Customer Reviews

My Son the Vampire [VHS]

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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The long-awaited DVD release of My Son The Vampire (aka Old Mother Riley Meets The Vampire) also contains the brief theatrical trailer for the film's American release (an inclusion not stated on the packaging). Previously available many years ago in an inferior VHS release, and undoubtably available elsewhere as a independently released video, the DVD transfer from the American print is beautiful!

Brit drag comedian Arthur Lucan stars as Irish scullery woman Old Mother Riley, a role he played in several "Riley" films over a course of fifteen years from 1937 to 1952 (when this film was released). Bela Lugosi actually co-stars as a mad scientist who believes he is a vampire, like a predecessor of his, and plans to rule the world with an army of 50,000 invincible robots...but only gets to create just one! Through an unfortunate hysterical mixup, Mother Riley ends up in the clutches of the pseudo-vampire, and slapstick farce ensues.

Directed by John Gilling, who went on to such films as Hammer Studio's THE MUMMY'S SHROUD (also on DVD), and featuring the title song written and performed by Alan Sherman (remember "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah?"). Sherman wrote the song for the American release, and appears in the short theatrical trailer which is also included on the DVD as a supplementary item (go to the main menu on the disc).

This is another Bela Lugosi flick filmed in glorious B&W that stretches the low budget dollar. For anyone that liked Bela's encounters with The East Side Kids and Abbott and Costello, this zany British flick is a good fit. Neither classic comedy nor classic horror, it's fun in a reverse sort of way. Bela covers all bases spoofing his own movie image portraying a mad scientist posing as a vampire. In making these career choices, we get a mental image of Bela shrugging his shoulders at the proposed absurdity and taking the money, paltry sums notwithstanding. British comic Arthur Lucan made a career out of dressing as an old woman. His "Mother Riley" character was apparently popular in England. This must be an acquired taste. Shades of Frankenstein, Bela's super robot gets delivered by mistake to Mother Riley, and the fun is on. There are sight gags and pratfalls aplenty. There's even a frantic chase scene. It's hard for Lugosi to be menacing while smothering chuckles. Viewers that like their comedy sprinkled with horror chills will find the results pleasing. ;-)

This was the last of the Mother Riley films and this one is definately the best. Bela Lugosi is obviously enjoying himself despite taking on this film as a way of flying home to Los Angeles. You can see it in his face as he shuffles up to Mother Riley, "That's My Brother!" he says as Old Mother Riley stares at a painting of a BAT!. Dora Bryan is brilliant as always and so is Judith Furse as the matron-like housekeeper. This film is a must. Anyone who like comedy, old comedy, will love this film. Slapstick at it's best!

My Son the Vampire is something I've wanted to see for decades. Being a Bela Lugosi completist, I had to see it, but feared the worst. To my relief it is obvious that Bela enjoyed making this movie. The 'seduction' scene where Mother Reily tries repeatedly to move further away on the couch only to be matched by Bela rising and falling in unison is a masterpiece of timing and quite funny. Reily herself (Arthur Lucan himself) is a bit tiresome at times, but then this is very broad British 'music hall' style comedy aimed at working blokes and in general is reasonably amusing. Let me put it this way, this is a much better film than 'Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla' was, less annoying and far funnier. Because it's Bela, and because I enjoy Bitish humour from Python to Benny Hill, I had fun watching this film. My only quibble is that the image quality was poor, though passable most of the time. The robot is surprisingly good though. To sum up, this is actually one of the better low budget roles Bela undertook late in his life. Not a classic, but well worth watching.

Saw this one on TV and had to buy to see it all. Pretty funny. and the title character - whew, what a strange one. all in all, this is a good movie. weird but good.