“Here, you have a young vital race.”
Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton) is the daughter of New Orleans plantation owner Colonel Caldwell (George Irving). She is waiting for a visitor. The Hungarian Count Alucard (Lon Chaney Jr.). Soon after the count arrives the Colonel dies. His estate goes to his two daughters. Claire Caldwell (Evelyn Ankers) receives the colonel’s money and Katherine receives the estate, “Dark Oaks”.
Dr. Brewster (Frank Craven) has suspected something was wrong with the Count even before he arrived. Noticing that his name spelled backwards is Dracula he contacts a Professor Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg) in Hungary. Now he is even more suspicious.
Katherine throws aside her boyfriend Frank Stanley (Robert Paige) and marries Alucard. Frank confronts the couple and in a jealous rage tries to shoot Alucard, but the bullets pass through the Count's body and hit Katherine, killing her. Frank runs to Dr. Brewster. Brewster goes to the Caldwell residence and finds both Alucard and Katherine seemingly alive and well. Frank goes to the police and confesses. Even though Brewster says he saw Katherine alive the sheriff insists on searching the mansion. When he finds Katherine’s body he has her transferred to the morgue.
Meanwhile, Professor Lazlo arrives at Brewster's house. Lazlo suspects Alucard is a vampire. Brewster is beginning to wonder himself. While they are discussing vampirism the Count appears to Brewster and Lazlo. Lazlo drives him away with a cross.
Vampire Katherine visits Frank in his cell. She tells him she loves him and only married the Count to become a vampire so she could live forever. She wants him to become one too. She wants him to destroy Dracula and be with her forever.
“Son of Dracula” was released in 1943 and was directed by Robert Siodmak. The movie is the first to feature the first man-into-bat transformation on camera. In Dracula (1931) no transformations were shown on screen. It is also the first movie to show a vampire with super-human strength.
“Son of Dracula” is not nearly as good as “Daughter of Dracula”. I suppose in some ways you could call it a love story. Unfortunately for Count Alucard, it’s not his love story. I have a hard time thinking of Lon Chaney as a romantic leading man. The mustache is an interesting touch but it’s not enough. I was waiting for him to sprout hair and howl. He’s an excellent werewolf and a passable Frankenstein’s Monster, and even a really good mummy, but as for a vampire, meh. My all time favorite vampire of any kind is Christopher Lee. Now there’s a vampire.
There are several ways to kill a vampire; sunlight, wooden stake, silver, fire, and tearing its head off. For a race that’s immortal there seems to be a lot of ways to get rid of them.