Franchises: Universal's Dracula Series. Son of Dracula (1943)

After seeing clips of it in a Dracula-based, trivia ad for their Monster Fest marathon (I remember the narrator saying that Lon Chaney Jr., "Took a break from howling at the moon,"), I caught the tail end of this on AMC on Sunday morning of Halloween weekend in 1999. All I got to see was Dracula's demise, and it wouldn't be until I got the Dracula Legacy DVD set that I would see the whole thing. In Lon Chaney Jr.: Horror Film Star, 1906-1973, author Don G. Smith describes Son of Dracula as, "One of the greatest horror films of the forties." That's rather hyperbolic but, like a lot of the B-movies produced by Universal during this period, it's flawed but quite entertaining. It benefits greatly from well-done direction, a great sense of mood, the characters not only being portrayed well but their dynamics being very unusual from the norm and, in some cases, surprisingly multi-layered, much more ambitious visual effects than what had been seen in the past Universal Dracula movies, and, above all else, a much welcome and refreshing relocation to 1940's America. What's more, even though the movie itself is known mostly to diehard fans of Universal Horror and the genre as a whole, it managed to create a popular trope of its own with the pseudonym of "Alucard," which has been used in a number of different media in the years since.

Frank Stanley and Dr. Harry Brewster, the respective fiancee and family friend of Katherine Caldwell, the daughter of wealthy New Orleans plantation-owner Colonel Caldwell, arrive at the train station to meet up with Count Alucard, whom Katherine meet in Budapest. There's no sign of the Count after the train arrives, but there is some luggage that seems to belong to him. It's brought to the Caldwell plantation, Dark Oaks, on the night of a reception to be held in his honor. Before the party, Katherine, who's become deeply interested in the occult, goes into the nearby swamp to meet with Queen Zimba, a gypsy she brought over from Hungary. She tries to warn Katherine of a great evil that's about to descend on her home, that Alucard is not the Count's real name, and that she herself has a grim future ahead of her. But then, a large bat appears and attacks Zimba, causing her to die of a heart attack. That night, the reception goes ahead without Alucard, who watches the house from outside and, using his vampiric powers, sneaks into the house. Shortly after he goes to bed, the Colonel is found dead, a rug near his bed engulfed in flames. Once everyone has gone home, Alucard arrives and demands to be allowed in. While Brewster tries to find information on Alucard, becoming intrigued when his name spelled backwards turns out to be "Dracula," he, Frank, Claire, Katherine's sister, and even Judge Simmons are shocked when, at the reading of the will, Katherine produces a new copy that turns the entire estate over to her. Claire also tells Brewster that she's sure Katherine has been seeing Alucard secretly and doesn't intend to marry Frank. One night, Claire goes out to the swamp, where Alucard materializes from a coffin that rises from the water. The two of them go into town and are married. But when they return to Dark Oaks, Frank bursts in and gets into a scuffle with Alucard over the marriage. He attempts to kill the Count, but when he shoots him, his bullets go right through and hit Katherine. Frank escapes and tells Brewster what happened. As Brewster, with the help of Hungarian Prof. Lazlo, investigate Alucard further, they both become convinced that the Count is not only a vampire but a descendant of Count Dracula, and he's come to America for new blood after draining the life from his home country.

By this point, Universal had successfully sequelized and/or rebooted Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and Werewolf of London, so it was inevitable that they would revive Dracula for wartime audiences. As was often the case with many of these films, the initial story was written by Curt Siodmak, although the final screenplay was the work of Eric Taylor, who'd co-written Black Friday with Siodmak and had worked on other Universal Horrors like 1941's The Black Cat, The Ghost of Frankenstein, and Phantom of the Opera. When Tom Weaver interviewed Siodmak in 1984, he claimed his removal from the project was due to the hiring of his brother, Robert, to direct, claiming the two of them had a sibling rivalry that lasted throughout Robert's entire life. However, there's no evidence that Robert had even been hired as director when Taylor was commissioned to write the final screenplay, and Siodmak was wrong about other things. Another constant figure in Universal Horror at this point who, surprisingly, had no involvement with Son of Dracula was producer George Waggner, who was tied up with the massive production that was Phantom of the Opera. In his place was Ford Beebe, mostly known for directing serials but he'd also directed 1942's Night Monster, and would go on to do The Invisible Man's Revenge in 1944. He also did some second unit work on this film.

Robert Siodmak, Curt's older brother, started out in the silent German cinema, first as an editor and then a scenarist, before making his directorial debut with 1929's People on Sunday, the last German silent film. Notably, Curt, as well as a young Billy Wilder, wrote the film, which was co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, who went on to direct 1934's The Black Cat. Siodmak made several more films in the early sound period, but like his brother, with the rise of the Nazis in the 30's, he fled Germany. While his brother went to England, Siodmak settled in Paris, where his career flourished. But the Nazis eventually forced him to leave France as well, and he came to the United States in the late 30's, just a year or so after his brother. He would go on to have a very successful career in Hollywood, specializing in film noir, which Son of Dracula definitely has more than a few touches of, as we'll get into. Speaking of which, Siodmak is said to have been reluctant to do the movie, as he felt the script was terrible, but his wife persuaded him, saying he could impress the studio and get better jobs if he made it into something more than the average horror movie. When interviewed by Sight and Sound in 1959, Siodmak said of the final film, "We did a lot of rewriting and the result wasn't bad. It wasn't good but some scenes have a certain quality." In the end, it was his only foray into horror. And while he certainly had success in Hollywood, it seems as though his association with noir pigeonholed him, and by the 1950's, he sort of lost his way and faced a number of professional disappointments. He died in 1973 at the age of 72, less than two months after he'd lost his wife. 

It's been said that Lon Chaney Jr. wanted desperately to play the Phantom in the 1943 film and was very disappointed when that didn't happen. While most historians would say he was never seriously considered for the role, Don G. Smith says in his book on Chaney that Universal had promised him that it was his as early as 1941. But, then again, Smith seems to think that Universal produced the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which Chaney also lobbied for, when it was actually RKO. Regardless, while Chaney may felt burned by not getting to play either of his father's most famous roles (which seems contradictory, given how much he sought to distance himself from him), he would get the chance to play a similarly suave villain when he was cast here as Count Alucard. Feelings are generally mixed in regards to how well he did in the role, with the general consensus being that he was miscast. but, in my opinion, he's quite good and handles himself well. He may not have Bela Lugosi's charm or exotic appeal, and he can be virtually impossible to buy as someone of Hungarian nobility, undead or otherwise, but he more than excels in intimidation and creep factor. His large stature and intense facial expressions do most of that work for him, and the way he creeps around or unexpectedly appears in a scene is effectively unnerving. The best example of this is his first appearance, where he's revealed to be watching the reception at Dark Oaks. He turns and looks right at the camera with that creepy expression of his, as if he knows you're watching him. Shortly afterward, he becomes a bat, enters the house, hides until the wheelchair-bound Colonel Caldwell is alone in his bedroom, and then enters and kills him offscreen.

That is the first example of how profoundly cruel and evil this Dracula is. Rarely does he attempt to put on a mask of respectability or cordiality; when he formally arrives at Dark Oaks after he's killed the Colonel, he demands that the servant, "Announce Count Alucard," and yells, "Announce me!", when the man tells him the bereaved family isn't receiving any visitors. When he and Katherine Caldwell go into town late at night to be married, he makes a subtle but threatening motion towards the justice of the peace when he hesitates.

Following their marriage, and Katherine becoming a vampire herself, Alucard does act civil enough when he finds Dr. Brewster snooping around in the cellar, as well as when he and Katherine explain that, from now on, they'll have no time for a social life. But when he shows Brewster out, he drops the veneer and menacingly tells him, "When I came to Dark Oaks, I was not graciously welcomed. Now the position has changed. I am master. Anyone who enters here without my permission will be considered a trespasser." Of course, this is to say

nothing of his true, evil intentions. Like Lugosi's Dracula in the original film, Alucard has come to America for fresh blood after draining his homeland dry. When he confronts Brewster and Prof. Lazlo about it, he confirms his intentions, as well as, again, makes it clear that he won't let anyone stand in his way. And after Lazlo manages to drive him away with a crucifix, we get even more of a sense of how particularly loathsome Alucard is. A mother brings her young son to

Brewster, saying she found him lying on the road after sending him on an errand, and you learn he was attacked and bitten. The boy seems to recover and doesn't become a vampire himself, and Brewster takes steps to ensure that Alucard won't feed on him again, but no other incarnation of Dracula in any of the Universal films does something this monstrous.

Though not nearly as ferocious and feral, Chaney's performance anticipates several aspects of Christopher Lee's fifteen years beforehand. First, like Lee, Chaney's enormous size make him the most physically imposing Dracula up to that point. Second, this is the first movie to depict Dracula as having some some serious strength behind him. When Frank Stanley confronts him when he learns about his and Katherine's marriage, Alucard grabs him by the throat and throws him through a door like a rag doll, proving himself to be a force to be

reckoned with. And while, again, not emphasized nearly as much as it would be with Lee, it could be argued that Chaney, as crazy as this sounds, was the first actor to play Dracula with a zeal of the erotic. The scene where he and Katherine come home after being married is quite romantic, with him carrying her over the threshold and then talking about why he likes her country more than his own, saying, "Here, you have a young and vital race." They then walk into the study and Alucard

tells her, "Ours will be a different life, without material needs. A life that will last through eternity," as they look at each other very suggestively. Alucard leans in and it's obvious from their expressions, especially hers, that biting her is going to be just the beginning of their night. Speaking of which, while it's eventually revealed that Katherine is merely using him to obtain immortality, given what he says, Alucard does seem to have real feelings for her and is looking to spend eternity with her.

Many of the classic vampire tropes apply here, even if they're not enacted onscreen, but there are some new ones here and there as well. Like in previous movies, vampires are able to become bat and wolves (Prof. Lazlo specifically says "werewolf,"), but they also often appear as a vapor of mist that slowly materializes into their physical form, allowing them to easily appear and disappear. Vampires are also more ethereal here, given how Frank Stanley's bullets pass right through Alucard and hit Katherine, and how, when

she visits Frank in his jail cell, Katherine is able to disappear into the shadows when someone walks in. And according to Katherine, they find the term "vampire" offensive, preferring to be referred to as "undead." In any case, the visual effects used to realize their powers (as usual, the work of John P. Fulton) here are very well done. Significantly, this movie marks the first time we see a vampire both become a bat and change back onscreen. While the first instance is nothing to write home about, as Alucard backs up until his cape covers the screen

and then, there's a noticeable cut to the fake bat, the instances where he changes back are quite well done, as the bat is replaced with an animated black blob that quickly expands until it becomes Alucard, and the switch between the effect and the real actor is very smooth. The same also goes for when Alucard materializes out of the wisp of mist he becomes. In one particularly impressive example of this ability, Katherine goes to the swamp and, as she watches, his coffin rises out of the water

(something we haven't seen before in and of itself), vapor streams out of it, it forms into Alucard, and  he floats across the swamp towards her in a ghostly manner. Another is when Katherine herself turns into mist in Frank's cell in order to release him. Great stuff, as is when Alucard is destroyed by the rising sun at the end, his arm dissolving into a skeleton. As for the fake bats in this film, they look and move fine enough, certainly better than in a number of other vampire movies, but they sometimes really had to use editing to get around their limitations, like in the scene where Alucard's bat form attacks Queen Zimba.

Like before, vampires are repelled by crucifixes, even if it's just their silhouette, have to sleep in a coffin containing a layer of their native soil, can turn others by completely draining their blood, and can be killed by a stake through the heart or the rays of the sun. And that leads into my only complaint with Alucard: he goes out in a pathetic and undignified manner. Per Katherine's instructions, Frank sets fire to Alucard's coffin in the swamp and, when he discovers this, the Count grabs him by the collar and yells in a desperate

voice for him to put it out. When that doesn't work, he tosses Frank aside and futilely tries to beat the fire out with a big board. As you can guess, he fails, the sun rises, and he's instantly destroyed. While this scene does show one of the few things that Alucard fears, so much of this is wrong. First, the fact that Alucard wastes time yelling at Frank to put the fire out, as if he'd actually do it. Second, it sucks how, after giving a rare restrained performance throughout the movie,

Lon Chaney Jr. badly overacts during his final scene. And third, I don't understand why he doesn't just shove the coffin into a nearby pool of water, which Frank even stumbles into. Surely fire can't hurt a vampire. If he'd done that, he could've torn Frank apart and got back into his coffin before the sun rose.

Unlike the other previously established monster roles he stepped into, Chaney actually had reverence for the character of Count Dracula, although I think a lot of that had to do with it not requiring him to be buried under makeup (he alluded to as much in a quote about the film, saying, "Dracula is certainly more potentially terrifying than those roles which required gruesome makeup,"). Save for some touches of gray in his swept back hair and a slight widow's peak, as well as a little, thin mustache, similar to

the one he sported in all of the Inner Sanctum movies made around this time, Chaney was spared the usual discomfort that came from working with Jack Pierce. He also looks really good in the cape and tuxedo, showing how, if nothing else, he would've made a far more physically imposing Phantom of the Opera than Claude Rains.

When it comes to the two "romantic" leads, Son of Dracula subverts expectations in spades. Case in point, Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton), our ostensible female lead. She's a young woman who's developed a taste for the macabre and the occult ever since she met Count Alucard in Budapest. It's also led to her developing a high and mighty opinion of herself, as she now looks down on those around her as ignorant and blind, and it's put a strain on her relationship with her lifelong sweetheart and fiancee, Frank Stanley. Little does anyone know that, despite their warnings about Alucard, including Queen Zimba, an old gypsy she brought back to the U.S., Katherine is well aware that he's both a vampire and a descendant of the Dracula family. Craving immortality, she ultimately sells her soul to the devil by marrying Alucard, intending for him to turn her into a vampire. Though Frank's intervention complicates matters, especially when he unintentionally shoots her, Katherine gets her wish. She later tells Dr. Brewster to tell her friends and remaining family that she and Alucard are going to live their lives in private seclusion, embarking on scientific research. 

However, it turns out that Katherine has been playing Alucard. She visits Frank in his jail cell and reveals that she doesn't actually love Alucard, that she only married him for immortality, which she now plans to share with Frank. This was alluded to in a moment between them during the reception, where she told Frank, "Don't ever doubt me, Frank, no matter what happens. Believe in me. Believe that what I'm doing is best for us both." Though Frank isn't sure if he wants any part of this, Katherine says he has no choice, as she bit him on

the neck in bat form while he was sleeping (even though, according to this movie's rules, he won't become a vampire until she completely drains his blood). She then asks, "Isn't eternity together... better than a few years of ordinary life?" Frank seems to come around and Katherine tells him that, before she fully turns him, he must destroy Alucard by finding his coffin and destroying it. Besides being manipulative, Katherine also proves to be cold and ruthless. When she overhears her sister,

Claire, tell Frank that they plan to cremate her corpse, she deduces that Dr. Brewster knows the truth and both he and Claire must be eliminated. Frank is horrified by this but Katherine coldly says, "She's no longer my sister when she interferes with me." Telling him where Alucard's coffin is, she uses her powers to release him from his cell and tells him to meet her at Dark Oaks later on. However, in the end, she vastly underestimates Frank's resolve.

Frank Stanley (Robert Paige), Katherine's fiancee, is an equally unorthodox leading man and hero. Unimpressed with Count Alucard and despising Katherine's interest in him and the occult, Frank, who's been her friend and sweetheart ever since they were kids, feels he's losing the girl he grew up with. Of course, he has no idea just how right he is, but begins to learn after Colonel Caldwell's death. After the reading of the will, Katherine tells him never to return to Dark Oaks, much to his anger. Suspecting that she's now seeing Alucard, he follows her when she goes into the swamp to meet with the Count. Frank gets there in time to see them drive off in Katherine's car, but he's unable to follow them further as his own car ends up getting smashed by a tree. He returns to Dark Oaks later and is enraged when Katherine tells him that she and Alucard are now married. He confronts Alucard, demanding he leave and never come back, only for the Count to throw him aside like he's nothing. That's when Frank pulls out a revolver but accidentally kills Katherine when his bullets go through Alucard. Shocked at this, he runs out of the house and through the woods, with Alucard chasing him in bat form. Frank collapses in a cemetery, where Alucard attempts to feed on him, only to be driven away by a cross. Afterward, Frank arrives at Dr. Brewster's home in a daze, not remembering how he got there. He tells Brewster what happened, and he then goes to Dark Oaks to see for himself. While he's gone, Frank has himself jailed for killing Katherine. Brewster tells Sheriff Dawes that he talked with Alucard and Katherine after Frank claims to have shot her, and Dawes decides to take Frank back out to Dark Oaks to retrace what exactly happened. But when they search the grounds, Frank is horrified and breaks down when they find Katherine's body in the family crypt. 

The next time we see Frank is when he's visited by Katherine in his jail cell. She explains everything to him, including her plan for him to kill Alucard and then become a vampire as well, and while he's initially unsure, his love for her prompts him to go along with it. But then, Katherine tells him that they may have to kill both Dr. Brewster and Claire, which terribly disturbs Frank. Regardless, he still agrees to go along with her plan to destroy Alucard. She unlocks his cell and gets him a gun, which he uses to escape from the jail and make his

way to the swamp. He finds Alucard's coffin and burns it. Despite being confronted and nearly killed by the enraged and desperate Count, Frank makes it out alive when the sunlight destroys him. He then goes to Dark Oaks, as Katherine asked him, but when he finds her resting in a trunk in a playroom, he decides to destroy her as well. When Brewster, Prof. Lazlo, and the sheriff arrive, they find that Frank has set fire to Katherine's body, ending the movie on a very somber note.

Like her role of Elsa in The Ghost of Frankenstein, Evelyn Ankers has a pretty thankless part here as Claire, Katherine's sister. She's fairly prominent in the first act, portraying Claire as likable and compassionate, albeit dismissive of Katherine's interest in the occult. She's far more upset over her father's death than Katherine, who knows it was Alucard's doing, and after the reading of the will, Claire confides to Dr. Brewster that she believes Katherine has been secretly seeing Count Alucard. The two of them check the guesthouse to see if he's staying there, but find that two of the large boxes that came with his luggage are missing and those that are there are empty. Concerned, Brewster suggests Claire leave Dark Oaks and stay in town, and also asks her to help swear out an insanity complaint against Katherine if she refuses to leave as well. Claire is shocked at this, especially at the thought of Katherine being institutionalized, but it becomes a moot point after she's proven to be dead. Claire returns briefly during the third act when she visits Frank in jail, with Brewster and Prof. Lazlo plying her to find out where Alucard is during the day. However, it's clear that she doesn't know he's a vampire, as she doesn't believe Frank's claim that Katherine visited him. Regardless, she doesn't learn anything, and she unknowingly lets Katherine know of their plan to cremate her body. She leaves when Frank begins raving about the cremation and is not seen again for the rest of the movie.

Dr. Harry Brewster (Frank Craven), the local physician and friend of the Caldwell family, is portrayed as a gentle and inquisitive man who knows something strange is going on from the very start of the movie, when he and Frank Stanley go to meet Count Alucard at the train station and he doesn't show up. He's the one who notices that Alucard's name spelled backwards is Dracula and becomes intrigued by it. When Colonel Caldwell dies during the reception, Brewster believes he may have simply died in his sleep (ignoring the fact that the disabled Caldwell's body is lying in bed and the fire started by his supposedly dropping his cigar while sleeping is over by the window), until Frank points out the marks on the neck. Afterward, he contacts Prof. Lazlo about Alucard, who tells him of the legend of Dracula and his having been a vampire. At first, Brewster is unsure about the possibility of Alucard being one but continues reading into it. As more strange things happen, he becomes more of a believer, as well as concerned for the well-being of both Katherine and Claire, advising the latter to leave Dark Oaks and help him get an insanity complaint against her sister. The tipping point is when he talks with Katherine after Frank claims to accidentally shoot her, only for her to be found dead when he, Sheriff Dawes, Judge Simmons, and Frank go out to Dark Oaks. Moreover, Dawes suspects Brewster is an accessory after the fact and was planning to remove Katherine's body before they went out there. Any further doubts Brewster may have disappear when Alucard appears before him and Lazlo in the former's office, intending to kill them before they can interfere. Afterward, he completely devotes himself to saving his community and the Caldwell family: he paints little crosses over the bite marks on the young boy Alucard attacks, he and Lazlo attempt to have Katherine's body cremated, and they also attempt to find where Alucard rests during the day.

Prof. Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg), the film's version of Prof. Van Helsing, is portrayed with both great integrity and intelligence. Initially, he describes himself as neither a believer nor a non-believer in vampires and the legend of Dracula, specifically, but admits to having uncovered data in his research that he can't disprove. He's intrigued when Dr. Brewster first contacts and tells him about Alucard and the fact that his name spelled backwards is Dracula, wondering why anyone would assume that name. By the time he arrives in town and learns what's happened with Katherine, he's convinced that Alucard is not only a vampire but a descendant of Count Dracula. Like any good version of Van Helsing, he lays out what vampires are, how they operate, and how they can be destroyed to Brewster, as well as suggests that the reason Alucard has come to the United States is because he's bled his home country dry. When Alucard pays the two men an unexpected visit and attacks Brewster, Lazlo calmly whips out a small crucifix and drives him away. After that, he continues advising Brewster on how best to deal with Alucard and the now vampiric Katherine, correctly guessing her plan to turn Frank into a vampire as well and advising that she be cremated.

Other notable characters include Judge Simmons (Samuel S. Hinds), who's flabbergasted by the alternate will that Katherine produces, bequeathing the entire estate of Dark Oaks to her, but also doesn't think Dr. Brewster has sufficient evidence for an insanity complaint against her. And though Brewster insists to Simmons that he talked with Katherine after Frank says he shot her, he's also present at Dark Oaks when they find her body. This leads the disbelieving Sheriff Dawes (Patrick Moriarity) to believe Brewster is an accessory after

the fact, that he tried to stall them from going out to Dark Oaks so he could remove Katherine's body. Moreover, when Frank escape the jail, Dawes initially believes Brewster had something to do with that as well. To further confuse the sheriff, his deputy, Matt (Walter Sande), who was standing guard over Frank, talks about the guy talking to himself in two voices: his own and Katherine's. Dawes thinks this is something Brewster put Frank up to in order to validate an insanity plea, while

Matt, naturally, thinks Frank is just crazy, at first. He begins to rethink his opinion when he realizes that Frank escaped, just as Katherine's voice said she would ensure. He then tells them how Katherine told Frank to meet her at Dark Oaks and also where he intends to kill Alucard. Dawes, thoroughly convinced that Frank is a madman, intends to ride out and warn Alucard of this, but Brewster stops him, saying they should go take a look in the morgue, first. When they do, they find Katherine's body and the coffin gone, and when they next go out to the spot where Alucard's coffin was, they find it burning, along with the Count's disintegrated corpse. Thoroughly baffled, Dawes still says he has to uphold his duty and recapture Frank, and thus, they head out to Dark Oaks for the film's downbeat ending.

One last character whom I always found to be pointless is Queen Zimba (Adeline De Walt Reynolds), this gypsy whom Katherine brought back from Hungary and lives out in the swamp near Dark Oaks (God knows why she doesn't just like at the plantation herself). At the beginning of the movie, Katherine goes out to her small hut in the swamp, which Zimba says was through her will. She warns Katherine, "The angel of death hovers over a great house. I see it in ruins: weeds, vines growing over it, bats flying in and out the broken windows." She goes on to say, "Alucard is not his name. You must stop him before it is too late. Stop him before death comes to Dark Oaks." And finally, right before she dies when Alucard's bat form attacks her, she says, "I see you marrying a corpse, living in a grave." Given that Katherine already knows the truth about Alucard and intends to marry him for that very reason, there is no point to this character or scene. You could easily remove it and nothing would be lost.

As Universal had done with Kharis the Mummy in 1942's The Mummy's Tomb, and would go on to do in the two follow-ups, Son of Dracula attempts to modernize the Dracula myth by bringing him to 1940's America. In that regard, it's almost a cousin to Columbia's The Return of the Vampire, released the same year, which depicted a vampire on the prowl in wartime London. Instead of the creepy, barren landscape of Transylvania, the old-fashioned, crumbling ruins of Castle Dracula, or

the fog-shrouded streets of London, this film allows us to see Dracula lurking within a small community near New Orleans, preying on the unsuspecting townsfolk, using his powers to sneak into establishments like the Caldwell plantation and Dr. Brewster's home and office, and hiding his coffin in an old drainage tunnel in the swamp. The film's visuals are also of a contemporary aesthetic, with George Robinson's cinematography, no doubt influenced by Robert Siodmak's direction, evoking more of a feeling of film noir than German

Expressionism. And the plotline of Katherine double-crossing Alucard once she has what she wants from him and intending to pass it on to Frank once he's gotten rid of Alucard is most definitely noirish.

The noir influence is truly felt in the movie's look, with the very stark, deeply black shadows during the nighttime scenes, especially in the interiors of the Caldwell mansion and Frank's jail cell. One of the best uses of shadow-play is when Katherine enters Frank's cell in bat form and, while he's asleep, bites his neck, the latter of which is done in complete shadow (although, the composition of this sequence makes no sense: the bat is nothing but a shadow when it lands on Frank to feed and,

when it flies away afterward, you see it fly up from below his cot, as if only its shadow did the biting). A similar example of lighting comes in the scene when Frank collapses in the cemetery and Alurcard's bat form flies down onto him, intending to bite his neck. But then, the moon comes out from behind the clouds (a stock shot from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man) and shines the image of a nearby cross onto the ground, driving Alucard away. Going back to the scenes in the jail, when Claire visits Frank, there are some distinct

shots of their faces photographed directly through the bars, whose shadows are cast on their faces. When Count Alucard is first introduced during the opening, the camera starts on everyone dancing at the reception in the mansion, then it slowly pulls back through an open window, past the porch, and turns to the left to reveal Alucard as he watches from nearby, with the music turning eerie at the same time. When Alucard and Katherine prepare to be married, there's a flash of lightning and a crash

of thunder as the door to the justice of the peace closes behind them, stylistically alluding to Katherine sealing her deal with the devil. And speaking of style, you gotta love the opening credits, where someone wipes away some thick spiderwebs to reveal the title. However, the film's technical and directional touches aren't flawless, as there are some obvious instances of day-for-night photography, and the editing for when Alucard kills Queen Zimba while he's in bat form is really awkward.

After watching and talking about so many of these movies, it's refreshing to have one that takes place in the United States rather than England or elsewhere in Europe, and specifically in the period in which it was made. Granted, you still have creepy, dark settings, and there are still horse-drawn carriages here alongside the modern vehicles, but the location of the American South gives it a distinctive new flavor. Out and away, the most memorable location is Dark Oaks, both the

plantation itself and the thick, murky swamp that surrounds it. The swamp serves the same purpose as the creepy forests in previous Universal horror movies, and is clearly built on a soundstage (possibly the same one that housed the forests in The Wolf Man), but, again, it has its own unique vibe about it, with the creeping vines, reeds, and ponds, one of which Count Alucard's coffin emerges from and he glides over towards Katherine, and the drainage tunnel he hides in afterward. Even though her character is pointless,

the little, isolated hut that Queen Zimba lives in is a memorable one, with all the classic pieces of witchy art direction about it, including a little cauldron in which Zimba places some herbs, and with a crow sitting next to her (according to IMDB, that crow was named Jimmy); I have a sneaking suspicion this might've been the inspiration for the witch's home in Pumpkinhead. And just because we're in America doesn't mean we can't have a spooky cemetery, specifically a small one next to the Caldwell crypt, where Frank nearly meets his end and where Katherine's body is found.

As for the plantation itself, the main house is a lovely mansion, with a big ballroom we see full of dancing people and a band during the reception, a nice bedroom for Colonel Caldwell, long corridors and hallways, an elegant study, and, on the grounds, a garden housing a chair for one to enjoy the scenery, as well as a comfortable enough guesthouse. However, as beautiful as the place is, in the dead of night, it takes on a very sinister appearance, especially the basement. Speaking of

which, when Dr. Brewster looks around the place after Frank says he shots Katherine, he heads down into the basement and makes the strange discovery of some chickens in a small cage, as well as a box of earth with chicken feathers and the legs of what appears to be a dead chicken whose body is just offscreen atop it. I have no idea what the significance of this is, as it's not Katherine's coffin, nor is it Alucard's, and even that wouldn't explain the presence of the chicken feathers. I guess Alucard wasn't kidding when he said he was

embarking on some scientific research. In any case, the one time we see Katherine's bedroom, it's after she's become a vampire herself, and while the room looks inviting enough, as the bed is a large one with a canopy, the very dark lighting and the white sort of glow around Katherine as she sits up in bed give it an unearthly vibe. And the film's ending is set in an old, upstairs playroom, where Frank finds Katherine sleeping in her coffin, waiting for him, only to burn her.

Dr. Brewster's home and office is a similarly nice, upper-class house, with a quaint little dining room, an office that doubles as a medical examination room, and a comfortable sitting room with a fireplace. However, like Dark Oaks, it isn't without its sinister vibes, specifically the office, where Alucard pays Brewster and Prof. Lazlo an unexpected visit, and Brewster examines Alucard's young victim afterward. And finally, there's the courthouse where Frank is held for much of the

third act, as well as the county morgue, where Katherine's body is kept and which she escapes from. I especially like the jail area of the courthouse, just beyond Sheriff Dawes' office, as its harsh, metal look and the dark lighting really punctuate that film noir aesthetic.

In stark contrast to the problematic but still acknowledged continuity of Universal's Frankenstein and, for the most part, Invisible Man franchises, or even that of the "Kharis" Mummy films, the Dracula series has no true timeline beyond the original Dracula and Dracula's Daughter, which becomes obvious with Son of Dracula. For one, Count Alucard is not a sibling of Countess Zaleska, nor is he even an actual son but, rather, Count Dracula himself, merely spelling his

name backwards to throw people off his trail. The closest he ever comes to being touted as a son is when Prof. Lazlo says he's, "Probably a descendant of Count Dracula." But more to the point, when Dr. Brewster first contacts Lazlo about Alucard, the professor tells him, "The last Count Dracula... was finally destroyed in the nineteenth century." Clearly, this film ignores the previous installments, including the original, which most definitely took place in the 30's. Instead of a sequel, it's more of a

re-telling of the basic Dracula story, with the Count again leaving his homeland to seek fresh blood in a new country, but instead of traveling to England, he comes to the United States. And save for Renfield, all the character archetypes are present, even if they don't play out the way you'd expect: Katherine can be seen as either Mina or Lucy, Frank is our ubiquitous Jonathan Harker, Brewster is Seward, and Lazlo is Van Helsing. Even Queen Zimba, with her warning about Alucard's evil nature, can be seen as the Transylvanian natives

who try to warn Renfield (or, if you want to be true to the original book, Harker) of the danger that will soon befall him. And speaking of the Bram Stoker novel, the movie has a moment where it goes meta, as Brewster is seen reading an excerpt from it! If memory serves me right, this isn't the only time where the literary Dracula exists in the same world as a flesh-and-blood counterpart, but it is interesting to think that, this early on, they would come up with a reality where Stoker seemingly based his book on a true vampire (or, they were

just being lazy and didn't want to come up with a fictional book about vampires for Brewster to reference). In any case, Son of Dracula would ultimately prove to be a one-off, as the Count's final three appearances at 1940's Universal would make no reference to it or the previous movies.

Once again, Hans J. Salter's music score is made up of themes and motifs from past Universal horror films, like The Wolf Man, The Ghost of Frankenstein, and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, but there are also some notable pieces of music that were new, at least to this genre, as some of it comes from Salter's work on a 1940 film called Seven Sinners. Some very high-pitched, eerie music, punctuated by what sounds like bits of an organ, is heard when Count Alucard is introduced and when he sneaks into the plantation house to kill Colonel Caldwell. Speaking of Alucard, when he appears in bat form to attack Queen Zimba, he gets a distinctive horn theme. The best part of the score plays when Katherine meets Alucard in the swamp, with loud strings heard when he materializes from his coffin and, as he floats across the water towards Katherine, the music is absolutely sweeping, making the Count come off as more magnificent than terrifying. The eerie, organ-like music then appears, followed by a harp-like plucking, when Alucard reaches Katherine and kisses her hand. When Frank, after shooting Katherine, is pursued by Alucard through the woods, the sequence is scored in a frantic, thrilling manner, but when Alucard is driven away by the cross in the cemetery, a very strong, uplifting horn piece is played. It's repeated later on when Prof. Lazlo drives him away with a crucifix. The climax, with Alucard's burning coffin, is scored by horns in another frantic manner that transitions into the music heard during The Ghost of Frankenstein's similar burning climax, followed by rising strings when the sun comes up and Alucard succumbs to it. It culminates in some loud violins that sound almost as though they're stabbing when his exposed hand disintegrates into a skeleton. And the ending, where Frank goes back to Dark Oaks and opts to burn Katherine as she sleeps, is played to some very somber strings that transition into the "THE END" title card.

When I first wrote this review, I stated that I thought Son of Dracula was better than Dracula's Daughter; while I don't necessarily think that anymore, as I've grown a new appreciation for that film, there's no denying that Son is another entertaining flick from Universal Horror's second wave. Aside from some wonky instances of editing, minor confusing concerning the rules of vampires here, and Queen Zimba being a pointless character, the movie benefits greatly from well-done and entertaining performances, particularly by Lon Chaney Jr., who deserves more credit than he gets, good direction by Robert Siodmak, great film noir-like cinematography and plot elements, a welcome change of setting to the American South that manages to distinctively atmospheric in its own right, and some great special effects and memorable scenes. Like its brethren, it may not be a major classic, and I don't think it's one of the best horror movies of the 40's, like Don G. Smith, but it is a very fun way to kill 80 minutes.