Eighteenth century Spain, the film opens as the Marques (Anthony Dawson) is in the midst of celebrating his wedding. During, the festivities, a knock at the door brings an interruption from hungry beggar (Richard Wordsworth) looking for a little substance. After toiling with his new pet for a few minutes, the Marquis quickly grows irritates and throw derelict thrown into the dungeons, where he remains forgotten by all but the jailer and his mute daughter (Yvonne Romain) for many years.

As the days go by, a decrepit Marques hoping to again sow his wild oats tries having his way with the unsuspecting mute servant girl. When she rejects the Masters’ advances, he has her thrown into the dungeon, where the beggar, who has become a rabid animal, rapes her. Once she is release, she quickly creeps up and viciously does away with Marques. Fleeing for her life, she eludes capture by the authority by living like a wild animal in the woods, until one day when she is taking in by Don Alfredo (Clifford Evans).  

As the girl recovers in the warmth of Alfredo’s home, his servant Teresa (Hira Talfrey) realizes the she is with child, but is fearful that child will be born on Christmas Day. Just as the Christmas bells chime out; the howl of a wolf can be heard followed by that of a crying of a newborn babe. Unfortunately for Leon his mother dies after giving birth. As the years go by, young Leon’s birthright begins to catch up with him, when as a young child he is haunted by strange nightmares of begin a wolf and this coupled along with the death of a flock of sheep sends Don Alfredo to the local parish for guidance. It is there that his worse fears are confirmed; Leon is a werewolf. The Father suggests bathing the child with love and care in hopes of suppressing the spirit of the wolf that now possesses him. 

For many years, the love of his adopted family (Alfredo and Teresa) helps to keep at bay the beast, but now the time has come for Leon (Oliver Reed) to go out in the real world. When he takes up trade as a wine maker, he enters into forbidden love affair with his boss’s daughter Cristina (Catherine Feller). Hoping to steal away with his love, Leon is persuaded to spend one last night carousing at the local bordello, but as the full moon rises high in the night sky, he is transformed once again into a murderous werewolf.  As the touch-bearing villagers search for the monster, only love can save Leon.

After conquering Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Mummy, the next logical step for Hammer alumni Terence Fisher was the Werewolf. The story for the film came from Guy Endore’s 1933 novel “The Werewolf of Paris” and was originally owned by Universal. In the early summer of 1960, Universal subcontracted those rights to Hammer who quickly moved the film into production. The film was able to take advantage of the set that were abandon from Hammer’s feature “The Inquisitor” which had been cancelled earlier that year, because of fears of condemnation by the Catholic Church. Roy Ashton's outstanding makeup effects couple with Oliver Reed's portrayal of the cursed Leon helped to bring to life a first rate werewolf films. "The Curse of the Werewolf" is easily one of the greatest  lycanthrope films ever to grace the silver screen, done as only Hammer could do it.