199) Son of Dracula (1943)

Son of Halloween 2024's spectacular and not random vampire movie review extravaganza! (Part Four)

"Alucard is not his name!"

Director

Robert Siodmak

Cast
Lon Chaney Jr. - Count Alucard
Louise Allbritton - Katherine Caldwell
Robert Paige - Frank Stanley
Evelyn Ankers - Claire Caldwell
Frank Craven - Dr. Harry Brewster
J. Edward Bromberg - Prof. Lazlo
Samuel S. Hinds - Judge Simmons

The 1943 horror flick "Son of Dracula" is the third installment in Universal's Dracula series. It follows the movie I previously reviewed, "Dracula's Daughter" which follows Tod Browning's famous movie, "Dracula." 

In this movie, the Wolfman himself, Lon Chaney, Jr., plays Count Alucard as he's invited to the United States by Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton). She's the daughter of a New Orleans plantation owner, Col. Caldwell (George Irving).

Just as Alucard arrives, the colonel dies of a heart attack. He leaves all his money to Katherine and his other daughter, Claire (Evelyn Ankers).

Claire gets his cash while Katherine inherits his estate known as "Dark Oaks." 

Also, Katherine and Alucard start dating and want to jump into marriage pretty fast, much to the dismay and jealousy of Katherine's former boyfriend Frank Stanley (Robert Paige). 

He can't stand seeing his old fling engaged to someone else. So, he tries to shoot Alucard. But much to his surprise, his bullets don't hurt him. He doesn't even flinch. They pass through him and hit Katherine. 

Frank thinks he's accidentally killed his former girlfriend. He quickly fetches Dr. Brewster (Frank Craven) to try to save her life. 

When the doctor arrives, Katherine is up and well, as is Alucard. 

For some reason, they open up to the doctor telling him how they're going to devout themselves to scientific research. Also, they'll only permit visitors in the evenings. 

Meanwhile, Frank is still upset thinking he has killed Katherine. So, he turns himself into the police 

Louise Allbritton, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Robert Paige in
"Son of Dracula."

while the sheriff goes to investigate Dark Oaks. 

There, the sheriff finds Katherine dead. Brewster tries to convince the sheriff that he has just seen Katherine alive and roaming around. 

Still, the sheriff has her remains transferred to the local morgue. 

Brewster figures out Alucard is vampire and turned Katherine into a vampire, too. What other explanation could there be? He also realizes that "Alucard" is Dracula spelled backwards. 

Hungarian professor Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg) comes to visit Brewster and confirms his suspicions of vampirism. 

An injured or dead young boy is brought to Brewster's home and has two bite marks on his neck which also confirms their collective fear that a vampire is among them.

Then who should show up? Alucard!

Brewster and Lazlo drive him away with a crucifix. 

Meanwhile, Katherine, who's up and about now, sneaks into Frank's jail cell to tell him she only wanted to marry Alucard in order to have immortal life. She also wants to share that immortality with Frank, whom she calls her "true love." 

At first, he doesn't want any part of what she's offering. But then he gives in, and she drinks his blood.

Afterwards, she instructs him to destroy Alucard. He agrees to do just that, breaks out of jail, and seeks out Alucard's coffin. 

When Frank finds the coffin, he sets it on fire. 

This leaves Alucard without a shelter from the sun's light which can destroy him. 

Lon Chaney, Jr., as Alucard.

When the sun rises, Alucard is destroyed. The sheriff, along with Brewster and Lazlo show up to find what's left of the vampire. 

Frank finds Katherine's coffin where she lies. He's torn as he has to kill her since she's now a vampire. But he loves her. He puts the ring that was on his finger onto Katherine's finger. And then he sets her coffin on fire. 

Rather than continue the story of Count Dracula, with more "exciting adventures" of the vampire, "Son of Dracula" continues the curse of Dracula. The story centers on how Dracula's aftermath continues turning other innocent victims into what he is- undead. It feels restrained in that it goes more for drama than frightening horror. 

Lon Chaney, Jr. is an iconic actor, and really established the infamous "Wolfman" into pop culture. However, as Dracula, he doesn't have the intimidating quality as Bela Lugosi has. Rather, he's more like a random guy dress as Count Dracula for Halloween, swirling his cape and giving off his best Dracula stare to scare all the kids. 

Chaney puts effort into his role and tries to give him a distinct personality all of his own. But despite his best efforts, he just doesn't quite pull off the fear factor Dracula needs to have, 

Regardless, I enjoyed this movie better than the previous "Dracula's Daughter." 

"Son of Dracula" has a little more horror movie feel to it when compared to the last movie I reviewed, while still carrying the noir vibe that "Dracula's Daughter" started. 

The camera work is great. There's a well worked shot of Dracula gliding supernaturally towards his victim in the woods. 

It's satisfying to see Dracula get sweet revenge. The movie presents an evil in such a way that the mere fact the characters know such an evil exists weighs heavily of their peace of mind.

Thankfully, underneath Chaney's performance, there still remains the taste of a classic Dracula flick.