House of Dracula – review

Directed by: Erle C Kenton

Release Date: 1945

Contains spoilers

This was a year on from Universal’s House of Frankenstein and once again brought some of the horror staples together in a monster mash. John Carradine reprised the role of Dracula, Lon Chaney Jr reprised the Larry Talbot/Wolf Man role and Glenn Strange was Frankenstein’s Monster again and, again, had very little to do.

The film, whilst flawed, flows along quite nicely but what irked me most was the inclusion of some pseudo science plus a lore change that seemed to owe more to Robert Louis Stevenson than the previous Universal vampire lore. It was ostensibly a sequel to the previous ‘House of’ film but that only really became apparent in one scene.

It began with a bat and a shadow cast by it turns into the form of Count Dracula. He looks in through the window at a woman sleeping; nurse Miliza Morrelle (Martha O’Driscoll). Dracula leaves his vantage point and introduces himself to the castle’s owner, one Doctor Edelman (Onslow Stevens). We note how the cat reacts to the vampire by hissing in Dracula’s general direction and then legging it.

Dracula introduces himself as Baron Latos and says he has come for help. He asks the good doctor (for in this he is good) to accompany him to the cellar where all will be revealed before sunrise. Their conversation is guided, by Dracula, towards immortality and Edelman turns it to vampirism, rejecting the notion. In the basement is a coffin with the Dracula crest and Dracula reveals his identity. He is cursed he says and looking for a cure.

The coffin contains native earth, we discover and, as the sun is rising, he gets into it. Edelman takes a sample of vampire blood to his other nurse Nina (Jane Adams). Edelman is working on a mould that will prove to be a scientific breakthrough. We do not discover at this point what it is but later hear that it can soften bone and allow it to be reshaped. He will use it to help Nina, who is a hunchback.

Nina prepares a slide of blood and the doctor sees something around the cells. Later he describes it as a parasite and, from memory as I write, this is one of the earliest examples that I can think of a film introducing a scientific reasoning behind vampirism. That said the film keeps all the standard supernatural trappings and this is what irked me. A parasite in the blood, causing the infected to need to drink blood, is one thing but how that then leads to the ability to transform into a bat or loose their reflection, for example, is quite another.

Anyway, the next night Dracula gets up and makes out that he has just arrived. It becomes readily apparent that he knows Miliza and we see that perhaps he isn’t searching for a cure at all but is hunting the girl, intent on seducing her to his dark path – more on that later. Keeping up the pretence, however, he allows Edelman to perform a transfusion.

At this point Larry Talbot arrives looking for the doctor. When he hears that the doctor can’t be disturbed during the procedure he runs off into the night, as a full moon is due, lamenting that he cannot wait. Chaney is at his tortured best in this. Once the procedure is over Miliza informs Edelman of the visit. They get a phone call from Inspector Holtz (Lionel Atwell).

In the village Talbot has asked to be locked up. Edelman goes to see him and denies the existence of werewolves. Of course then the moon appears and Larry changes, but that’s okay he is safe in his cell. The next day the doctor has examined him. We get more pseudo science. Larry’s skull is misshapen and pressing on parts of the brain. That coupled with his belief that he will become a wolf, triggers hormones facilitating the change. Hmm… Anyway, reshaping the skull will help him but they need more mould.

Despairing, as he cannot be immediately cured, Larry runs off and jumps into the sea from a cliff. Edelman, humanitarian as always, decides to rescue him as there are caves at the cliff’s bottom and he might have survived. Of course it is night when he gets there and he is attacked by the Wolf Man. However, Talbot changes back just in time and the cave is perfect for growing the plant that produces the mould and has convenient, long lost stairs to the castle.

Here we get our connection to the last film. In the cave are the body of the Monster and the bones of Dr Niemann. The mud from the quicksand which got them at the climax of the last film has dragged them there – as it does! Edelman thinks about reviving the Monster, for humanitarian reasons, but Nina convinces him of the folly.

Dracula, however, is still after Meliza. In a marvellous scene, where she is playing Moonlight Sonata, he uses eye mojo to cause her to play the ‘music of his world’. The spell is broken as she absently touches the cross she wears and the piano playing slips back into the Sonata but the seduction is just about complete.

Nina sees her friend with Dracula, notices a lack of reflection and realises something is afoot, thus she alerts Edelman. He distracts the Count by suggesting another transfusion but the old dog is too wily for them. He knocks them out with eye mojo and transfuses his blood into the doctor. Edelman destroys the vampire, after some chasing around, but the damage has been done.

There is a marvellous scene that displays the control exerted over the doctor but the lore is off beam. Edelman, the next night, is looking in the mirror. The cat has gone nuts at him and his eyes become black and sunken. His mirror image begins to fade and vanish. So far, so vampire. However he doesn’t become a vampire, he is more like a Jekyll and Hyde creature, but controlled by the cycle of night and day rather than a potion. In bad doctor mode he is homicidal and wants to revive the monster. Both versions want to cure Nina but for different reasons.

Will Larry get his cure and can the doctor be saved and/or stopped? Of course we know he’s going to revive the monster at some point and give Glenn Strange his five minutes of stumbling about.

The film is too convoluted. Whilst the plot is simpler than the previous film the concepts are all over the place and it is a shame because there are some marvellous moments, such as the piano scene and the control over the doctor effect. There is nothing wrong with the acting but it isn’t up to the previous film either, missing the genius of Karloff, for my money. There are much worse films out there, that is for sure, but I don’t think the whole reaches the sum of the parts in this case. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.