Son of Dracula (1943 film)

Hungarian Count Alucard (Lon Chaney Jr.), a mysterious stranger, arrives in the U.S. invited by Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton), one of the daughters of New Orleans plantation owner Colonel Caldwell (George Irving). Shortly after his arrival, the Colonel dies of apparent heart failure and leaves his wealth to his two daughters, with Claire receiving all the money and Katherine his estate "Dark Oaks". Katherine, a woman with a taste for the morbid, has been secretly dating Alucard and eventually marries him, shunning her long-time boyfriend Frank Stanley. Frank confronts the couple and tries to shoot Alucard, but the bullets pass through the Count's body and hit Katherine, seemingly killing her.

A shocked Frank runs off to Dr. Brewster, who visits Dark Oaks and is welcomed by Alucard and a living Katherine. The couple instruct him that henceforth they will be devoting their days to scientific research and only welcome visitors at night. Frank goes on to the police and confesses to the murder of Katherine. Brewster tries to convince the Sheriff that he saw Katherine alive and that she would be away all day, but the Sheriff insists on searching Dark Oaks. He finds Katherine's dead body and has her transferred to the morgue. Dr. Brewster is shown reading the novel Dracula.

Meanwhile, Hungarian Professor Lazlo arrives at Brewster's house. Brewster has noticed that Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards and Lazlo suspects vampirism. A local boy brought to Brewster's house confirms this suspicion—there are bite marks on his neck. Later, the Count appears to Brewster and Lazlo but is driven away by a cross.

Vampiric Katherine enters Frank's cell as a bat and starts his transformation. After he awakens, she tells him she still loves him. She explains that she only married Alucard (who is really Dracula himself) to obtain immortality and wants to share that immortality with Frank. He is initially repulsed by her idea, but then yields to her. After she explains that she has already drunk some of his blood, she advises him on how to destroy Alucard. He breaks out of prison, seeks out Alucard's hiding place and burns his coffin. Without his daytime sanctuary, Alucard is destroyed when the sun rises. Brewster, Lazlo, and the Sheriff arrive at the scene to find Alucard's remains.

Meanwhile, Frank stumbles into the playroom where Katherine said she would be. He finds her coffin and gazes down at her lifeless body. Knowing he must kill the love of his life, Frank takes off his ring and puts it on Katherine's left ring finger. Once Brewster and the others reach the room, they see Frank appear at the door. He steps back allowing them to follow. As they enter the room, they see Katherine's burning coffin. They all stare, speechlessly, while Frank mourns the loss of his love.

Cast adapted from the book Universal Horrors.[1]

Son of Dracula was the third "Dracula" film produced by Universal, following the 1936 film Dracula's Daughter.[2] George Waggner was originally set to produce the film, but became too sidetracked by Universal Pictures's Phantom of the Opera .[3] He was replaced with Ford Beebe who got the project based on the strength of his film Night Monster.[3] Lon Chaney, Jr. plays the part of Count Alucard, the son of Dracula, a part that had previously been portrayed by Bela Lugosi in Universal's 1931 film Dracula.[4] Chaney was previously known for his role as Larry Talbot / The Wolf Man in The Wolf Man.[5]

Curt Siodmak was commissioned to write a script for the film in May 1942.[3] After Robert Siodmak was hired as the films director, he made his brother Curt leave the project.[3] Curt explained that the two "had a sibling rivalry. When we were in Germany, Robert had a magazine and when i wrote for it, I had to change my name. he only wanted one Siodmak around. This lasted 71 years, until he died."[3] Production began on Son of Dracula on January 7 and ended in early February .[2] Robert Siodmak, then on $150 a week contract, says he was reluctant to take the film calling the script "terrible - it had been knocked together in a few days". He says he was persuaded to take the job by his wife who said if he showed he was "a little bit better" than Universal's other directors, it would impress the studio. He says three days into shooting he was offered a seven-year contract. "We did a lot of rewriting and the result wasn't bad," he said, "it wasn't good but some scenes have a certain quality."[6]

Son of Dracula was distributed by the Universal Pictures Company and released on November 5, 1943. [1][2] Dracula would show up again being portrayed by John Carradine in The House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula.[7][8]

From contemporary reviews, The Hollywood Reporter declared that Son of Dracula was "a topline entry" as a horror film as it was "well made, its intelligent direction by Robert Siodmak" and that "Chaney's Dracula is an outstanding job, accomplished without the gobs of makeup with which he is generlaly [sic?] smeared."[9][10] Irene Thirer of The New York Post ranked the film as "Fair to good" finding the film "is neatly turned out [...] and is certainly guaranteed for goose-pimples - and we might add, laughs."[10] A. H. Weiler of The New York Times found the film to be "unintentionally funny as it is chilling" and concluded the film to be a "pretty pallid offering."[10] A review in Harrison's Reports noted that the film was "extremely weird, fantastic, and morbid, but because the theme has been done many times, it fails to attain the terrifying impact of the original."[10]

In their book Universal Horrors, the authors stated that Son of Dracula is "often lumped together with the rest of the Universal monster pictures of the '40s in the early years of horror scholarship, it has incrementally been seen as the product of a more sophisticated mindset." and in the canon of Robert Siodmak's career, "Son of Dracula was "still regarded as a footnote, a stepping stone to his later highly regarded film noir works."[11][12] Bob Mastrangelo of AllMovie referred to the film as "strictly minor-league, harmless entertainment that never reaches its potential." finding Chaney was "not doing a very good job" but that "the problems with Son of Dracula are beyond Chaney, as the script never really takes advantage of the juicy potential of the story and lacks the dark humor and beautiful atmospherics that make the best Universal horror films so timeless."[13]

• Dracula in popular culture
• Creature Features
• Vampire films

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