Lionel Atwill was terminally ill with lung cancer during filming. Production wrapped on 25 October 1945, and he died 22 April 1946.
Actor Glenn Strange suffered greatly during the shooting of the scene in which the Frankenstein Monster is discovered in quicksand. After sitting for three hours in the makeup chair each morning, having his makeup applied by Jack P. Pierce, Strange would spend the rest of the day buried in cold liquid mud (which doubled for the quicksand). "Then everybody else went out for lunch," Strange recalled. "By the time they came back, I was so cold, I could barely feel my legs." Strange's co-star, Lon Chaney Jr., suggested that Strange use alcohol to keep himself warm. Throughout the day, Chaney passed a bottle of whiskey to Strange in-between takes. By the end of the day, Strange recalled, he was so drunk he could barely dress himself after removing his monster makeup and costume.
"House of Dracula" features four different actors in the role of the Frankenstein Monster. In addition to Glenn Strange, Boris Karloff plays the Monster in footage lifted from Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and the climax uses scenes of both Lon Chaney Jr. and his stunt double, Eddie Parker, as the Monster from The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942).
Although the Frankenstein Monster is found still clutching the skeleton of Dr. Niemann after wandering into quicksand in "House of Frankenstein (1944)," the resurrections of Larry Talbot/the Wolf Man and Count Dracula from their "deaths" in the same film are not explained.
Shot September 21-October 25, 1945, released December 7. Last of Universal's original FRANKENSTEIN series of seven films, except for 1948'S Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).