House of Dracula

Infobox Film | name = House of Dracula


caption = House of Dracula movie poster
director = Erle C. Kenton
producer = Paul Malvern
writer = Edward T. Lowe Jr.
starring =Lon Chaney Jr.
John Carradine
Martha O'Driscoll
Lionel Atwill
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Universal Pictures
released = December 7, 1945 (U.S. release)
runtime = 67 min
language = English
budget =
preceded_by = "House of Frankenstein" (1944)
followed_by = "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948)

"House of Dracula" was an American horror film released by Universal Pictures Company in 1945. It was a direct sequel to "House of Frankenstein" and continued the theme of combining Universal's three most popular monsters: Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula and The Wolf Man.

Plot

The main plot is that both Dracula and Larry Talbot are both seeking a cure from their respective monster afflictions from Dr. Edelmann (Onslow Stevens).

Dracula actually appears to be searching for a cure for his vampirism. Somehow Dracula survived his destruction by sunlight exposure from the previous film "House of Frankenstein" and initially seeks to be cured of his vampirism at the hands of the doctor as he seems apparently tired of his monster nature. But after re-meeting the doctor's beautiful assistant whom he knew in his alias of "Baron Latos", Dracula's monsterous nature reasserts itself and infects Edelmann through a blood transfusion of his vampire blood, which turns Edelmann into a Jekyll and Hyde like creature. Though Edelmann succeeds in destroying Dracula, Edelmann realizes that he is slowly degrading into a murderous monster himself.

Lawrence Talbot soon arrives at Edelmann's castle, seeking a cure for the curse that turns him into a werewolf (Talbot's return from death having been maintained from his particular invulnerability to silver weapons which was used to explain his first reappearance as shown in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man) as Larry Talbot was bludgeoned to death by his father using a silver topped cane in the original The Wolf Man. The Frankenstein Monster plays a minor role in this film, only being found during Talbot's attempt at suicide by drowning in the ocean late in the film. The Monster does not actually go into action until almost the climactic finish, which results in Talbot finally being cured of his affliction and falling in love with Edelmann's attractive assistant (Martha O'Driscoll) and killing the Hyde like version of Edelmann. The Frankenstein Monster once again burned to death in yet another fire destruction of the castle he is in.

Also appearing in the film is Jane Adams, whose character, Nina, is a hunchback and was thus billed as one of the monsters in the film. In fact, her character is portrayed sympathetically and the use of an attractive actress to play an otherwise misshapen individual is notable for the time.

Trivia

Although Glenn Strange appears as the Monster in most of the film, during the finale, footage of Chaney as the Monster from "The Ghost of Frankenstein" and Boris Karloff from "Bride of Frankenstein" was recycled.In the Ted Newsom documentary "100 Years of Horror", Carradine suggested his portrayal of Dracula was meant to reflect the description of the character in the 1897 Bram Stoker novel. Universal only agreed upon Carradine having a thin moustache.

External links

*imdb title|id=0037793|title=House of Dracula
*amg title|id=1:23344|title=House of Dracula
*imdb title|id=0166940|title=100 Years of Horror