Although Lon Chaney's "Count Alucard" is the character the movie is titled for, it's Louise Allbritton--as the Count's not-so-faithful bride--who is the real star here. In fact, I was more than a bit surprised at how little Lon seems to be in this picture or how rarely he opens his mouth, though I guess it doesn't take a lot of seeing Chaney on-screen to notice how ill-suited he is at portraying a Hungarian count; much less a count who is supposed to be from the same gene pool as Bela Lugosi.<br /><br />And yet, despite the miscasting of the male vampire, "Son of Drac" still turns out to be a very good old-school horror. Certainly one of the best of Universal's second cycle, and a film that in no way deserves the bad reputation it's received over the years. Even though Chaney wasn't the world's most convincing Hungarian, his performance is not a washout. He has quite a few effective moments, particularly when it comes to displaying the supernatural strength of the undead.<br /><br />Louise Allbritton, Frank Craven and J. Edward Bromberg all do tremendous work in this picture & I have to give props to Robert Paige for breaking from the usual "dull-as-dishwater" pattern that one normally sees from the romantic male leads in these old horrors (John Harker anyone). Imagine a guy you don't mind seeing defeat the monster instead of the opposite.<br /><br />And to top it all off, the ending is not the usual formula of two photogenic people walking off into the sunset. 'Son of Dracula' is a very good vampire thriller.