My Son the Vampire (1952)

[Derf]

I watched Bela Lugosi in My Son the Vampire last night on Movieflix. The film is also called Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, which is a more appropriate title, since the film has nothing to do with anyone's son being a vampire (except in the sense that all men are someone's sons). Mrs. Riley, played by Arthur Lucan (in drag), is an old woman about to be evicted from her apartment/store because she owes back rent. She comes into an inheritance which she believes will put her on easy street. Meanwhile, Dr. Von Housen (Bela Lugosi) is trying to create an army of robots to destroy all the military forces of the world (or something like that). In order to do that, he needs uranium in mass quantities. Oh, and he prolongs his life by drinking the blood of young, attractive women somehow, and he sleeps in a coffin. He calls himself the Vampire and appears in all the newspapers as such for kidnapping women. But his real plot involves robots. He tries to have his prototype robot delivered to his house, but he uses the pseudonym Dr. Riley, and, you guessed it, his robot gets mixed up with the box meant for Mrs. Riley, so he gets a bunch of junk (a banjo, a bedwarmer and a few other comedy props) while Mrs. Riley gets a robot. Wackiness ensues, and Mrs. Riley has to take on the forces of evil to stop Von Housen from getting his hands on a map to some uranium (I just love the way Lugosi says "Yooo-ranium." And "robot").

The movie is reasonably entertaining, especially since it was free (Movieflix offers streaming movies, some free, some available only with a paid membership. The quality is horrible since it streams over Real Player or Windows Media Player, but you get what you pay for). The opening theme song is incredibly cheesy, but about par for the course for the time period. I was unfamiliar with the Mrs. Riley series of movies (apparently there are about 16 of them, receiving mixed reviews on IMDB). I'm not sure whether this one will make me seek out any others; it entertained me reasonably well, and Old Mother Riley is a likeable character, so I might.

[Flangepart]

Wasen't the theme song by Alan Sherman, of "Camp Granada" fame?

[Derf]

By golly, you're right; Alan Sherman did do the theme song. Now that you point it out, the style is reasonably similar to "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda."

[tracy]

I saw this film for the first time yesterday on Antenna TV......it was the most delightfully dreadful movie I'd seen in quite a long time. I loved it! What a crazy bunch of characters....anchored by the awesome Bela Lugosi. Three thumbs up....if I had them.