon Chaney Jr. and he featured in the setting of Universal Monsters The Wolf Man universe.

In other media

Television

• In Penny Dreadful, the character Ethan Chandler appeared in the setting of the live-action television series where he was portrayed by actor Josh Hartnet. This version was revealed to be Ethan Lawrence Talbot who was an American that came to be cursed with lycanthropy.

Appearances

• The Wolf Man:

External Links

• Wikipedia Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.[[[CategoryCurt Siodmak]]