Son of Dracula (Universal Studios Dracula Double Feature)

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Staring: Lon Chaney Jr., Robert Paige, Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill
Director: Lambert Hillyer, Robert Siodmak
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Product Details
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
EAN: 9780783260242
Format: Black & White, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0783260245
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-07-24
Running Time: 153
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1943-11-05

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Editorial Review
Product Description
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 07/24/2007

Amazon.com
Dracula's Daughter This cut-rate sequel to Dracula, sans Bela Lugosi, turns out to be an unexpectedly sleek and stylish movie. Gloria Holden, tall, dark, and continental, is the aristocratic title character fighting her nature and seeking a cure for her affliction. A sympathetic psychiatrist, Dr. Garth (Otto Kruger), encourages her to "face her fears," but when she lures a pretty young streetwalker to her room to model for a painting, the temptation of her fleshy offering proves too much to overcome. Edward Van Sloan reprises his role as Van Helsing, held by the police for the murder of Count Dracula (the film opens on the final scene from Dracula) but released in the nick of time to help Garth, now at the mercy of the bitter and vindictive vampire. Director Lambert Hillyer makes the most of his low budget, with austere, angular sets and an almost abstract sense of the foggy city night. Holden's mysterious face and tall, willowy body make her an even more striking vampire than Lugosi, and Irving Pichel's offbeat servant is like an American gangster with the breeding of a European aristocrat: thick and thuggish, but always proper. The script falls into the usual rut of Universal's later horror films, losing the mood in the busy plot, but the smooth style and Holden's dignified performance lift Dracula's Daughter above most Universal sequels.

Son of Dracula It was perhaps inevitable that, after playing the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's monster, and the Mummy, Lon Chaney Jr. would round out his horror resumé with a turn at the great bloodsucker himself (not, as the title would suggest, his son). Looking dapper and dignified under the cape, if not exactly threatening, Chaney plays Count Alucard (that's Dracula spelled backwards), a mysterious Carpathian summoned to America by a "morbid" heiress (Louise Allbritton). Eric Taylor's script is rather clunky, but the story (by horror specialist Curt The Wolfman Siodmak) is often quite clever, playing like a supernatural twist on a psycho-thriller. Allbritton's frustrated fiancé Robert Page accidentally "kills" her while trying to shoot Alucard (who imperiously stands up to the hail of bullets) and then goes stark raving mad as he watches the dead rise to life and the living disappear in wisps of smoke and morph into creaky stage bats.

Future film noir legend (and Curt's brother) Robert Siodmak (The Killers) does wonders with the swampy, misty Deep South setting despite his obviously threadbare budget, transforming the usual clichés into moments of inspired melodrama. Only the clumsy antics of the skeptical cops and the plodding exposition spouted by an old Carpathian doctor (he just happens to be the local MD) get in the way of this moody minor horror gem. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Special sibling double feature, 2009-07-06
This porduct is just prefect as a sequel companion to the special 1930 Dracula/ Universal Horror Films legacy series - I heartily recommend it for back-up viewing possibly thusly!

Vintage Horror, 2009-10-21
Lon Chaney Jr, has always been a favorite for the classic horror. And he doesn't lose any credit for his work here. Always in good form. I do think he is a better werewolf than a vampire, but that was his break-out performance.

"Oh What Do They Know of These Occult Matters" ? --What indeed!, 2009-02-07

"Son of Dracula" succeeds on many counts, (no pun intended) by virtue of its absolutely serious approach towards its material. Unlike other Universal horrors of this period, with their unfunny comedy relief antics, (bumbling, pop eyed police inspectors, burgomasters etc.) director Siodmak wisely eschews such sch-tick, and foreshadows the tragic ending of the story, with an increasingly oppressive sense of doom. In other words, unity of mood.

Indeed every aspect of the production is put at the service of conveying this doom, from George Robinson's highly expressionistic, shadowy photography to Vera West's (Hollywood's most under-appreciated designer) costume design.

The casting is excellent. It has been rightly observed that Lon Chaney Jr. is not an entirely comfortable choice for the Count, and it is certainly true that his Midwestern dialect and general deportment is not even remotely aristocratic. Still, his virility breathes menace, and in a scene where he traps a character in a basement, he evokes genuine dread. All told, he passes muster, and even more so, when you think of what a hokey disaster someone like John Carradine would have been in the part.

Robert Paige is superb--his increasingly manic desperation in the role of the suitor "Frank" goes a long way in lending the yarn credibility. In many ways it's his film. Evelyn Ankers is as always, very easy on the eyes, and though she is given little to do here, she does it fetchingly.

Which brings us the the protagonist, Kay Caldwell, (Louise Allbritton) the melancholic daughter of an aristocratic line, and the proprietress of its creepy plantation mansion--"Dark Oaks." This is a juicy assignment, and Miss Allbritton runs with it to the full.

From the moment she arrives on the veranda, a striking brunette clad in a billowing, peignoir like gown, she delineates her literally spell-bound character by offering the audience a spell bindingly detached characterization.

Who can resist her otherworldly gaze, as, staring outside of the frame, she smoothly articulates her certainty in telepathy, eerily chiding Miss Ankers for scoffing at ESP, and later her asperity at local gossip: "What can they know of these occult matters?-blind fools!" Visually, she is unforgettable, aided by Vera West's outré costumes, (even Miss Allbritton's day wear is mysterious--as witness her scalloped black waistband peplum ensemble with black under-dress, in the will reading sequence) and a black wig, which connects her with another black wigged anti-heroine from that same year--Jean Brooks in Lewton's "The Seventh Victim."

To abet these characterizations, and to conceal what seems to be a somewhat paltry budgetary outlay by Universal, director Sidiomak fills the screen with interesting visuals--Miss Allbritton's unforgettable trek through the nocturnal bayou to visit the gypsy, the gypsy's ensuing death in a bat attack, Chaney gliding across the misty swamp, and unsettling, shadowy close-ups of an unhinged Mr. Paige speaking through the bars of a prison.

Photographer Robinson is with him all the way, and composes and lights his shots to consistently interesting effect, (note the superb introduction to "Dark Oaks," with the camera panning through a creaking gate at night, whilst the whole frame is overlaid with the violent twist of brambles and vines) by foregrounding his shots with interesting objects on right or left--thereby lending depth and texture to his visual tableaux.

The ending with Mr. Paige finding his former love, Miss Allbritton, literally buried within the childhood detritus of her own attic, to which, after placing his ring on her finger, he sets afire, provides a fitting finale. A finale of marked and deeply felt tragedy, as a darkly romantic musical score swells, the camera treks in on Mr. Paige's blank, despairing gaze, his empty eyes lit by the shadows of the flames.

"Son of Dracula" is a deeply romantic dark dream of a film. Recommended.

Two Unheralded Classics, 2009-07-19
I first saw Dracula's Daughter years ago as a kid, and I remember not liking the movie because I didn't know what to make of it. Try explaining to a fourteen-year old (back then, at least) what lesbian vampirism is. But I always wanted to see it again, and when I finally did, I loved it. It's an underated classic. Gloria Holden is dead on as Countess Valeska, eerie and seductive. It didn't need to have special effects to make it scary. I don't think the "wine" line she says was meant to be a pun on Dracula, but if she had said it the way Lugosi did: "I never drink . . . wine," then it would have been a hoot! In Son of Dracula, you do have those wonderful special effects which may seem primitive today, yet still remain original and creative. Plus the tingling music and Gothic atmosphere make it all the more creepy. Note: There are those who wonder why it's called "Son of Dracula" when he's called Count Dracula. But he's described very briefly as being a descendent of the Count. A must for nostalgia fans.

Dracula's Daughter, a gem, 2009-11-20
Make no mistake, this movie is creaky and slow. It is old, and it is not a great cinematic triumph by any means. Nevertheless it is a gem. And it deserves to be seen as a classic of the genre. Gloria Holden is powerfully compelling as the tortured daughter of Dracula, an elegant and sensitive aristocrat who dreams of somehow escaping the curse of her vampire nature in order to embrace life. That she is a painter adds to her mystique. And the scene in which she seduces a lonely and vulnerable young female model in her studio is chilling, without recourse to special effects. Like all good horror films, this one has a strong moral point of view. Vampires are evil and must pay for what they are and what they do. Yet one finds here all the promise of the vampire concept which will be endlessly explored in later books and films. Here we have a supernatural monster who was once human and remains somehow human, a thinking and feeling abomination that is doomed to suffer excruciating torment as the price for the promise of eternal life. The vampire here is a metaphor for the outsider, the outcast, the lonely one in all of us, and the predator in all of us, too. The tragic dimension of the vampire is much more deeply explored here than in the original Dracula, and the atmosphere of the film, set in a very foggy London, enforces the overall theme of romantic gloom. I recommend this to anyone who wonders why vampires fascinate so many, and especially for those who want to understand the early twentieth century horror classics that inspired countless later films. I also find this an entertaining film. There is a delicacy and poignancy to it that has enduring appeal. I would love to see a faithful remake of this film, but until that happens, if it ever does, there is nothing quite like the original. Enjoy.

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