A followup to House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945) used a similar formula, each of its all-star monster cast characters featured in individual segments, with little or no interaction. Tying everything together is Onslow Stevens as an intense doctor — soon made mad — who proposes cures for vampirism, lycanthropy and, er, hunchbackism. A bit of a novelty, the hunchback assistant is female, nurse Nina, played by Jane Adams.
In the waning moments of this 67-minute thriller, poisoned by Dracula’s blood, the now Jekyll/Hyde-like doc reanimates Frankenstein’s Monster, but his plans for world domination are quickly thwarted by a handful of townspeople, the heroics of Larry Talbot — a Wolf Man cured of his full-moon addiction — and a catastrophic house fire.
Posters for Universal’s Monster Rallies typically feature its creature stars as a parade of floating heads around a central image. Here, on a luminous — almost radioactive — poster for the 1947 French release, we have John Carradine as Dracula with a pencil mustache, Glenn Strange as The Monster, Lon Chaney as The Wolf Man and Mad Doctor Onslow Stevens. The balletic central image has the titular vampire, in top hat and a sweeping crimson-lined cape, menacing the stunning Martha O’Driscoll.
Related:
A Spanish poster for House of Dracula.
3 comments:
What I love about this poster is that the Dracula is obviously designed after Bela Lugosi. They still have John Carradine's head and name on the poster, but no indication that he's playing the Count. And the poster is an oddity in another way. The central image of Drac and the girl is so eye-catching, but the monsters to the side have kind of a half-form, squishy look to them, almost like they were added as an afterthought. It's certainly an eye-catching poster though.
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Regards
The Monster of Frankenstein looks a lot more like Lon Chaney Jr than Glenn Strange!
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