# Son of Dracula (1943 film)

Son of Dracula is a 1943 film about a beautiful Southern girl, obsessed with thoughts of eternal life, who invites Count Alucard to come to her mansion in the U.S., unleashing a Pandora's box of horror on unsuspecting relatives and neighbors.
    Directed by Robert Siodmak. Written by Curtis Siodmak.

## Madame Zimba

* I see you marrying a corpse, living in a grave. I see... [a bat suddenly appears and silences her]
* You do not know why you came here tonight. It was because I wished you here.
* The angel of death hovers over a great house. I see it in ruins... weeds, vines growing over it, bats flying in and out the broken windows.
* Alucard is not his name. You must stop him before it is too late. Stop him before death comes to Dark Oaks.

## Dialogue

    Harry: How are ya, doctor?
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Hi, Harry.
    Frank Stanley: Hey, Charlie!
    Charlie, station agent: Hello Dr. Brewster, Mr. Stanley.
    Frank Stanley: How are ya. Say, uh, those all the passengers you have?
    Charlie, station agent: Just the four.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: You didn't put anyone off at the wrong station, did you? We're here to meet a friend of the Caldwells, a Count Alucard.
    Charlie, station agent: There was no Count on this train. All customers. Say - there was a lot of stuff in the baggage car that might belong to your Count.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Thanks, we'll take a look at it.
    Train Conductor Voice: All aboard.
    Frank Stanley: [looking at a pushcart piled with trunks and cases] Well, does this look as though he's come to stay for just a couple of weeks?
    Dr. Harry Brewster: No, it doesn't. I wonder what's become of him?
    Frank Stanley: Probably coming by car. Don't worry, he'll show up.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: [the Doctor moves close to the luggage, studies the name on a crest on a box which has been stacked sideways] D - R - A - C...
    Frank Stanley: What are you mumbling about?
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Nothing, nothing. Just a silly idea hit me. Well, if there's no Alucard, there's no need of our staying around here. I've got to get back to the office.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: I called to find out if you know anything about a titled Hungarian family named Alucard... A-L-U-C-A-R-D.
    Prof. Laszlo: Alucard? No. I'm sure there is no such family. The name is not Hungarian.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Well, can you tell me, is it possible there's a Count Dracula still living?
    Prof. Laszlo: Dracula? I'm sure there is not. History says the last Count Dracula died in the Middle Ages. Why do you ask?
    Dr. Harry Brewster: A certain Count Alucard is visiting a friend of mine. I happened to notice that the name spelled backward is Dracula. [Chuckling] It made me curious.
    Prof. Laszlo: That is strange. According to the legends of my people, the last Count Dracula became one of the undead... a vampire... and was finally destroyed in the nineteenth century. [Chuckles] I am considered somewhat of an authority on the subject.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: I know, Professor. That's why I called you. If this man is an impostor, why should he assume that name over all others?
    Prof. Laszlo: Oh, he wouldn't... not if he were sane. In Transylvania, the name is associated only with evil. I advise you to be very careful of that man.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: From your tone, I gather you don't entirely disbelieve the legends of the former Dracula.
    Prof. Laszlo: In my research, I have uncovered data which I cannot entirely disprove. I do not say I believe, but, in honesty, I cannot say I disbelieve. I repeat, be very, very careful of that man.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: I will, Professor. Thank you very much.
    Frank Stanley: No, you can't be Kay. Kay's dead! I know, I killed her. I saw her fall. I was with the sheriff when he found her body. She was dead. She was dead! I saw her!
    Katherine Caldwell: You see me now too.
    Frank Stanley: Yes, but...
    Katherine Caldwell: Do you doubt your own eyes?
    Frank Stanley: It is you. It is you, Kay, and you're alive! But what is it, Kay? You seem to be cold, like death. You seem to be Kay, but there's a strange difference. It's almost as if I didn't know you.
    Katherine Caldwell: Does that mean you no longer love me?
    Frank Stanley: I'll always love you.
    Katherine Caldwell: Enough to spend the rest of your life with me?
    Frank Stanley: But... But you're married to Alucard.
    Katherine Caldwell: I don't love him. I never did.
    Frank Stanley: But you're married to him!
    Katherine Caldwell: I had to. It was part of the plan I told you about in the garden. I asked you to have faith in me then. I beg you to have faith in me now.
    Frank Stanley: I don't understand.
    Katherine Caldwell: Count Alucard is immortal. Through him, I attained immortality. Through me, you will do the same, and we will spend eternity together.
    Frank Stanley: Are you serious? Do you expect me to believe anything so unreal?
    Katherine Caldwell: How can you explain the fact you shot through him without hurting him? How else could I be here?
    Frank Stanley: Why, I can't explain it. It's... it's so incredible!
    Katherine Caldwell: Perhaps you'll understand when I tell you... Count Alucard's real name is Count Dracula.
    Frank Stanley: Count Dracula? You mean the Hungarian who's supposed to have become...
    Katherine Caldwell: Don't use that word. We don't like it. Say, rather, that we are undead, immortal.
    Frank Stanley: Do you mean you deliberately planned this? You married him so you could become a...
    Katherine Caldwell: So you and I could attain immortality, yes.
    Frank Stanley: But even if it would work, do you expect me to agree to anything so fantastic?
    Katherine Caldwell: You have no choice. I've taken the first step while you were sleeping.
    Frank Stanley: No. No, I can't do it.
    Katherine Caldwell: I've already told you, you have no choice. Frank, isn't eternity together... better than a few years of ordinary life?
    Frank Stanley: Yes. Yes, I suppose it is.
    Katherine Caldwell: There's one thing you must do while you're still in your present form.
    Frank Stanley: What is that?
    Katherine Caldwell: Destroy Dracula.
    Frank Stanley: Destroy Dracula? But how?
    Katherine Caldwell: There is one advantage all humans have over us. You can move about in the daytime. We can't. We must return to our graves before sunrise, or we're destroyed.
    Frank Stanley: But how can I keep him from his grave?
    Katherine Caldwell: You don't have to. You can destroy him in one of two ways... either drive a stake through his heart, or burn his grave before he reaches it. You must do this, Frank, for us.
    Prof. Laszlo: Then, you didn't tell him what we believe?
    Dr. Harry Brewster: The chances of convincing a hardheaded sheriff... that we were dealing with a vampire seemed slim.
    Prof. Laszlo: Very. Yet I am satisfied that such is the case. Alucard is undoubtedly a vampire... probably a descendant of Count Dracula.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Are you sure we're not allowing our imagination to run away with our common sense?
    Prof. Laszlo: Can you suggest any other explanation for the events of the past few days?
    Dr. Harry Brewster: No. Neither can I give a lucid explanation of a vampire.
    Prof. Laszlo: Broadly speaking, a vampire is an earthbound spirit... whose body comes to life at night and scours the countryside, satisfying a ravenous appetite for the blood of the living. This it does by drawing it from the throat of its victim.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: That's a nauseating thought! They're supposed to be immortals, no doubt?
    Prof. Laszlo: Practically. So long as they return to their graves before sunrise. Between then and sunset, they remain in a sort of, uh, cataleptic state, during which they can be destroyed by two different means. At night, however, they are invulnerable.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: You mean you believe Frank shot through Alucard without hurting him?
    Prof. Laszlo: [Chuckling] Bullets would have had no effect on him.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: It's strange to hear a man of science like yourself... calmly admit that he believes in a superstition so fantastic.
    Prof. Laszlo: I could spend days citing proof that it is not mere superstition. My own homeland in the Carpathian Hills where Count Dracula lived... is sad testimony to its truth. What was once a happy, productive region is today barren waste... villages depopulated, the land abandoned.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Maybe that's why he left there and came here to a younger country, stronger and more virile.
    Prof. Laszlo: Of course... and he will fasten on it and drain it dry, just as he did his homeland. Unless... we can find his grave and destroy him in it.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: His grave? He was buried in Hungary, wasn't he?
    Prof. Laszlo: Yes, but you will find that one of the chests he brought... contains a layer of soil from his birthplace. That constitutes a grave.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Are you serious?
    Prof. Laszlo: Rest assured he has it hidden in some safe place... and returns to it just before sunrise every morning.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Our job seems to be to find that chest with him in it and destroy him.
    Prof. Laszlo: That won't be as simple as it sounds. The vampire can assume very many different forms at will. Sometimes it appears as a bat, sometimes as a werewolf... and sometimes as a small cloud of swirling vapor. In this way it can move unseen among its enemies, learn their plans and be in a position to outwit them.
    Count Dracula: [materializing from a mist] You are very brilliant, aren't you, Professor Lazlo? Perhaps too brilliant for your own good... and that of Dr. Brewster. You're right. I am here because this is a young and virile race, not dry and decadent like ours. They have what I want, what I need, what I must have. Do you suppose that I would allow any mortal to stand in my way?
    Sheriff Dawes: You mean, that's all that's left of Count Alucard?
    Prof. Laszlo: Look at the ring on his hand. It bears the Alucard seal, just as on his luggage.
    Sheriff Dawes: Well assuming it is Alucard, or Dracula, or whoever he calls himself - where is Frank Stanley? He's still wanted for murder.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: You still think that Frank killed Kay deliberately?
    Sheriff Dawes: Look, Doctor, I'm only the Sheriff. I'm not the Judge. It's my job to bring him in, and the court's to decide his guilt.
    Prof. Laszlo: Of course. But I think our testimony will have some bearing on their decision.
    Dr. Harry Brewster: Undoubtedly. But the main thing to do now is to find Frank - and I think I know where he is.

## Taglines

* LON CHANEY—MORE THRILLING! MORE TERRIFYING! As History's Blackest Curse Strikes Again!
* Can You Take It? More Startling . . . More Blood-Curdling Than Anything You've Ever Seen!
* Chill and Thrill to Dracula's Curse!

## Cast

* Lon Chaney, Jr. — Count Alucard (Dracula)
* Robert Paige — Frank Stanley
* Louise Allbritton — Katherine 'Kay' Caldwell
* Evelyn Ankers — Claire Caldwell
* Frank Craven — Dr. Harry Brewster
* J. Edward Bromberg — Professor Lazlo
* Samuel S. Hinds — Judge Simmons
* Adeline De Walt Reynolds — Queen Zimba
* George Irving — Colonel Caldwell
* Etta McDaniel — Sarah
* Patrick Moriarity — Sheriff Dawes
* Walter Sande — Matt
* Sam McDaniel — Andy

## External links

* Son of Dracula quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Son of Dracula (1943 film) at Rotten Tomatoes