Retro Review: House of Dracula

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Synopsis
Count Dracula and the Wolf Man appeal to altruistic Dr. Edelmann to cure what ails them. Chaos ensues. Oh, and Frankenstein's monster is there too, and doesn't do much.

Review
Every Halloween season I watch some of the old Universal Monster movies, seeing them for the first time. I tend to enjoy the cheesier sequels more than the classic originals, so I was hoping this one would be as enjoyable as I found House of Frankenstein (which is so far my favorite). However, these films seem to be real hit or miss: either I really enjoy them, or couldn't care less. This one, unfortunately, fell into the latter category. I lost interest about halfway through.

One of the things I like about these films is that they're all relatively short. This one clocks in at 67 minutes, so I didn't lose much of my life watching it. But a lot of it seemed familiar, to the point of me wondering if I'd ever seen it before. Lon Cheney Jr. is excellent (as always) as the continually tormented Larry Talbot, but his situation has been highlighted in a good many of these films: it's always the same thing (I'm pretty sure he had the exact same plotline in the previous film). Lionel Atwill apears -- again -- as an inspector (the 3rd time in the Universal Monsters series alone). And the ending seemed very similar to Son of Dracula (another one I lost interest in halfway through).

Some fun observations (with mild spoilers):

  • I find it humorous that Dr. Edelmann is billed as "Mad Doctor" on the movie's poster, even though he's not really a mad scientist type.
  • One of Dr. Edelmann's assistants reminds me of Lucille Ball.
  • I don't get Count Dracula transforming from a bat into a man wearing a top hat. I just find the top hat odd.
  • John Carradine plays Dracula in this one, as he did in House of Frankenstein, a film in which Dracula is killed. They don't explain how he's alive again for this one.
While I don't consider this the worst Universal Monster movie (I think I'd award that honor to Son of Dracula -- at least out of the films I've seen so far), this one is largely forgettable, in my opinon.

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