House of Dracula Reviews

An entertaining if not frightening horror film in which Universal revived all its resident monsters. Chaney as the Wolf Man and Carradine as Dracula arrive at Stevens' sprawling laboratory in Visaria (in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN it's Varsaria). Both monsters are fed up with their killing instincts and beg for a cure. Well, Chaney is sincere but Carradine is only shamming; he's really after luscious nurse O'Driscoll, intending to make her one of his brides of darkness. Stevens hospitalizes Chaney while he develops his carefully nurtured spores. He has promised to operate on Adams, his hunch-backed assistant, but she begs him to fix up Chaney with the spores first. In the meantime, Chaney goes berserk and, before completely turning into a wolf by the light of the full moon, hurls himself off a cliff into the sea. He is washed into an underwater cave, however, and Stevens goes after him. By then he is a wolf and attacks the doctor, but the spell wears off before he can kill Stevens. The doctor then finds the Frankenstein Monster buried in the cave and drags it to his laboratory where he begins to tinker with it. While zapping the creature with electricity to bring it around, Stevens manages to operate on Chaney and cure him of his lycanthropy once and for all. But Dracula is another matter. While giving him a transfusion to drain off his impure blood, Stevens lapses into a coma and Carradine infuses Stevens with his vampire blood, turning him into a monster. Before this happens, Stevens finds Carradine taking O'Driscoll, his chief nurse, off into vampire land but overtakes them, and Carradine is caught and destroyed by the sun's rays at dawn. O'Driscoll and Chaney then clinch, but Stevens is far gone with Carradine's tainted blood coursing through his veins. He gives the Monster all the juice he can muster with his electricity machines, and the heinous Monster comes to life bent on the usual annihilation of the human race. (The Monster is played by Strange, reprising the role from THE HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.) The villagers, however, led by Atwill, bring about the destruction of Stevens' laboratory and the mad doctor and Monster are killed. It's all pretty hokey, although Stevens manages to evoke some terror as he transforms from benevolent physician to lunatic killer. The dynamic horror trio bowed out at this point, not to be revived for another three years when they would meet a couple of guys who would terrorize them-- Abbott and Costello.