Customer Reviews

House of Dracula

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is how Universal's original horror series ended back in 1945. This was the year that horror fell out of favour with the cinema going public. The story is actually an improvement on 'House of Frankenstein', in that it IS actually a story and not just a series of set-pieces as it was before. John Carradine is back, thankfully turning in amore restrained performance than in his last effort - and despite being killed previously, Larry Talbot's newly 'tached wolfman returns. The mad doctor is Doctor Edelman, exceptionally played by Onslow Stevens. As previous reviews have said, this is no classic, but it is good fun. The main disappointment is that, once again, Glenn Strange's Frankenstein monster is given virtually nothing to do. Even the inevitable fiery climax is taken from 'Ghost of Frankenstin', which featured Lon Chaney as the monster! Strange's creature has more on-screen time in 'Abbott and Costello meets Frankenstein' made in 1948, a film which also sees Bela Lugosi rightfully playing Dracula for his second and, sadly, final time.

The late sequels in Universal Studios Monster line up were turkeys. As a rule the later the sequel, the bigger the turkey that came out. We all know that. We know it every time we rent one of them and we know it before buying any of them. But, they're fun to watch. They're so bad they're beautiful (or something like that). But, when you pull out the last of the sequels you do it knowing it should be something that "gobble, gobbles" its way around the yard a time or ten. Let's qualify this. Abbott and Costello's outing with Universal's group of "creepies" wasn't really a sequel. For one thing it didn't have any continuity with the rest of the pictures (not that some of the sequels did either). Unlike the sequels it was played for laughs, deliberately that is; some of the sequels had plenty of laughs but most of them weren't intentional. It was also a pretty good film. The later sequels weren't good films. House of Dracula was the last of the real sequels and only one thing can be said about it.

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

House of Dracula is an enjoyable classic monster film. Onslow Stevens is quite good as the compassionate, but mis-guided scientist who trys to "cure" Dracula, the Wolf Man and The Frankenstein Monster as well as his lovely, but Hunchedbacked, assistant, the ravishing Jane Adams. Quite an ambitious agenda for one film! The results are mixed, Dracula can't stop preying on pretty nurses and is dispatched by the good doctor. However Dracula, played very well by John Carradine, reverses a transfusion and curses the doctor with some of his blood. The doctor performs an operation and cures Lon Chaney Jr. of the Werewolf curse. Tragically, Dracula's blood turns the good doctor to evil and he revives the Frankenstein Monster and kills his pretty nurse before he is gunned down by the now ex-Wolfman. Lionel Atwill (always a welcome addition to these films!) is electrocuted by Frankenstein before the monster is consumed in the flames of the laboratory. This movie whatever its faults certainly doesn't drag!! All this and more happens in a brisk 70 minutes. What I don't understand is why Universal hasn't released "House of Dracula" on DVD with its other classic monster films? I have the VHS tape above as well as the Laserdisc release of 1995. Both show a print that is quite well preserved. So where is the DVD Universal???????? I would like to complete my collection~and get a few more as gifts!! My brother and I watched these as kids growing up, far better than the often sexually explicit "Slasher Flicks" that today's pre-teens are watching!! When our parents were that age movies like "House of Dracula" were what they watched at the Saturday afternoon Matinee. I am sure they would also love to see it again as well. I can only hope that Universal "digs it up", before the next full moon or at least in the near future for a DVD release!

For this Universal Studio film, all the elements of a classic monster movie are here. Similar to "House of Frankenstein," several of the monsters make an appearance. Wolf Man, Dracula, and Frankenstein's Monster are joined by a mad scientist and a hunchbacked assistant. Unlike the aforementioned film, there is no scene that pits them against each other.

Dr. Edelman is a scientist out to help his fellow man. In an attempt to get close to the doctor's assistant, Count Dracula asks for help in curing his vampirism. While this is going on, Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.'s Wolf Man character) approaches the doctor for help in curing his lycanthropy. Frankenstein's Monsters if found (still alive, but very weak) in the caves underneath the castle.

Without going into the plot or the ending too much, I will say that none of the monsters ever interact with each other or fight. The whole time watching, I was waiting for some grand fight scene, but alas it never happens. The ending seems kind of quick and leaves you wondering why Universal made the movie.

If you collect the old Universal monster movies, then you can't help but buy the movie and watch. I would not watch this as your first foray into the genre or the collection.

(...)The film suffered from John Carradine's presence, but seeing the innocent, sympathetic Talbot cured made up for that.

This film is pretty good, but John Carradine is not suited for his role. Count Dracula (John Carradine) is seeking a cure for vamprism by a sympethetic doctor (Onslow Stevens). Blood transfusions begin between the two. The doctor then gets Larry Talbot (Once again played greatly by Lon Chaney, Jr.) who seeks a cure (not death) from his affliction. Dracula attempts to sink his teeth into the doctor's nurse, but is killed by the doctor. Dracula's blood contaminates him, and he becomes a Jekyll/Hyde doctor. In evil form, he revives the Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange) and it boils down to the cured Wolf Man to save everyone.

The premise actually is a very intriguing one for the "classic horror genre," in that a well-respected doctor, apparently highly regarded for research and innovation that is vaguely left hanging, with a strong religious belief, is approached for healing... and has sufficient idealism to extend the healing arts even to Dracula! Of course, the viewer has no idea of how said doctor was known by Dracula and the Wolf Man, or how he conveniently has the Frankenstein monster on his property, and healing of one who has been dead (then un-dead) for centuries seems excessively ambitious, but the effect remains curiously poignant - the efforts of a man of science, sincerely good, who hopes to find cures for the mind and soul through healing metabolic processes. (That these monsters all had previously died in several feature films is irrelevant - that detail never stopped their reappearance before.)

I'm sure I'm not alone (amongst Universal horror film buffs) in having always found Larry Talbot (Wolf Man) to be an extremely sympathetic character. (Remember "The path you walked was thorny, through no fault of your own..." from the original?) This film, in all honesty, is so poorly executed (in the literary sense, since the filmography is good for the genre), and the plot so patchy, largely from seeking to integrate several different and unrelated monster themes, that it is only for fans of the series. Yet it is a great pleasure to see the decent and innocent Larry Talbot cured!

Much goes unexplained, of course, and the depiction of the doctor, quite moving in the beginning, is dreadful when, in a puzzling move, a bit of Dracula's blood turns him into (not a vampire but) a mad scientist seeking to kill. The Frankenstein monster would have been well left out, since he plays no real part in anything but the poor ending.

Still, it is fun, and just seeing the wolf man restored to health is worth an annual viewing.

Since ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN was a curtain-call for the classic Universal monsters, as well being played for laughs, HOUSE OF DRACULA has to be considered to be the official end of the Universal "Monster-Rally" saga. In this flick, both Dracula (a cadaverous John Carradine) and the Wolf Man (a now mustached Lon Chaney, Jr.) seek cures for their afflictions from a famed doctor (Onslow Stevens). In the course of the film, Stevens will get his blood contaminated by Drac, turning him into a Jekyll/Hyde type maniac. The now-sinister doctor also comes across the Frankenstein monster and seeks to revive the creature. It comes down to a finally cured Wolf Man to save the day. Needless to say, this movie suffers from rushed writing, and wild omissions. For instance, we get no explaination for Drac & Wolfie's returns after they were supposedly killed off in the previous HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. At least, the happy ending accorded Chaney's suffering Wolf Man makes for a somewhat satisfying wrap-up to this saga. Stevens is very solid as the doctor turned fiend, while Chaney is reliable in his signature role. Carradine adds a nice sense of chill as Dracula. Unfortunately, Glenn Strange has little to do, but lie on a table and stomp around for the final 5 minutes as the Frankenstein monster. Not the best of the Universal horrors, but recommended for fans of the classic monsters.

Sequel to HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, has Count Dracula (John Carradine) seeking the aid of a smart, sympathetic Doctor (Onslow Stevens) for a cure for his killer instincts, but only for an attempt to get his hands (or fangs) on his pretty young nurse (Martha O'Driscoll). Meanwhile Larry Talbot/the Wolfman (Lon Chaney, Jr. - who in mustache this time is sort of tough to take) comes to the Doctor with the same idea, but is of course sincere. After a blood transfusion for Dracula goes amiss, and the Vampire is destroyed by the rays of sunlight, the Doctor becomes infected by Dracula's tainted blood, and becomes an insane mad doctor by night. Later Stevens and Chaney discover the body of the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange) from the remains of the quicksand, and after performing brain surgery to cure Talbot from his werewolf state, the effect is - A SUCCESS! The trouble begins as Stevens murders a villager and brings Frankenstein's Monster back to life, the angry mob intrude, but this time we are treated to something different as Talbot becomes the good guy he wanted to be, gets the beautiful girl in O'Driscoll and destroys the Monster who perishes in the fiery laboratory. OK sequel to a seemingly endless series of Universal Horrors, but the result is pretty mediocre with some hokey dialogue, a very brief appearance from the Monster, recycled footage from several earlier Universal Classics, and by 1945 with the end of World War 2, audiences probably had enough real world horror, but you can be the judge!

My FAVORITE 40's Universal Guilty Pleasure Horror. It's the most fascinating and innovative of the 40's portfolio. Superstition takes a back seat to scientific experimentation conducted to "cure" the famous monsters of Universaland. It anticipates the surgical horrors of Franju, Franco's ORLOFF series, Cronenberg. It is, in a way, the first "modern" horror film as chemistry and bio-pathology replace peasant hokum. Larry Talbot is just great, no whining in this one; he's a rather dashing werewolf and we have the supreme satisfaction of seeing him finally cured. The real masters are Robinson and Fulton who create a visual liquidity of hynotic travelling shots often following the poetic morphing of the DRACULA bat. Yes, the DRACULA bat. Carradine is undoubtedly the most poised, elegant and articulate DRACULA in the cinema history of that character. It's also satisfying to see the Frankenstein monster put out of his lugubrious rage. It's that rare thing, a horror movie about ideas, about what a horror movie really can be and what it can mean to us in a real time technological-historical context--encompassing World War II, Freud, Hitler and the development of psychotropic medication. When I see those credits melt onto the view of the oceanside castle I know I am in the HOUSE OF DRACULA.

(Only for Guilty Pleasure viewing)

Rating: 2-1/2 out of 5

Grade: C 79%