After Lon Chaney's stab at Dracula, Universal cast John Carradine as the Count for a pair of the studio's delightful "monster rally" pictures, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA. Carradine has always been my favorite Dracula, thanks largely to his magnificent voice and thin mustache which fit so perfectly the undead king of vampires. In this film, Dracula consults a brilliant experimental scientist to see if there's a cure for his condition. Turns out there might just be, but during treatments, Dracula can't overcome his evil nature and sabotages the experiment, infecting the scientist with vampire blood and turning him into a mad killer. Meanwhile, Larry Talbot has also come calling in hope of a cure for his little problem. Much to the delight of fans, Talbot finally has a happy ending, but it almost comes too late! Frankenstein's monster and a hunchback round out the monster ticket, though the Hunchback in question is actually the sweetest nurse you've ever seen, she just has a twisted spine. HOUSE OF DRACULA ended the original slate of Universal monster films, although the characters would have one last hurrah in 1948's comedy-horror half-breed ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN -in which Dracula would be played for the second and last time by Bela Lugosi. John Carradine would occasionally play the Count (or a similar character) for the rest of his career. Memorably, this included the under-rated BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA.
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