ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Sequel to "House of Frankenstein", again resurrecting and reuniting the Big Three of horror.

A kindly doctor (Onslow Stevens) is trying to "cure" both Dracula (John Carradine) and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney, Jr.). This "hard science" approach to old horror movie ideas was typical of co-writer Curt Siodmak.

Stevens learns that the key to the Wolf Man's cure is a brain operation and an extract from an exotic plant. He also finds that Dracula's condition is caused by a bizarre virus in his blood, and the doctor sets out to synthesize an antidote while giving Dracula blood transfusions to keep him healthy (and make him behave).

However, Dracula puts the bite on Stevens' assistant, so the doctor exposes the evil Count to the killing rays of the morning sun. Unfortunately, the good doctor's own blood has already been tainted by the Count's, causing Stevens to periodically turn into a blood-crazed killer. He eventually destroys his own hunchbacked assistant (played by a pretty young woman, Jane Adam — an original touch).

And then the doctor finds the dormant Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange) in a series of tunnels near the castle. Stevens manages to cure Chaney's lycanthropy, but he revives the Frankenstein monster for evil purposes. Lionel Atwill again plays the chief of police (though he changes names and towns from film to film), and he leads a police raid on the castle, aided by the now-cured Chaney. The cops do battle with the doctor and the monster.

Directed by Erle C. Kenton, from a screenplay by Edward T. Lowe and Curt Siodmak. Jack Pierce provided the makeup.

This was the last serious monster round-up from Universal, but we do get to see these Universal superstars one last time in the popular and highly enjoyable "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein".
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Casey62]

At the moment, I'm watching this atmospheric, beautifully lit monsterfest which I think gets too easily bumped in favor of HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. I first saw HOUSE OF DRACULA 45 years ago to the day - 2/13/71 - when it was shown on Chicago's own "Creature Features." What I especially relish about the Universal horrors is the total sincerity in the performances - no one for a moment makes you feel like they're not taking it seriously.

I particularly admire Lon Chaney for this, since he's the one actor who was called upon the most to repeat similar dialogue in film after film, and say it like he meant it each time. Onslow Stevens is excellent as a Jekyll/Hyde-type vampire, and John Carradine is at his most cultured as Dracula. Jane Adams is also memorable as the beautiful hunchbacked lab assistant.

[Bud Brewster]

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All Sci-Fi is in desperate need of more folks around here who appreciate movies like this from the Golden Age of Horror. See if you can coax some of the other folks from the CHFB to help us out.

Tell 'em we've got a sad lack of discussions like yours in this neck to the woods.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Universal certainly knew how to sell their movies to monster hungry audiences, and this one is a fine example. We even get to see a bat fly in a window and then morph into Dracula!

And ya gotta love those "swing down" blurbs that told us just what treats were in store for us!






And then the trailer proceeds to count off the monsters, with carefully chosen scenes for each one. I thought it was amusing that the last two "monsters" were The Mad Scientist and The Hunchback Nurse.

Gee, I wonder if Universal ever considered a sequel called The Mad Hunchback Son of the Evil Doctor and the Disfigured Nurse!

It would give The Munsters a run for their money.

Watch this great trailer and remember all those Late Late Shows you watched on Friday nights during the days of your youth.
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________ House of Dracula (1945) Official Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[The Spike]

House Of Dracula is out of Universal Pictures and is directed by Erle C. Kenton. It's written by Edward T. Lowe Jr and stars Lon Chaney Jr, John Carradine, Martha O'Driscol, Glenn Strange, Lionel Atwill, Jane Adams & Onslow Stevens.

It's a sequel to House Of Frankenstein that was released the previous year and again sees the three principal Universal monsters (Frankenstein's Monster, Count Dracula & The Wolf Man) thrust together. Plot basically involves Dracula (Carradine) & Larry Talbot/Wolf Man (Chaney Jr) turning up at Dr. Edelmann's (Stevens) mansion seeking a cure for their respective creature afflictions. Murder, blood and the unearthing of Frankenstein's monster ensues.

It's not even better than House Of Frankenstein, which is fun but disposable, for this is sadly tired and weary. A commercial success at the box office, it marks the last hurrah for Universal's monster pictures before the creatures went off lampooning with comedy duos. The film clocks in at just 67 minutes so with that it doesn't out stay its welcome. While the additions of Adams as a " beautiful" hunchback assistant, and Edelmann going through a Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde like crisis prove to be entertaining ingredients in the bonkers monster stew.

Packed with flaws (both narratively and technically) that smacks of a rushed cash cow job, and unintentionally funny, House Of Dracula is watchable for Universal Monsters purists only. 5/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

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I found a nice trivia item for this movie on IMDB.
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Actor Glenn Strange suffered greatly during the shooting of the scene in which the Frankenstein Monster is discovered in quicksand.

After sitting for three hours in the makeup chair each morning, having his makeup applied by Jack P. Pierce, Strange would spend the rest of the day buried in cold liquid mud (which doubled for the quicksand). "Then everybody else went out for lunch," Strange recalled. "By the time they came back, I was so cold, I could barely feel my legs."

Strange's co-star, Lon Chaney Jr., suggested that Strange use alcohol to keep himself warm. Throughout the day, Chaney passed a bottle of whiskey to Strange in between takes. By the end of the day, Strange recalled, he was so drunk he could barely dress himself after removing his monster makeup and costume.
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Ah-HA! So THAT'S why the monster walks like a drunk and never speaks! He's stewed!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Universal Studios MONSTERS: A Legacy of Horror by Michael Mallory.

The last serious film of Universal's Frankenstein/Dracula/ Wolf Man saga, House of Dracula is structured more like Casablanca than any earlier horror film: just as everybody comes to Rick's in that wartime romantic drama, every monster comes to Dr. Edelmann's.

While the appearance of the Frankenstein Monster follows the storyline of the preceding film House of Frankenstein---there he went down in a bog of quicksand, and here he's dropped into the cave, but is still covered in muck---there is no effort to explain how both Talbot and Dracula returned to life after their earlier demises.

Cadaverous John Carradine makes an unnerving, if not quite terrifying, vampire, though the real star of House of Dracula is Onslow Stevens, an actor with a smooth, resonant voice similar to that of Orson Welles, and the talent to pull off the Jekyll-and-Hyde part convincingly.

Stevens had a long, if largely unheralded, career in Hollywood, but tragically ended up the victim of a real-life mystery: his death in a nursing home in 1977 was ruled to be the result of foul play.

The climatic sequence of the Monster rampaging through the laboratory was economically snipped from the end of Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and shows both Lon Chaney Jr. and stuntman Eddie parker as the Monster.

Released in December of 1945, House of Dracula effectively signaled the end of Universal's second horror cycle. By then such films had served their purpose, offering audiences an hour's worth of escape into a Neverland version of Europe, where 19th-century gypsies co-exist with leading ladies in contemporary fashions, where the countryside is untouched by the horrors of war, and where the monsters are recognizable by their neck bolts, not their arm bands.

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has an interesting trivia items about this production.
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~ Actor Glenn Strange suffered greatly during the shooting of the scene in which the Frankenstein Monster is discovered in quicksand.

After sitting for three hours in the makeup chair each morning, having his makeup applied by Jack P. Pierce, Strange would spend the rest of the day buried in cold liquid mud (which doubled for the quicksand). "Then everybody else went out for lunch," Strange recalled. "By the time they came back, I was so cold, I could barely feel my legs."

Strange's co-star, Lon Chaney Jr., suggested that Strange use alcohol to keep himself warm. Throughout the day, Chaney passed a bottle of whiskey to Strange in-between takes. By the end of the day, Strange recalled, he was so drunk he could barely dress himself after removing his monster makeup and costume.

Note from me:Yes, indeed, if you're covered in elaborate monster makeup, mired in thick mud, wearing heavy platform shoes, suffering from hypothermia, and completely exhausted from a long day on the movie set, the smartest thing to do is get so drunk you can barely stand up.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)