Son of Dracula is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
horror filmHorror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
released in
1943The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :-16th Academy Awards:*Background to Danger, by Raoul Walsh with Peter Lorre*Bataan*Bombardier, starring Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, and Anne Shirley...
. It was directed by
Robert SiodmakRobert Siodmak was a German born American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for the series of Hollywood film noirs he made in the 1940s.-Early life:...
- his first film for Universal studios - with a screenplay based on an original story by his brother
CurtCurt Siodmak was a novelist and screenwriter, author of the novel Donovan's Brain, which was made into a number of films. He also wrote the novels Hauser's Memory and Gabriel's Body. He made a name for himself in Hollywood with horror and science fiction films...
. The film stars
Lon Chaney, Jr.Lon Chaney, Jr. was an American character actor, known mainly for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney. Originally credited in films as Creighton Chaney, he was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935...
and his frequent co-star
Evelyn AnkersEvelyn Ankers was a British actress born in Chile. She often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man at age 23 opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., a frequent screen partner...
. Notably it is the first film where a vampire turns into a bat on screen.
It is the third in
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
' Dracula trilogy, beginning with
DraculaDracula is a horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...
and
Dracula's DaughterDracula's Daughter is a 1936 vampire horror film produced by Universal Studios, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett Fort, the film stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill and, as the only cast member to return from the original,...
.
Hungarian Count Alucard, a mysterious stranger, arrives in the U.S.
Son of Dracula is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
horror filmHorror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
released in
1943The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :-16th Academy Awards:*Background to Danger, by Raoul Walsh with Peter Lorre*Bataan*Bombardier, starring Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, and Anne Shirley...
. It was directed by
Robert SiodmakRobert Siodmak was a German born American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for the series of Hollywood film noirs he made in the 1940s.-Early life:...
- his first film for Universal studios - with a screenplay based on an original story by his brother
CurtCurt Siodmak was a novelist and screenwriter, author of the novel Donovan's Brain, which was made into a number of films. He also wrote the novels Hauser's Memory and Gabriel's Body. He made a name for himself in Hollywood with horror and science fiction films...
. The film stars
Lon Chaney, Jr.Lon Chaney, Jr. was an American character actor, known mainly for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney. Originally credited in films as Creighton Chaney, he was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935...
and his frequent co-star
Evelyn AnkersEvelyn Ankers was a British actress born in Chile. She often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man at age 23 opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., a frequent screen partner...
. Notably it is the first film where a vampire turns into a bat on screen.
It is the third in
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
' Dracula trilogy, beginning with
DraculaDracula is a horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...
and
Dracula's DaughterDracula's Daughter is a 1936 vampire horror film produced by Universal Studios, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett Fort, the film stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill and, as the only cast member to return from the original,...
.
Plot
Hungarian Count Alucard, a mysterious stranger, arrives in the U.S. invited by Katherine Caldwell, one of the daughters of New Orleans plantation owner Colonel Caldwell. Shortly after his arrival, the Colonel dies and leaves his wealth to his two daughters, with Claire receiving all the money and Katherine his
estateReal estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location.
"Real estate" The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin...
"Dark Oaks." Katherine, a woman with a taste for the morbid, secretly begins 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 go right through the Count's body and hit Katherine, seemingly killing her.
A shocked Frank runs off to Professor Brewster, who visits Dark Oaks and is welcomed by Alucard and a living Katherine. The couple instruct him that henceforth they would 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.
Meanwhile, Hungarian Professor Lazlo arrives at Brewster's house. Brewster has noticed that Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards and Lazlo suspects vampirism. A boy bitten and drained of blood confirms this suspicion. Later, the Count appears to Brewster and Lazlo but is driven away by a cross.
Vampiric Katherine enters Frank's cell and explains that she still loves him, that she married Alucard only to attain immortality, and that she wants to share said immortality with him. Frank is initially repulsed but then yields to her, as she advises him on how to destroy Alucard. Frank breaks out of prison, seeks out Alucard's hiding place and burns his coffin thereby destroying him. Brewster, Lazlo, and the Sherif arrive at the scene, only finding Alucard's remains. They then go to Dark Oaks, where they find out that Frank has also set Katherine on fire, destroying her.
Cast
- Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney, Jr. was an American character actor, known mainly for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney. Originally credited in films as Creighton Chaney, he was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935...
as Count Alucard
- Robert Paige
Robert Paige was a TV star and Universal Pictures leading man who made 65 films in his lifetime and was the only actor ever allowed to sing on film with Deanna Durbin...
as Frank Stanley
- Louise Allbritton as Katherine 'Kay' Caldwell
- Evelyn Ankers
Evelyn Ankers was a British actress born in Chile. She often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man at age 23 opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., a frequent screen partner...
as Claire Caldwell
- Frank Craven
Frank Craven was an American stage and film actor, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for originating the role of the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's Our Town....
as Professor Harry Brewster
- J. Edward Bromberg
Joseph Edward Bromberg was a Hungarian-born American character actor in motion picture and stage productions dating mostly from the 1930s and 1940s....
as Professor Lazlo
- Adeline De Walt Reynolds as Madame Queen Zimba
- Patrick Moriarity as Sheriff Dawes
- Etta McDaniel as Sarah, Brewster's Maid
- George Irving
George Irving was an American film actor and director who made over 200 films in his lifetime. Some of his best known movies were Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Hearts Divided, A Night at the Opera, Son of Dracula, Hangmen Also Die!, Once Upon a Honeymoon, and Maid's Night Out.Irving retired from acting...
as Colonel Caldwell
Effects
The film was the first to show on-screen the bat-to-man transformation of a vampire. The effect was the work of special-effects wizard, John P. Fulton, A.S.C. Fulton was Universal's chief special-effects artist starting with 1933's
The Invisible Man. He won an Academy Award in 1957 for his work on
The Ten CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments is a 1956 motion picture that dramatized the biblical story of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince-turned deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. It was released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956. It was directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starred Charlton Heston in...
, most notably for his work on the parting of the
Red SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez,...
.
Universal's Dracula series
Son of Dracula is the third installment of
Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
' Dracula trilogy, following
DraculaDracula is a horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...
(1931) and
Dracula's DaughterDracula's Daughter is a 1936 vampire horror film produced by Universal Studios, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett Fort, the film stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill and, as the only cast member to return from the original,...
(1936).
Son of Dracula dates the original Count Dracula as being destroyed in the 19th century, when the original novel was set.
The following year, the Dracula-related series continued with
House of FrankensteinHouse of Frankenstein is an American monster horror film produced in 1944 by Universal Studios as a sequel to Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man the previous year. This monster rally approach would continue in the following film, House of Dracula, as well as the 1948 comedy Abbott and Costello Meet...
, which starred
John CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns.-Early life:...
as the original
Count DraculaCount Dracula is a fictional character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Some aspects of his character may have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian voivode, Vlad III the Impaler...
. The famous arrival of Dracula's coffin by train was reprised in the
Abbott and CostelloWilliam Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work in radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 50s...
film
Abbott and Costello Meet FrankensteinAbbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a comedy horror film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal's horror film stable...
(1948).
The identity of Count Alucard is never specified in the film. Brewster and Lazlo speculate that he might be a descendant of the original Dracula, congruent with the film's title. However, throughout the film the vampire is referred to either as Alucard or simply as Dracula.
External links
- EOFFTV - The Universal Dracula series