Even though Dracula is dead and his bones burned, somehow he returns to life and gets himself invited to the United States.  Son of Dracula is the second sequel to the original film starring Bela Lugosi and much like Dracula’s Daughter; this one would not feature the aforementioned star and be quite different than either the first or second movie.  Stepping into the Count’s shoes this go round is Lon Chaney Jr., the man who would star in many a horror film over the years, not to mention a run as the Frankenstein Monster and more famously as The Wolf Man.  The film would not stand out as the best of the bunch by far, but it would still be quite an entertaining picture directed by Robert Siodmak.  It would also be written by Eric Taylor and Curtis Siodmak, brother to Robert and writer of The Wolf Man and House of Frankenstein.

The film follows Count Alucard as he arrives in America at the behest of a woman named Katherine who wants to marry him.  At a party one night, Katherine’s father dies, unknowingly by Alucard, and she and her sister Claire, inherit everything.  After Katherine leaves her boyfriend Frank, she and Alucard do indeed get married.   Frank goes crazy when he finds them together and Katherine is seemingly killed by Frank when he shoots her through Alucard’s body, and yet she lives as her marriage to Alucard was to gain immortality.  Soon Dr. Lazlo gets involved thanks to Frank, and they soon suspect that Alucard is in fact Dracula.  Everything comes to a head with the various going-ons and happenings, and when Katherine rises to make Frank an offer, it is the final nail in the coffin.

While the movie may not offer anything from the novel, nor really carry on the film series’ continuity, it is a fun and absorbing entry into the franchise.  As a film in the Universal horror line, it runs more towards that of Gothic horror than the straightforward type of horror expressed by the first two films.  This can be attributed partly to the romantic setting and atmosphere on the plantation and the woods about it, as well as having everyone look as handsome and beautiful as can be.  The director also seems to use a shallow focus at times to give certain scenes a dreamy type of air, most often involving Katherine when she is on screen, to make her look softer and more beguiling than she already is.  The film also has a fairly standard plot when one thinks of Gothic horror, as a beautiful young woman is seduced by a handsome stranger, this time being Dracula.

Lon Chaney Jr. is quite good as the Count, at first seeming a little awkward in the beginning, but getting more comfortable in the role as the film moved on.  Out of all the monsters he would play, it would not be his greatest portrayal as he had to follow the brilliant Bela Lugosi, but it would cement his place in history to be the only man to play all three of Universal’s main attractions.  Unlike Bela who was quite bold with his performance, Chaney would play it a bit understated and it would work quite well for him.  If he had tried to play it as Lugosi had, it would have most likely seemed a mockery more than anything else and done the film a disservice.  His look would also be different as his hair would be whiter than the deep shock of black that Lugosi would sport.  It is hard to picture Chaney as anything other than the tortured Lawrence Talbot, but he had many good roles over the years other than that of The Wolf Man, this being one of them.

Starring alongside the vampire would be Universal stalwart, Evelyn Ankers as Claire and Louise Allbritton as her sister Katherine.  Though Ankers was arguably the bigger star, Allbritton would get more screen time as she was the focus of Dracula’s attentions.  Both women would put in strong performances helping to bolster the supporting cast and Chaney’s role as the Count.  Standing out from the supporting cast though was Robert Paige as Katherine’s boyfriend Frank Stanley.  When he starts to think that he has killed his girlfriend that is the moment when Stanley really starts to shine in his role.  He is manic, nervous, and even a little crazy, finding it hard to believe that the undead are real and that Katherine might be one of them.  Also rounding out the movie is Frank Kraven as Dr. Harry Brewster, J. Edward Bromberg as Professor Lazlo and Patrick Moriarty as Sheriff Dawes.

This would be the last solo outing for the Count until House of Frankenstein would be released one year later.  Together, Dracula would star with The Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s Monster and be portrayed by yet another actor.  Lon Chaney would go on to reprise his role as Lawrence Talbot, but would at least leave his mark on Stoker’s creation.   Son of Dracula would also be the one to feature the least amount of scares out of the entire bunch, instead romanticizing the man more than any previous or later film.  It was a different breed of horror almost, coming from the monster machine known as Universal, but it was great to see them try something a little different than what they would normally do.  Dracula would go on to appear in three more films from the studio, his solo outings concluded with this movie.  The one thing that would remain consistent throughout all of these films is the extremely loose continuity that would feature in more than just this franchise.  So it was that no matter how many times you kill him, you just cannot keep a good vampire down.

4 out of 5