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COMMENTARY
They helped 'I Was a Teenage Werewolf' become a drive-in classic
Fifty years later, though, one wishes we'd stop howling about it
Thursday, June 14, 2007
One will celebrate by autographing glossy copies of old stills — as quite possibly the film's last living male actor, he'll rightfully collect his just dues.
Of course, that also means the price of an autograph has jumped to $20 from $10 just a few years ago.
Springfield's Kenny Miller, center right, sang and danced the night away in 1957's 'I Was a Teenage Werewolf.' Another Springfield native, Paul Dunlap, wrote the film's music.As for the other one — let's just say he'd rather celebrate the 50th anniversary of "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" with a silver bullet.
He'd use it to forever end his association with this stupid movie.
"It surprises me that people like yourself are kind enough to call," explained Paul Dunlap, the Springfield native who composed the film's music score. "There are several people like that across the country who really like these films, and I don't really understand it."
Dunlap is one of Springfield's two connections to what might be the best-named movie of the 1950s — no small feat considering the competition included stuff like "The Deadly Mantis."
But back when a movie's title often upstaged the production, "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" had the nerve to be a pretty good flick, too.
Five decades after its release in June 1957, original posters now routinely fetch hundreds of dollars on eBay.
Actor Kenny Miller, a 1949 Springfield High grad, played Michael Landon's bongo-thumping buddy, Vic. During the big party scene, he sang and danced his faux-beatnik heart out.
Likeable to the nth degree, Miller has transcended his supporting role as a regular on the fan convention circuit.
You can watch a short video of Miller talking about his casting in the famous film at SpringfieldNewsSun.com/vod.
And then there's composer Dunlap, now 87 and not in the best of health in Southern California.
He'd rather we just forget his participation in "I Was a Teenage Werewolf." (His wish might come true if the film's copyright holder can't work out a DVD deal.)
"I used a saxophone in a psycho-thriller," Dunlap recalled last week. "That was unusual. That's the only part I like, is the opening.
"I hate most of my stuff. But that's medium-hate."
I didn't ask about his scores to the film's lesser-known sequels, "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" and "How to Make a Monster" — but it's probably not good.
You see, Dunlap studied composition with Schoenberg at UCLA, but much to his embarrassment, found himself writing music for
B-movies throughout the '50s and '60s.
In all, he scored 100 or so movies, from Westerns and war flicks to monster movies and a string of '60s features starring a battle-worn Three Stooges.
"I accepted most everything," Dunlap confessed. "When I was divorced, I got custody of the four children, then I met a woman and she had two children. I had to pay my wife alimony and still support six kids."
As a serious composer, there was just one problem — the movies themselves.
"Take 'Lost Continent,'" he said. "I wrote some very dramatic music for the animals, but the animals themselves are ludicrous. They don't even look half-real."
He made it a point not to see the films he scored. "They were depressing," he insisted.
But 50 years later, working on a piano concerto when his fight with cancer allows, Dunlap concedes one thing about "I Was a Teenage Werewolf."
"It had some interesting music cues in it."
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.
