Mother Riley Meets the Vampire
| Mother Riley Meets the Vampire | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | John Gilling |
| Produced by | John Gilling Stanley Couzins |
| Starring |
Arthur Lucan Bela Lugosi |
| Music by | Lindo Southworth |
| Cinematography | Stanley Pavey |
|
Production
company |
Fernwood Productions
|
| Distributed by | Renown Pictures (UK) Blue Chip Films (US) |
|
Release date
|
July 1952 (UK) September 1952 (US) 1963 (US re-release) |
|
Running time
|
74 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, also known as Vampire Over London or My Son the Vampire is a 1952 British horror comedy film directed by John Gilling, starring Arthur Lucan and Bela Lugosi that was filmed at Nettlefold Studios.
This was the final film of the Old Mother Riley film series and did not feature Lucan's former wife and business partner Kitty McShane whom he had divorced in 1951.
In 1963, a recut American version called My Son, the Vampire was released, featuring an introductory segment with a song by American comedian Allen Sherman.
Von Housen seeks to dominate the world from his headquarters in London with an army of 50,000 radar controlled robots powered by uranium. He believes himself to be a vampire and has several young women abducted, most recently Julia Loretti who has a map to a uranium mine that he needs for his army.
At the moment, Van Housen only has one functional robot which is shipped to him and through a mistake is shipped to Old Mother Riley's store with Mother Riley's package sent to Van Housen. Seeing Mother Riley's address in the label, Van Housen sends his robot to abduct Mother Riley to his headquarters.
On the suggestion of producer Richard Gordon, Bela Lugosi had travelled to England to appear in a stage play of Dracula which failed. He needed money to return to the US. Gordon persuaded fellow producer George Minter to use Lugosi in a movie in London. Arthur Lucan had made a number of Old Mother Riley movies and it was felt that Lugosi's presence in the cast might give it a chance of success outside England.
Lugosi was paid $5,000 for his role. The plot was taken from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Gordon says that although John Gilling was credited as producer, George Minter was the real producer. Filming took four weeks.
Richard Gordon recalled that there were plans to shoot additional scenes with Lugosi and without Arthur Lucan for the American market but the idea was never put into place.
Gordon also stated that the film emphasised that Lugosi's character was not a real vampire so it would get a U certificate allowing children, who were Old Mother Riley's biggest audience, to see it.
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Wikipedia