Son of Dracula (1943)

I'm back to help you through hump day with a look at Universal's 1943 Lon Chaney Jr. vehicle Son of Dracula!

 By 1943, Universal had clearly positioned Chaney as the heir to his famous father's role as the "Master Character Creator, and their top horror star. Having already originated the role of the Wolf Man, and subsequently tackling the roles of the Frankenstein Monster and the Mummy, it was perhaps inevitable that he would don the black cape of the vampire king Count Dracula.

The mysterious Count Alucard journeys to New Orleans at the invitation of Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton). Colonel Caldwell (George Irving), Katherine's father, dies soon after Alucard's arrival, leaving his plantation to Katherine, while her sister Claire(Evelyn Ankers) inherits his fortune. Katherine soon spurns her boyfriend Frank Stanley(Robert Paige), marrying Alucard. During a confrontation, Frank tries to shoot Alucard, but the bullets pass through the Count and hit Katherine. Mortified, Frank runs away.

 

 Frank goes to his friend Dr. Brewster(Frank Craven) for help. When Brewster pays a visit to the couple, he finds Katherine seemingly alive and well. Alucard and Katherine inform the doctor that their days are consumed with their new scientific research; thus, they will only accept visitors at night. With the arrival of Professor Lazlo(J. Edward Bromberg), the vampiric nature of Alucard is revealed, and the three of them realize that Katherine has become a vampire as well. Ominously, Lazlo realizes what name is revealed when "Alucard" is spelled backward...

 Son of Dracula is not a particularly well-liked film. Most viewers take issue with Chaney's casting as Dracula, feeling that the burly, thoroughly American actor is not suited for the role. Honestly, it's tough to disagree. However, the film takes on a new dimension, and Chaney seems less miscast, if you consider the possibility that his character is an imposter. He claims to be Dracula, but there's no evidence presented to substantiate this claim. There is a very real possibility that Alucard is simply a vampire who has usurped the dreaded name of Count Dracula to boost his reputation. I find that the film is more enjoyable if viewed with this in mind. The script does call Alucard's true identity into question, so it's not coming completely out of left field. Many of the problems people have with the film, and the characterization of Alucard in particular, disappear when watching it from this point of view.

The cast is good overall, but the standout is easily Louise Allbritton's Katherine. She ranges from  feigned innocence to seductive persuasion to coldly manipulative with ease, becoming the films most interesting character. As the film nears its conclusion, she has usurped Alucard as the most dangerous threat to the other characters in the film.

Tightly scripted by The Wolf Man scribe Curt Siodmak, and ably directed by his brother Robert Siodmak, Son of Dracula is an atmospheric thriller that ranks among the best horror films of the 1940s despite its flaws. The New Orleans setting lends it a unique quality among the classic horror films, and the Universal horrors in particular. The film notably features the first time a vampire transforms into a bat onscreen, an effect achieved by Academy Award-winning visual effects guru John P. Fulton. Ultimately, Son of Dracula may be only a minor classic in the Universal canon, but this often-overlooked film is a gem that is well worth spending 80 minutes with.

31 Days of Halloween: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

 It's Werewolf Wednesday! Today, we're looking at one of the most unjustly maligned films of the 1940s, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man!

 When I was a little kid, these classic movies weren't so readily available, so anytime I got to view one of the classic Universal horrors, it was something of an event. There was a series of small hardcover books at the school library, each of which focused on a particular Universal horror film. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was mentioned in one of these books, and I immediately became obsessed with it. Surely this must be the greatest movie ever made! Several years passed before I was finally able to watch it. At that point, nothing could have met my expectations, so I was inevitably disappointed. However, the film is a good deal better than it is often deemed.

As a sequel to both The Wolf Man and The Ghost of Frankenstein, both of which starred Lon Chaney Jr. as the titular monsters, the original intent was to have Chaney play both roles in this film through the use of doubles and trick photography. When this was deemed either too complicated or prohibitively costly, Bela Lugosi wound up playing the role he had had turned down more than a decade ago(an action which hobbled his career from that point on): the Frankenstein Monster.

The film gets right down to business, finding a way to resurrect Larry Talbot in a delightfully creepy opening scene. Wishing only to die again, Talbot locates Maleva(Maria Ouspenskaya). The duo make their way to Vasaria, searching for the aid of the man who knew how to artificially create life, and presumably, end it as well: Dr. Frankenstein. Talbot is disheartened to learn of Frankenstein's death, but manages to enlist the aid of his daughter, Baroness Elsa Frankenstein(Ilona Massey). Talbot winds up discovering the Monster frozen in ice, and the three of them succeed in locating Dr. Frankenstein's notes. Dr. Mannering(Patric Knowles), who is pursuing Talbot, agrees to use the information contained in Frankenstein's notes to drain the life force from both Talbot and the Monster. Naturally, things don't go as planned, and the Monster winds up tangling with Talbot's hirsute alter-ego.

 Much had been said about Bela's portrayal of the Monster, and little of it has been kind. His performance does come off rather poorly in the film, but none of that is Bela's fault. At the end of the previous entry in the series, The Ghost of Frankenstein, the sinister Ygor (Lugosi) had successfully conned a scientist into transplanting his brain into the body of the Frankenstein Monster. The reign of terror that was surely coming was suddenly cut short when the Monster suddenly lost his eyesight due to incompatible blood types. 

Hence, in this film, the Monster is nearly blind, and Bela gives the Monster a stiff gait with his arms outstretched. (Oddly enough, the stiff walk with arms outstretched has become the default walk for the Monster in the public consciousness.) The Monster would speak in Ygor's voice, and there was dialogue to explain that the Monster was nearly blind, and was very weak from his ordeals.

Unfortunately, a test audience found the effect of Ygor's voice coming from the Monster's mouth comical, so Universal hastily cut all of the Monster's dialogue from the film. Several scenes remain in which the Monster has dialogue, but Universal simply removed the sound so that the Monster's lips move silently! Even worse, they didn't bother to have someone else in the film explain the Monster's near-blindness, so his stiff, groping walk has no context, and just comes off as odd. Bela's performance is not without its moments, however. the look he gives as feels his power return, a blood-curdling glare of pure malevolent intent, is quite possibly the highlight of the entire film. This is no longer the abused, sympathetic creature originated by Karloff, but a cunning, manipulative bastard who means to do serious harm just for the fun of it. Ygor has some serious axes to grind, and with the power of the Monster at his disposal, he is a fiend to make the world tremble.

 (For the original script, with all of the Monster's dialogue, check out this book. Yeah, it's out of print and dreadfully expensive. If you're interested in it, just keep a watch, as decently priced copies do show up from time to time.)

Chaney is in fine form as Larry Talbot and the Wolf Man, as always. Chaney takes a lot of flak that I feel isn't warranted; he was more talented and versatile than he is generally given credit for. Just about everyone can agree that he always did a great job as Talbot; it seems he was born to play that role.

The rest of the cast is perfectly adequate, and we even get brief appearances by Lionel Atwill (Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein) and Dwight Frye(Renfield in Dracula). (Frye, sadly, would die far too young later that year.)

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was the beginning of the "monster rallies," in which two or more of the Universal monsters were tossed into the same film together. There is little of the artistry in these entries that preceding films had, but they are still often fun when taken on their own merits. In the final analysis, isn't that what really matters? Despite its flaws, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man remains one of the all-around most fun movies of its era.
(Blogger is acting weird today, and has inserted giant gaps between some of the following photos. I have no idea what the deal is, and have tried everything to get rid of 'em. Just keep scrolling down for more cool photos, and ignore the gaps.)

Stuntman Gil Perkins fills in for Bela.

Bela and son.

31 Days of Halloween: The Wolf Man

It's Werewolf Wednesday, where we focus on something werewolf-related. To kick off the inaugural Werewolf Wednesday, there's no better choice than the king of all werewolf films, 1941's The Wolf Man!

The Wolf Man was the last of the great Universal Monsters, at least until the Gill Man made his debut in The Creature from the Black Lagoon more than a decade later. Unlike the Frankenstein Monster and Dracula, there was no literary antecedent for Universal to draw from in creating the Wolf Man. (They didn't take much from their earlier lycanthropic effort, Werewolf of London, either. We'll get to that one in a couple of weeks.)

Universal turned to writer Curt Siodmak, who is solely responsible for much of what is now accepted as traditional werewolf lore. The use of a silver-tipped weapon to kill a werewolf? That came from Siodmak. A werewolf being marked by a pentagram? Siodmak. The "Even a man who is pure in heart..." rhyme, frequently (and erroneously) referred to as a part of traditional gypsy folklore? Pure Siodmak.

The werewolf transformations are not linked to the full moon in this film; in fact, we never once see the moon at any point in the film. The transformations seem to occur at certain times of the year, as referred to in the final line of the gypsy rhyme. This would change with the sequels, though.

The plot of The Wolf Man is simple enough: Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home following his brother's death. He is bitten by a werewolf, then becomes one himself. Mayhem ensues.

The cast is pitch-perfect, right down to the tiniest supporting roles. Get a load of this amazing cast: Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot, Claude Rains as his father, Evelyn Ankers as  Gwen Conliffe, Talbot's love interest, Patric Knowles as her fiancee, Ralph Bellamy as Colonel Montford, Warren William as Dr. Lloyd, Maria Ouspenskaya as the gypsy woman Maleva, and Bela Lugosi as Maleva's son. That is easily one of the greatest casts ever assembled for a horror film, and all of them are very good in their roles. Chaney Jr. is often underrated as an actor, and while he isn't on the same level of a Karloff or Lugosi, he was better than he is generally given credit for. He is splendid as Larry Talbot, a role he seems to have been born to play. Of the marvelous supporting cast, Ouspenskaya, in particular, is a standout, and Bela makes a strong impression in the brief time he is onscreen.

The film is also excellent from a technical standpoint. The score is one of my favorites from the era, and ranks among the great horror film scores of all time. This is one of those films that really drives home how lousy the music in the majority of more modern horror films really is. The atmospheric cinematography and set designs set the mood perfectly.

And then, we have the visual effects. Jack Pierce's wonderful makeup design is one of the all-time great iconic creations, and the transformation scenes are very well done. They would perfect the transformation technique in future films featuring the Wolf Man. Chaney spent long hours in the makeup chair as Pierce worked his magic, but it all paid off in the end, as Chaney took his place as one of the great horror icons.

The Wolf Man was the most popular of the monsters during the World War II years, and he remains the only classic Universal monster who was portrayed by the same actor in every appearance. Chaney eventually portrayed all of the classic monsters, but he always referred to the Wolf Man as his "baby." It was one of his favorite roles, and easily the one for which he is best remembered today. That's a fine legacy indeed.

The Wolf Man is not my favorite of the classic Universal monsters, but this film is one of my very favorite horror movies. Siodmak's marvelous screenplay, a cast that is almost too good to be true, and the film's all-around technical excellence makes The Wolf Man one of the crown jewels in the classic Universal horror cycle. There have been several DVD releases of this film that can be had cheaply, and it deserves to be on the short list of classic horror movies you should see if you're not already familiar with it. It is one of Universal's best.
Keep scrolling down, there are a TON of photos!

 

That's Bela Lugosi Jr. in the uniform!

Chaney with his dog, Moose.