Dracula (film)

• Release Date: 1931
• Director(s): Tod Browning
• Writer(s): Garrett Fort
• Principal Actors and Roles: Bela Lugosi (Count Dracula); Helen Chandler (Mina); Frances Dade (Lucy); Dwight Frye (Renfield); David Manners (John Harker); Edward Van Sloan (Van Helsing)
• Book / Story Film Based On: Dracula by Bram Stoker

The blood-drinking undead monster invented by Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel Dracula is one of the two most-used characters in movies (the other being Sherlock Holmes). The Transylvanian vampire has appeared in at least 200 films. He has starred in dozens of them, and almost every interpretation of the character owes at least some credit to Bela Lugosi’s portrayal in the original 1931 film, Dracula.

The most frightening screen adaptation of Stoker’s story is arguably the 1922 version Nosferatu, a silent German Expressionist masterpiece. But the Hungarian-born Lugosi defined the title character forever. His cosmopolitan but otherworldly characterization created a standard for the Transylvanian count. His accented English combined with the deliberate delivery that resulted from his incomplete command of the language became iconic. It could be seen as inspired casting. However, Lugosi was not the first choice for the part, even though he played Dracula in the successful Broadway play of the same name in 1927. The prescient producer Carl Laemmle Jr. saw the potential in Stoker’s novel but not in Lugosi. Laemmle considered at least six other actors, settling on Lon Chaney Sr., but the plan was thwarted by the famed actor’s unfortunate and untimely death.

Lugosi pushed hard for the opportunity to reprise his stage role on film. He eventually succeeded, in part because he accepted a salary that was considered paltry for a starring role. With considerable assistance from the atmospheric tone set by the brilliant cinematographer Karl Freund, the 49-year-old Lugosi gave the world the definitive Count Dracula.

Plot

A British real estate agent named Renfield travels to a remote castle in Transylvania to arrange a lease for the Carfax Abbey in England. He is in southeastern Europe to see a certain Count Dracula who intends to lease or buy the English abbey. Renfield does not know the count is an undead vampire who cannot tolerate sunlight and lives by drinking the blood of human beings. Although warned by terrified villagers, Renfield travels to the count’s castle to close the deal. That night, Dracula drugs Renfield’s wine and feasts on the British businessman’s blood.

Dracula and a weakened Renfield board a ship bound for England. Also aboard are the coffin in which Count Dracula sleeps and additional coffins filled with the native soil of Transylvania, which Dracula needs in order to survive in England. When the ship arrives in England, only Dracula and Renfield are alive. Renfield seems now to be insane and is imprisoned in Dr. Seward’s asylum, where the doctor is fascinated by his new patient’s compulsion to drink the blood of small animals.

Dracula begins feeding on the women of London, at times urbanely making the social rounds in order to find targets. At the opera he meets Dr. Seward, Seward’s daughter Mina, and Mina’s fiancée John Harker. With them is Lucy, a friend of Mina’s who is enraptured by the romantic Count Dracula. Dracula subsequently kills her.

A German scientist named Van Helsing arrives in London to assist Dr. Seward. Van Helsing immediately understands what is going on. Meanwhile, Dracula’s home is next door to Seward’s estate. Dracula changes himself into a bat in order to attack Mina, but he does not kill her. Mina is transformed by his bite.

Van Helsing proves that Dracula is a vampire by showing Dr. Seward and John by showing that Dracula casts no reflection in a mirror. Dracula maintains control over Renfield, who escapes from the sanitarium, and over Lucy, who is the undead "woman in white" attacking children in London. Mina in turn is becoming one of Dracula’s minions.

Van Helsing and John pursue Dracula to Carfax Abbey, where he has taken Mina. They find Dracula in his coffin, and Van Helsing drives a stake through his heart, finally killing the vampire for eternity. Dracula’s death frees Mina from his control, and she and John reunite.

Significance

In addition to giving the world one of its most enduring movie villains, Dracula helped establish one of film’s most profitable genres. It is a classic of both the pre-code era and the horror genre. In 2000 it was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry.

Many theories have been offered to explain the ongoing popularity of the Dracula myth in movies. The vampire Dracula has been the subject of more than thirty movies. Many other films have revolved around similar undead creatures that feed on human blood. It could be the implied eroticism in the intimacy of drinking blood from another person’s neck, which is almost explicit in even the first Dracula. Mina "gives" herself to Count Dracula as she falls under his spell. There is clearly a sexual element in the attack. It may simply be that the character and his horrible predation on human beings, while seeming human himself, is perfect for the movies. Whatever the reason, few movies from any era have had the widespread ongoing legacy of Dracula.

Ultimately, the lasting impact of Dracula is due to Lugosi’s performance. Lugosi’s Dracula has been mimicked almost too many times to count, from his own repetition of the vampire character in the 1935 Mark of the Vampire (also directed by Tod Browning for Laemmle’s Universal Pictures) to numerous homages, parodies, comedies, farces, and outré adaptations of the basic Dracula story. These include everything from Hammer Films’ versions starring Christopher Lee, who borrowed openly from Lugosi, to the Blacula "blaxploitation" films of the early 1970s. Lugosi’s deep-set eyes that were made eerily intense with pinpoint light and his slicked-down black hair set against alabaster skin influenced almost every Dracula that followed him for decades after his performance. His delivery of classic horror dialogue has likewise had a lasting impact on many of the characterizations that followed his. When Lugosi’s Count Dracula said with sinister cordiality, "I never drink . . . wine," leaving a freighted pause before the noun, it became almost instantly iconic. Like his appearance and accent, Lugosi’s enunciation set the standard for many a portrayal that followed.

Bibliography

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Riley, Philip, J. Dracula: The original 1931 Shooting Script. Vol. 13. Universal Filmscripts Series: Classic Horror Films. Lake Clarke Shores: Magicimage Filmbooks, 1990. Print.

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