HOUSE OF DRACULA
Poor Dracula. Few monsters have been so powerful, yet so powerfully misused. Despite having his name in the title, Dracula disappears halfway through House of Dracula. This film is perhaps the weakest entry in the Universal Frankenstein franchise (and probably in the Dracula and Wolf Man franchises too). House of Frankenstein is a B-Picture, just barely passing acceptable.
Potentially mad scientist Franz Edelmann (Onslow Stevens) has two potential patients seeking his cure. The first is Count Dracula (John Carradine). He no longer wishes to be a vampire and wants the bad doctor's help. Dr. Edelmann thinks that a series of blood transfusions will reverse the Count's vampirism. That treatment, however, makes it hard for Edelmann to see another patient: Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.). He has come to end his life as the Wolf Man. It takes the persuasive powers of both Inspector Holz (Lionel Atwill) and Edelmann's beautiful assistant Miliza (Martha O' Driscoll) to keep Talbot at Edelmann's home.
Talbot rejects the idea that his lycanthropy is more mental than chemical. In his despair, Talbot attempts suicide. This attempt, however, has some positives. It leads to the discovery of a cave. Here, Edelmann can grow the plants that could help Talbot reverse his curse. Here, Edelmann also discovers the frozen remains of Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange). Edelmann will keep the Frankenstein creature around but will not revive him.
One being who is revived is Dracula. He has hypnotic eyes only for Miliza. He does not notice Edelmann's hunchbacked assistant Nina (Jane Adams). Nina notices that Dracula craves Miliza. Edelmann thinks that he can deceive Dracula into releasing his hold on the luscious Miliza. However, it will take the sun to end this threat.
Pity that in the transfusions it is Edelmann now who can be the new Nosferatu. The mad doctor becomes madder. He will revive the Frankenstein Monster. Will Talbot be freed from his curse? Will Edelmann turn to the dark? Who will live and who will die in the House of Dracula?
Come to think of it, we get a very curious continuity question with House of Dracula. In House of Frankenstein, Dracula had been vaporized by the Sun as a distraction to let the last mad scientist and hunchback escape. One would have thought that Dracula was no more. However, here is the undead once again undead again. We can also go into how Lawrence Talbot had been apparently shot to death in House of Frankenstein. Now, we see him back and in perfectly good health for someone who had silver bullets pumped into him.
We can see here that House of Dracula is not interested in keeping to the already-established storyline. Instead, we either have to ignore or forget what had come before. Edward T. Lowe's screenplay seems to be doing a variation of what had come before. About the only real change is making the hunchback a woman. I guess that having a female hunchback was an effort at diverse casting. Little girls too should aspire to be hunchback nurses to mad scientists.
The worst part of House of Dracula is what it does to poor old Frankenstein's Monster. We get a repeat of Frankenstein being frozen. I think this is the second or even third time such a fate has befallen our monster. However, Frankenstein's Monster essentially popped up at the end and that was it. I would be surprised if Frankenstein's Monster was in more than three minutes in House of Dracula. One finishes House of Dracula thinking, "Frankenstein's Monster pops out at the end for what?"
The performances overall are acceptable. I would put Jane Adams as one of the stronger performances as Nina the Hunchback. She is a blend of empathetic and frightened. Adams balances being serious with being slightly comical. John Carradine has improved as Count Dracula/Baron Lantos. He is not as laughable as he was last time. To be fair, we did not get a closeup of his eyes. Onslow Stevens, like Adams, kept a balance between serious and silly. He did lean in more on the latter, but nothing that was embarrassing.
Our beloved Lionel Atwill returns for the last time in a Frankenstein film as yet another police official. I briefly thought that he had a metal arm. I was mistaken. Atwill is the unsung hero of the Frankenstein franchise. He appeared in five of the eight Frankenstein films. He might have appeared in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein had he lived (this would be his film released in his lifetime, with his final two films released posthumously). To his credit, Atwill never camped out the increasingly whacked-out scripts.
I thought well of Lon Chaney, Jr. as our perpetually tormented Wolf Man. He did what he could with the script. Martha O'Driscoll was pretty but not particularly impressive as Miliza. Poor Glenn Strange probably got the worst of the deal. He was in House of Dracula so briefly that they might as well have resorted to using clips from past Frankenstein films.
House of Dracula is not a good film, let alone a great film. It is passable entertainment, an acceptable way to use up a free hour.
UNIVERSAL FRANKENSTEIN FILMS
