Rainey Dawn
My Son the Vampire AKA Vampire Over London (1952) or "Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire" (original title).This is a cute comedy-horror film. We have Bela Lugosi as "the vampire" Von Housen, Arthur Lucan in drag as Mother Mrs. O'Riley and a robot controlled by "the vampire" Von Housen trying to take over the world. Mrs. O'Riley in her comical ways will try to help stop the vampire from world domination. What more do you want from a zany comedy?! Mrs. O'Riley has to give us a song and dance - which is kinda cute but certainly not the highlight of the film - I personally think the highlight is Lugosi and the robot - but that is my taste.A fun film overall.6/10
juandunite
My soul-mate and I watched this movie in bed and found it outrageously funny. Arthur Lucan, as Old Mother Riley, is as funny as Tyler Perry is as Madea. Like Madea, Old Mother Riley is hilarious but often reinforces stereotypes more than she challenges them. The plot is quirky but moves along quickly and you don't get a chance to over-analyze it. Our favorite scene is the song-and-dance number "I Lift up my Finger and say 'Tweet-Tweet'" sung and danced by Arthur Lucan (Mother Riley), Richard Wattis (the rent collector), Hattie Jacques and Dandy Nichols (the two ladies in the store). It is classic British beer hall entertainment. It must have been a lot of fun to have acted in this film, as fun as it is to watch!
BaronBl00d
Arthur Lucan's drag character of old Mother Riley, whilst being somewhat of a big hit in England, never really made its mark here in America. Why? Well, for starters, the character of Old Mother Riley, a working class Irish woman who gets into all kinds of comedic situations, doesn't have the universal traits necessary to bring success out of England. There are jokes dealing with class and other very traditional English situations. I heard such awful things about this film in particular, being the last film Lucan did playing Mother Riley, and was honestly a bit pleasantly surprised. Sure this is pretty lowbrow stuff. A man in drag mugging for the camera at every opportunity. A series of comedic situations that were almost all slapstick oriented. One scene where Mother Riley breaks into song for no reason at all. And let's not forget the truly inane plot about confusing the names Riley and packages that were mixed up - with Old Mother Riley getting a robot that should have been sent to Bela Lugosi. But Lucan is talented to a degree and made me laugh a time or two. The film was very watchable. As for Bela Lugosi? He did this film as a means to make money so as to get passage back home for himself and his wife while they were in London after failing at a revival of Dracula on stage. This is probably his last good picture in terms of looking robust and relatively healthy prior to committing himself for drug rehabilitation. He looks good and he looks like he is having a lot of fun. There is one story circulating that Lugosi may not have even known Lucan was in drag at their first meeting - Lucan it seems never went out as himself in public but always as Mother Riley so as to preserve his personal life. At any rate, you might give this film a look while keeping a somewhat open mind. It's not Hamlet. It's not Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but it does have its moments and it has Bela Lugosi. Lugosi is enough for me.
verbusen
2 of 10 just to say you saw Legosi before he totally went deep end from old age and whatever he was on (morphene?), well maybe not. I rented this and I would commend it if it was funny, or not intentionally funny but ended up funny or scary or not scary but stupid. Basically you get none of the mentioned, it's just a horrid waste of time. Get really really drunk or drugged up (whatever your pleasure I am not condoning drug use), put this on and than fall asleep and just remember that this is a bad flick. Probably was when it first came out and it definitely is now. Don't say I didn't warn you. Oh I know you will watch it anyway being the optimist you are and Legosi lover from his Universal days, but believe me, this is about the lowest Legosi will get on my list and that includes Ed Wood stuff (at least that was so bad it was funny), it's even below Monogram, really really bad (no really).
AD
