Cristi_Ciopron
From his early Budapestan stage career, Lugosi must of kept a taste for light comedy, as he understood himself to belong to a Viennese tradition of gentle _divertissement; even his acting style can be understood not only as nonchalance, but also as a silent contempt for the wholly unlike style he met in the USA, and he choose to simply neglect this very different Hollywoodian style, he was familiar and accustomed to a lighter style, more fanciful, and he felt at ease in this British vehicle inspired by the music hall style.His career's decline didn't begin until after his last RKO movie. But with vehicles like this one, he hoped to reinvent himself.'Vampire …', a British comedy, offered Lugosi a role he seemed to enjoy, and he gave in return a lively performance in the style of the '30 serials' masterminds. Though presumed to be a vampire, his character belongs to a Sci Fi plot; but he may be a vampire as well, since the disappearances of the women are real, and there are several mummies in one of his rooms, and he feeds Mrs. Riley liver and steaks to get her ready. The storyline serves as a pretext for gags; the musical number is very funny.Lugosi plays a wicked scientist who owns a robot, but hopes to make many more others, once he secures himself a source of uranium; he declares that tin men are better than Frankenstein's monster. He kidnaps a girl, the heiress of a uranium mine, to get from her the map of the uranium mine, in order to use that element for making robots and weapons, and conquer the world; aside from generic mastermind performance, such as hailing the opening a new era in violence, Lugosi has one demanding scene, his 1st scene with Mrs. Riley, when he hires here, and his acting comes across as on a par with his guest's. The Sci Fi storyline, such as it is, comes straight from the '30 serials. If you have been amused, the movie accomplished its aim.Like in the music hall, the storyline isn't supposed to be very meaningful, or carefully thought, but a pretext for countless gags. I liked the supporting cast (the spectacled man in the first scenes, Frieda, the maid, the copper, the drunk gentleman and his pretty wife).The script gathers comedy, Sci Fi and nominal _vampirism; in the music hall's days, a role in drag wasn't unusual. The movie has the freshness of some British movies. Someone wrote that this is a movie you either enjoy, or you don't. I did.Nowadays audiences can mistake this music hall fun for slapstick and one-liners; but it's music hall fun, British fun, lots of gags, and audiences should acknowledge that 'Vampire …' belongs mainly to Mrs. Riley; the same goes for another comedian of those times, Askey (whose gags were much more of the slapstick genre, Mrs. Riley plays here generic physical comedy). The 1st scene, Mrs. Riley as a shopkeeper, was what the actor knew best, and also what he performed best. Some people today seem to be ashamed to watch an actor play in drag. But it wasn't unusual in the music hall days, and in much of the stage's history.
chrismartonuk-1
I couldn't believe it when I heard the above saying from Lucan's lips as he thanked a woman. Though the film hardly operates on the same level as Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, it passes an hour or two quite amiably. Bela is clearly happy to be back in front of a film camera for the first time in years - even a low budget British one - and he effortlessly conveys his old authority and a sense of fun - he comes across as an enjoyably hammy British version of a Batman TV Series supervillain. Lucan is relatively restrained in this outing compared to past ones. The splendid book VAMPIRE OVER London; BELA LUGOSI IN Britain indicates his personal troubles over his estranged partner Kitty Mcshane, and one can only wonder if this is the reason why. The duo's stage act usually climaxed in plate throwing and this is compensated for by a madcap crockery-crashing slapstick sequence with Bela's henchmen. Dora Bryan is a more than adequate foil for Lucan.Editing necessary for MY SON THE VAMPIRE means we lose Lucan's one musical number early on in the film. Also, the romance between the kidnapped Loretti and her Naval officer is underplayed to say the least - he keeps getting bonked on the head by various characters. Graham Moffat is also missing from the print. The ending is curious in that we contrast Riley's madcap race to stop the Vampire enduring various crashes and appropriated forms of transport on the way while Von Houson is actually seen gunning down two constables - a bit strong for a juvenile comedy.The immediate postwar period was a time of apprenticeship for celebrated British comedy stars like the Goons and Tony Hancock who were learning and honing their trade upon being demobbed from the army. By 1951, they were ready to take on the entertainment establishment and sweep aside the old stars like Lucan - in much the same way the Beatles and their ilk were ready in 1963 to change the face of the British music industry. The brief resurgence of popularity Lucan and Mcshane enjoyed prior to this film proved to be a last fling at glory. A whole new wave of innovative British comedy was ready to sweep them aside. Lucan was more truthful than he knew when - at the climax of this film - he sputters "This is the end!" Both Lucan and Lugosi were enjoying a last stab at greatness in an age where they were already anachronisms.
Michael_Elliott
My Son the Vampire (1952) ** (out of 4) Mother Riley (Arthur Lucan in drag) must battle an evil "vampire" (Bela Lugosi) in this rather stupid but campy horror comedy. This film seems to have a fair amount of fan support but the thing is a tad bit too stupid for me to take too serious. I find Lucan and his Mother Riley character rather obnoxious so the comedy here never really works for me. Lugosi, on the other hand, delivers a pretty good performance as the crazed whatever you want to call his character. The scenes with him and the robot are very good and it's nice to see him given so much dialogue at this late stage of his career.
