House of Dracula

The film is utterly ridiculous. It features a bad script, bad acting and some lousy effects. The "plot" (use this term very loosely) has more holes than a strainer. The only iota of continuity is with Edelman's discovery of the Monster. Then he ends up doing so little all you can do is wonder why the character was used at all. Dracula and the Werewolf are just around and well, despite having been "killed" before. No explanation is ever given. Writer Edward T Lowe Jr. couldn't think of any reasonable ways to kill off the heavies so they lead themselves to their executions (though to be fair Lowe may not have been given much choice; his name appears on the credits of some much better films). Dracula's finish is particularly dumb. As the Count John Carradine turns in what has to be the best performance from any of the cast. He manages a fair degree of subtlety and avoids excesses even when the script(?) creates them. Unfortunately, the character he was given to play was a moron. When Dracula succeeded in getting himself killed all I could wonder was how he'd survived two days as one of the undead let alone five hundred years. Lon Chaney, reprising his role as the Wolfman fares even worse. As always he delivers his performance with conviction and feeling. This script kills him though. Any time he succeeds in creating sympathy for the character there's a line that nobody could deliver (not sober anyway) that follows. It's too bad. He was a better actor than that. It's no wonder he walked through a lot of his pictures drunk. The rest of this cast fares even worse. Onslow Stevens is reasonably palatable (if annoyingly patronizing) when his character is good. His "bad" state comes across like a pantomime that wouldn't have been convincing in a silent film. It's amazing the producers didn't decide to send him right over the top with shaving cream foaming from his mouth or something like that. The pair of women here play their parts as if made of wood. To be fair that's about all they were given to work with. Some of dialogue the "beautiful" assistant (Martha O'Driscoll) had would have made Lawrence Olivier struggle for credibility. Ultimately she's only believable when she's hypnotized; then she's supposed to act like a piece of cardboard. As the disfigured assistant the lovely Jane Adams could have been great. She captures the kindness and humility of the tragic "Nina" well. She wasn't given anything to work with either. As a result her character has the emotional range of a kazoo.

The special effects range between fair and lousy. Most of them had been used before (and with better execution). Chaney's transformation from man to beast is solid but that's where quality ends. The animated transformation from bat to human or vice versa is one example. In other features (such as "Son of Dracula" three years earlier) the effect was obvious, but not bad. In this film the effect is so shoddy the producers may just as well have used a bat from a "Looney Tunes" feature. The sequences with the bat are even worse. In at least one of them the wires are visible. Flashbacks involving the monster are pathetic. Most are from other films (featuring other actors in the role) and it shows. Karloff and Strange didn't even walk the same way when portraying the creature. Where maintaining credibility is concerned this film emerges as a lesson in how to shoot yourself in the foot, several times.

It is fun to watch though, so much so that it's impossible to hate or even dislike it. In fact, it's hard not to love it. The transfer to DVD is stellar. The print used appears to be in good shape which is good. Sound and picture quality were, by the 1940's, very good. Granted, the tracks were mono but recording technology had already reached a level which still stands well today. Photography had reached a similar plateau. Some of what's in this film is excellent. The sets are spooky in a way only the old classics managed. The lighting which was an art form unto itself in black and white films is great. It's due to this that this film manages to remain spooky despite its absurdity.

The bottom line: it stunk but I loved it.

This text refers to the DVD transfer in the Legacy Collection