SON OF DRACULA (1943)
Lon Chaney Jr. takes his turn as Count Dracula, traveling under the assumed name of Count Alucard, which maybe isn't the most ironclad alias. Drac is up to his old tricks, but this time in the American South, seducing women in white dresses away from their fiancées and draining the blood from the necks of his victims. Alucard arrives on a train... or at least his luggage does. What curious coffin-shaped trunks he has!
Lon Chaney Jr. is not really equal to this part. He has an "aw shucks" sensibility about him which works great as Larry Talbot/The Wolf Man, but he cannot quite summon the quiet menace and dignity of the Count. Bela Lugosi still owns it.
This film features the first onscreen transformations, as Dracula morphs from vampire to bat to gaseous cloud and back again throughout the picture. Those are cool. This Dracula likes to use his powers, although the weakness of having to sleep all day in a coffin filled with graveyard earth defenseless against attack rather dwarfs his comparative advantages. Unfortunately, I found the film to be joyless, tedious and slow.
Universal Classic Horror Blog Series Rating:
4 - For everyone
3 - For horror fans only
2 - For classic horror fans only
1 - For Pete's sake
0 - Paging MST3K
Lon Chaney Jr. is not really equal to this part. He has an "aw shucks" sensibility about him which works great as Larry Talbot/The Wolf Man, but he cannot quite summon the quiet menace and dignity of the Count. Bela Lugosi still owns it.
This film features the first onscreen transformations, as Dracula morphs from vampire to bat to gaseous cloud and back again throughout the picture. Those are cool. This Dracula likes to use his powers, although the weakness of having to sleep all day in a coffin filled with graveyard earth defenseless against attack rather dwarfs his comparative advantages. Unfortunately, I found the film to be joyless, tedious and slow.
Universal Classic Horror Blog Series Rating:
4 - For everyone
3 - For horror fans only
2 - For classic horror fans only
1 - For Pete's sake
0 - Paging MST3K