Fresh and Exciting

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

In continuing to review werewolf movies in chronological order that I manage to find on YouTube, I'm now at 1945 with House of Dracula. This was yet another in the Universal Studio's Monster series starring Dracula, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein's Monster. They all encounter a doctor who wants to cure them. I'll stop there and just say that while John Caradine's Dracula and Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man are provided good storylines, the one for Glenn Strange's Monster is weak at best. (Also, there's flashback footage of that character as previously played by Boris Karloff and Chaney himself so that may confuse some viewers who can tell the difference!) There is also some fine support by Onslow Stevens as the good doctor, Martha O'Driscoll as one of the nurses who Drac takes a fancy to before she also gets involved with The Wolf Man's alter ego Lawrence Talbot, and Jane Adams as the hunchbacked nurse though it may take a while to notice that since she's so gorgeous! This also turned out to be one of Lionel Atwill's final film appearances as he'd pass away five months after this movie's release. I just saw him in Man Made Monster and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, both with Chaney. While this seemed to be the last picture in the classic Universal Monsters series, those Big Three I mentioned earlier in this review would reappear a few years later in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein with Bela Lugosi reprising as Dracula that time...

"Universal" studios could have made a better film in which to finish their stable of monster characters."House of Dracula" is a disappointment in many ways: Onslow Stevens acting a bit on the hammy side when he becomes a mad scientist (he is better when playing his character in a more benevolent manner), Glenn Strange has nothing to do other than destroy the laboratory, it's rather obvious that footage is used from previous horror films by the studios, Lionel Atwill shouldn't have bothered appearing in this film as he is clearly rather ill during filming (he died only months later), Lon Chaney Jnr should have had more screen time as the Wolf Man and the reduction in budget is there for all to see.John Carradine makes another effective appearance as Count Dracula though and he wisely has a fair amount of screen time.It's a bit disappointing that this film marks the last time we see the old Eastern European village set on the backlot.

This is a sequel to the House of Frankenstein. House of Frankenstein is about Frankenstein Dracula and the wolf man. This movie is also about Dracula Frankenstein and the wolf man. Dracula come to a scientist who he think can make him human again. The wolf man come to the same scientist looking for a cure. The Frankenstein is discovered to still be alive. He stats out slow but give it time. It is really one of the scariest movie ever made. This movie is scarier then Frankenstein (1931). This movie is scarier then The bride of Frankenstein. It is very intense. If you like really scary movie then you need to see this movie.

Universal films' second run of horror films (kick-started by 1939's 'Son of Frankenstein' – itself commissioned due to the success of repeat showings of the original 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' films) fizzled out with this final serious monster-mash. It's not difficult to see why. Whereas the early films were master-crafts of the macabre, with careful courting of actors and directors alike, the series had by this time become mere monster-rallies. Films for the kids to enjoy. Cosy. Familiar. Popcorn. Not that there is anything wrong with this approach, but once you've thrown three of the best known monsters together for no reason other than to bolster sales, artistically, there is nowhere left to go except a meeting with Abbott and Costello.If anything, the story is perhaps a little tighter than the preceding team-up. John Carradine's Dracula appears to be searching for a cure for his nocturnal habits, as does Lon Chaney Jr's forlorn Larry Talbot. Whilst the Wolf Man is sincere, The Count seems to have ulterior motives, given away by secretly keeping his coffin in the cellar of Doctor Edleman, the man who he has come to for salvation.This is really Edlemann's story. He becomes a strange Mr Hyde character as a result of Dracula's machinations, and Talbot struggles with his conscience after he sees Edleman up to no good – after all, here is the man who appears to have cured him.It's a good run-around but nothing more. It features Lionel Atwill in one of his last appearances (he died the following year) – in the scene when the police are searching the premises, you can hear Atwill hacking in the background. Also featured briefly is the wonderfully named Skelton Knaggs, a Universal regular, turning in a truly laughable performance.And what of the third named monster, Frankenstein's lumbering creation? Once more played by the impressive Glenn Strange, he is utterly wasted, lying comatose throughout, only coming to life at the end to wreck the laboratory and bring the film to a close. Strange's brief screen-time is cut down further – the Monster's finale is actually the climax to 1942's 'Ghost of Frankenstein' replayed, featuring Lon Chaney Jr in the role. A slipshod ending to a classic range of terrors.