The Curse of the Werewolf is a 1961 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed and Yvonne Romain. It was written and produced by Anthony Hinds for Hammer Film Productions, and based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris (1933) by Guy Endore.

The leading part of the werewolf was Oliver Reed's first starring role in a film. Composer Benjamin Frankel's score is notable for its use of twelve-tone serialism, rare in film music. It was the first werewolf film to be shot in Technicolor.

A beggar in 18th-century Spain is imprisoned by the cruel marqués Siniestro after making an inappropriate remark at the nobleman's wedding feast. The beggar is forgotten, and his sole human contact is with the jailer and his mute daughter. Lonely after having driven away his wife with his violent temper, the aging marqués makes advances on the jailer's daughter while she is cleaning his room. When she refuses him, the marqués has her thrown into the beggar's cell. The beggar, driven mad by his long confinement and sporting wolf fur over most of his body, rapes her and then dies.

The jailer's daughter is released the next day and brought to the marqués. She kills the marqués and flees. She is found in the forest by the gentleman-scholar Don Alfredo Corledo, who lives alone with his housekeeper Teresa. Teresa is unable to treat her ailment, and the jailer's daughter dies after giving birth on Christmas Day.

Alfredo and Teresa raise the baby, whom they name Leon. Leon, cursed by the circumstances of his conception and by his Christmas Day birth, is a werewolf. A number of goats are found dead, their throats torn out, and Pepe Valiente, the watchman, fires a shot at what he believes to be a wolf. The next morning Teresa extracts a bullet from Leon, but he denies having gone out, having no memory of his doings as a werewolf. However, when Alfredo presses him, he recounts how on his first hunting trip he started licking a dead squirrel out of compassion and found he had a taste for blood.

Alfredo consults his priest, who concludes that Leon is a werewolf due to an evil spirit that has been with him since birth. Only by Leon loving others and being loved in return can the spirit be kept at bay. Alfredo resolves to give Leon all the love he needs, and installs steel bars on Leon's bedroom window to keep him from getting out again. The werewolf transformations cease, and a herder Dominique's dog is blamed for the earlier killings.

Thirteen years later, Leon leaves home to seek work at the Gomez vineyard. The vintner, Don Fernando, sets Leon to work in the wine cellar with Jose Amadeo, who becomes Leon's friend. Leon falls in love with Fernando's daughter, Cristina, who is betrothed to a nobleman. He carries on a love affair with her and attempts to persuade her to elope with him, but unwilling to leave her home, she refuses him. Despondent, Leon goes with Jose to a nearby brothel. He transforms and kills Vera, one of the girls, and Jose, before returning to Alfredo's house.

Alfredo and the priest fill Leon in on his werewolf nature. Certain that Cristina's love can prevent his transformation, he makes a last appeal for her to elope with him, and this time she agrees. While Cristina is packing, Leon is arrested on suspicion of murder due to his clothes having been found at the scene. He begs to be released and entrusted to the care of a monastery before he changes again, but the mayor Don Enrique does not believe him after Cristina fails to corroborate his story, not having been told he is a werewolf. Giving up hope, Leon urges Alfredo to use the silver bullet which Pepe made from a crucifix blessed by an archbishop in response to his childhood killings. His wolf nature rising to the surface, he breaks out of his cell, killing an old soak and the gaoler. The local people pursue Leon with torches but are unable to bring him down. Though torn with grief, Alfredo loads the silver bullet, shoots Leon dead, and tearfully covers his body with a cloak.