This is an extremely dull, brown, flatly lit scene and not overtly cinematic, but, look at the edges of the subject, they are lighting him with a white light to highlight the edges and give him definition. You can even see the white highlights on the famous cutaway shot of Mickey Mouse. The white light actually makes this scene work, since the transformation was done entirely with in-camera effects so they could only film closeups with severe limitations, and the transformation of bones and muscles is revealed primarily through the white highlights, especially the incredible effects shot the face transforming into a snout. This scene would probably look pathetic if filmed today forty years later, because of the "advancements" of CGI and digital cinematography.
With the advent of digital cinematography, cinematographers simply stopped lighting films like this. Previously they had to, because they had to overlight everything because they used negative film and couldn't afford to make mistakes. Because digital cinematography doesn't require this correction, they simply stopped doing it, even though they technically could, it's not hard or expensive. But they know better than us I guess. Then Hollywood gets pissed when people don't bother to go to the movies anymore partly because the movies are so dark and ugly.