All the classic Universal Dracula movies, ranked – Blastr

You know who is a better Dracula than Lon Chaney Jr? John Carradine. You know who John Carradine still isn't close to being? Bela Lugosi. You know what hampers his performance? Mustache. What is it with non-Lugosi Draculas and facial hair?

Also, weirdly Dracula seems to want to be cured in this movie for some reason? And, I guess that's fine, except for the part where he has never seemed to want to not be a vampire before. And also, he just decides against it halfway through and then turns his doctor into a "Mad Doctor." Oh, and, by the way, Dracula turns the doctor by way of a blood transfusion instead of biting him, which is the most #nohomo thing I've ever seen in a vampire movie.

But Lon Cheney Jr. gets a solid Wolf Man performance out of this which includes the alternate happy ending version of his story in case you find Talbot too depressing.

I also like that there's a lady hunchback in House of Dracula, because that's a really weird attempt at equality.

Most of this movie is very entertaining. There's this goofy, medical contrivance where a certain flower's spores can make bone malleable, which seems... very dangerous? It's funny enough that thew cure for Talbot's werewolf affliction is "futz with his skull some" but that making his cranium into a flexible dough seems more safe than surgery is peak '40s pseudoscience.

And, important to point out, Frankenstein's Monster gets a very brief appearance as well. He thrashes around a bunch, but I'm a sucker for that guy, so it made me happy.

See the rest here:
All the classic Universal Dracula movies, ranked - Blastr

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero