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Film: House of Dracula
Year: 1945
Director: Erle C. Kenton
Writer: Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Starring: Onslow Stevens, John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr.
Review:
In this film we begin with Count Dracula, played by John Carradine, come into a castle using an alias. He seeks out the doctor, played by Onslow Stevens. He begins explaining what he is and convincing Stevens of who he is in order to get him to help him create a cure to the curse of his hunger.
After a little convincing he agrees. He begins to do research and to find a cure when Lon Chaney Jr. shows up, needing a cure to being the wolf man. To complicate the story even more, there is a nurse that works for Stevens that has a hunchback and the doctor has developed a type of mold that softens bone that could also fix her problem.
Chaney is quite adamant that he needs to be helped that when he can’t be before the next full moon, he jumps over a cliff into the ocean. Stevens goes down after him and they encounter in a sea-cave, where they find the Frankenstein monster.
Carradine wants to turn Stevens’ other nurse into one of the undead. When Stevens tries to intervene, Carradine turns the blood transfusions he is receiving from Stevens in reverse, sending his blood into the doctor’s veins.
Can the doctor solve everyone’s problems and save not only himself, but the others around him?
This movie isn’t the greatest, but it definitively is better than some of the horror flicks that come out today. Universal tried to use their major horror characters and combine them into one story and this is one of the results. Chaney plays the wolf man well like he did in the original. Carradine is a solid Dracula and Stevens are good as well as the doctor who has a lot of problems on his hands. Lionel Atwill makes an appearance as the inspector from town; he has played in many of the films from this series. Frankenstein’s monster is thrown in for all of about 5 minutes and kind of seems like something that was last second. I feel if they were going to incorporate him, they should have done it a little earlier so they could fully explore the character or just not at all.
Not a bad film, don’t expect to be blown away, but if you’re a fan of the classics I think you’ll enjoy this one. There were some great actors from the era. Chaney actually is reprising his role as the Wolf Man and Carradine did well at Dracula. I don’t feel the film came together as they originally envisioned and part of me wonders if they had too much going on. Despite this, the film is still interesting and still enjoyable as a sequel to these other classic films.
My Rating: 6 out of 10