Results

Dracula (1931): Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye and Edward Van Sloan. Directed by Tod Browning, based on the play by John L. Balderston and Hamilton Deane, in turn inspired by the novel by Bram Stoker.

If you don’t like the monsters Universal Studios unleashed onto the world starting in 1931, culminating in the 1950’s, you’ll probably want to make yourself scarce on Thursdays, as we’ll be looking at a different classic monster here every Thursday for the rest of this month! But then again, stick around, maybe you might learn something and gain a new appreciation.

A lifelong fan of the Universal monsters, Dracula has always been my least favorite. I guess it’s something I’ve carried along since childhood; when I could choose from Frankenstein or the Mummy, why would I care about a so-called monster that just looked like this pale, creepy guy who didn’t even have fangs (for Bela Lugosi’s vampire, at least in the original 1931 film, never showed his teeth)? I have, however, carried the respect deserved to Mr. Lugosi and his portrayal, and his many classic monster movie portrayals after this.

Then, the other night, I had 80 minutes or so to kill and needed to find a short movie, and was in the mood for a classic, so I thought I’d give Tod Browning’s third talkie another shot.

Amazingly, it was like I’d never seen the film before. Sure, I knew everything that was going to happen before it happened, being more than familiar with the Bram Stoker story and the Hamilton Deane/John L. Balderston play upon which it was based, but I kept thinking these scenes were scenes that were from subsequent versions (like the multiple Hammer productions, the 1979 production starring Frank Langella and the terribly mis-cast Francis Coppola film), but here they were in the Lugosi original. Funny the tricks your mind can play on you. Even though I’d last seen the film less than 10 years ago (with it’s first major remastered DVD release), I’d always recalled it as just being a bunch of guys standing around in rooms talking, but, amazingly, it clips around all over the place, from location to location, nearly more than “Frankenstein”, which, when you come right down to it, plays out on four or five sets. Both films budgets were severely affected by the depression, but “Dracula” still gives a terrific sense that it’s something larger than a cheap horror movie.

But most surprising of all was Lugosi’s portrayal of the Transylvanian count. When he enters the room, all the other players immediately go out of focus, and, like his character, all your attention hypnotically drills to him. Amazing for an actor in their first major film role, and with no other role (although, arguably “White Zombie” and “The Black Cat” were close seconds) would he carry such presence.

I tried watching it without having all those years of Lugosi impersonations (”I beed you velcome”) running through my head, but it’s impossible; Lugosi made the role his own and made his Dracula unforgettable, worldwide. This was a gift as well as a curse, or it’s a role, even though his career was eclipsed by Karloff after the release of “Frankenstein”, he would always be “Dracula”. But Lugosi did not see this as a curse. I was recently leafing through an old issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland and came across a multiple page spread of a studio press questionnaire that was filled out in his own hand. In response to the question, ‘What is your favorite role?” his response, “Count Dracula”.

“Dracula”, itself, can be considered the first bona fide horror film. Considered a major gamble at the time, monsters and the supernatural had previously been played in Hollywood films, mainly for laughs, or at least with some sort of human explanation (like it was all a dream, or the twist ending of one of Browning’s other vampire films, “London After Midnight”), “Dracula”, with its real supernatural monster, virtually no comedy (unless you count the so-called comic relief of the attendant who looks after Renfield), and climax in a decaying tomb, was a massive success for Universal and started a trend of monster movies that would make it famous.

In the 1960’s, as “Dracula” and these other Universal horror films began to make their way onto television, a new monster trend started (fueled, perhaps in no small part, by Forrest J Ackerman and Monster World and Famous Monsters of Filmland), birthing a whole new generation of monster film fans of which I am proud to be a part of.

Get it at Amazon.com:
Dracula - The Legacy Collection (Dracula / Dracula (1931 Spanish Version) / Dracula’s Daughter / Son of Dracula / House of Dracula)

Related posts:

1. “The Wolf Man”
   When I was a kid, The Wolf Man was my favorite monster. I don't know why. I know I wasn't...
2. “Frankenstein” (1931)
   Universal Monsters Thursdays continue with my second favorite classic creature. Released the same year as Todd Browning's "Dracula" starring Bela...
3. Ben Chapman 1925-2008
   Ben Chapman, best known for his role as my all-time famous monster, “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” died earlier...
4. “The Mummy” (1932)
   "The Mummy" is one classic monster that I don't think all the sequels and remakes have done justice to. The...