A strange byproduct of the studio system of the golden age of Hollywood was the miscasting of actors in roles they were never meant to play, especially in horror films: Carole Lombard in Supernatural; Humphrey Bogart in The Return of Doctor X; Spencer Tracy in Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde.
These aren't necessarily bad films--each is interesting in its own way--but they're all exceedingly odd as well.
Not quite as odd, though, as Lon Chaney Jr. cast as Count Dracula in Son of Dracula.
The role of Dracula had been played at Universal before with formal menace by Bela Lugosi and would be played later with booming Shakespearian authority by John Carradine, and both were still active at the studio, at least in supporting roles. But they chose to cast Chaney anyway, even though he would rather have played the lead role in the remake of his father's greatest hit, Phantom of the Opera.
Universal's casting of Chaney Jr. as the world's most famous vampire makes a slight bit of sense when you consider that, by this point in his career, he'd already played the Wolf Man, Frankenstein and the Mummy. However, the role required a level of suave sophistication that Chaney simply did not possess.
It's a credit to Director Robert Siodmak (his brother Curt wrote the screenplay) and cinematographer George Robinson that, through mood and clever use of effects and sets, Son of Dracula is a successful horror film in spite of Chaney, not because of him.
1 comment:
I disliked "Son of Dracula" the first time I watched it. Lon Chaney, Jr.'s performance is so stilted and he looks like some burly, blue collar guy wearing a really good Dracula costume on Halloween. That first time, I allowed my distaste for Chaney, Jr. as Dracula (I love his performance in "The Wolf Man") blind me to the many positive aspects of the film. It looks gorgeous and is very atmospheric--downright creepy in certain scenes. And then there's the beautiful Louise Allbritton. All good.
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