****Excellent ***Good **Ordinary *Poor : <i> Recent releases, reviewed by Times critics.</i> : MOVIES
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<i> Compiled by Terry Atkinson</i>
** 1/2 “Son of Dracula.”
MCA. $29.95. 1943.
In the hinterlands of the Deep South, amid mossy trees, howling dogs and darkness, ancient Gypsies and pasteboard mansions, lurks the sinister and seductive Count Alucard--played, in a masterstroke of miscasting, by lumpish, brutish-acting Lon Chaney Jr. (He looks like a stevedore in a cape.) Here’s a bad movie done with incongruous style. Sets, costumes, writing, performances--everything is pretty cheesy. But director Robert Siodmak somehow endows it with an eerie, sugary-shivery, pop-Gothic atmosphere. It’s fun to watch.
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