Dracula (1931) Review

What better way to celebrate Halloween than with the most famous blood sucker of them all? Supernatural horror films gained acceptance and big box office in America when Bela Legosi donned the cape of Count Dracula. Beset by production problems and an unknown actor in the main part, it was an amazing achievement in its time. Has this horror classic withstood the test of time?

When Carl Laemmle, Jr. was put in charge of Universal Pictures by his father, one of the first things he did was put into motion his plans to revamp the horror movie genre for talkies. Since Dracula was already a very successful Broadway and touring play, it was the ideal subject for introducing the supernatural into horror movies. Prior to it, horror was consisted of the psychological or deformed humans types, with nothing “spooky” allowed. It was thought that American audiences would reject such silliness.

I think we all know how that theory panned out.

Hiring the famous director of Lon Chaney’s incredibly popular silent films, Tod Browning, would insure success because it would be easy to get Chaney to play the part. But “The Man of 10oo Faces” died of lung cancer in 1930 and the studio looked at a lot of actors for the part. Oddly, the star of the smash Broadway play, Bela Legosi, was not considered for the part. In fact, he had to make a desperate concession on salary to get the role he was already famous for and this was only after everyone else passed on it.

Please park your modern day sensibilities and travel back to the more innocent era of the Great Depression to witness a movie that shocked and thrilled the American public.

Dracula begins with some stylish and very hokey opening credits, complete with an art deco bat. Only hokey to modern audiences, these were very stylish at the time. They depart to reveal a coach being pulled through a mountainous pass in a nice piece of matte compositing.  Inside the conveyance, an assortment of passengers listen to a girl wearing glasses (Carla Laemmle, niece of the studio founder) read about the area from a travel brochure.

One of the passengers is a Hungarian local and he utters a dire warning about it being Walpurgis Night and almost gets the word nosferatu out before being silenced by his wife. So that makes it the night before May 1st and that eve is associated with witches and sorcerers in European folklore. That is not explained to the audience, however. Yet it sounds sinister enough…

When the coach stops at a village, an effete passenger, Mr. Renfield (Dwight Frye), makes it known that he will be continuing on to be picked up by another coach. A coach belonging to Count Dracula. The Hungarian (they actually speak Hungarian in the film) peasants are horrified by his plans and lay out the whole vampire problem right off the bat. This is a bit out of left field to Renfield and he does not take it seriously.

I have to say, it is a surprise to me that they would go into the problem that quickly. Normally, locals are reticent to give away any important plot points that could possibly save the stranger in these kind of movies. It is kind of refreshing to see them worry about his safety, with one even going as far as giving him a crucifix for protection.

While all of this is going on, we get a view of Castle Dracula as night falls.  It is on a lofty peak and has a high tower, just like you would expect. Pay attention to it.

In the crypt below it, creatures stir from coffins – or around them. Opossums double for rats due to censorship issues, but it looks decidedly odd. Even stranger is an undead bee emerging from a tiny coffin. Do not ask me what that is about, since I haven’t a clue. Maybe it was meant to look like a giant bee was emerging from a normal sized coffin? That still makes no sense.

A somewhat more normal figure emerge to give us a first look at the star of the movie, Count Dracula (Bela Legosi). Also in the crypt are three women dressed in white who are not explained. These were his “brides” in the original Bram Stoker novel. The whole sequence feels very much like a silent film and there is no dialogue.

This isn’t surprising, since the talkies had only debuted four years earlier with The Jazz Singer. It is a creepy sequence that had to have unnerved the audiences of the time, though the afore mentioned critters will take a modern viewer right out of the needed suspension of disbelief.

Unceremoniously dumped at the crossroads, Renfield greets the mute coachman sent by the Count. Though he does not know it, we get to recognize Dracula “in disguise.” The shooting script called for only the eyes to be showing, but I suspect Legosi’s vanity got the best of the production here. After all, one of the reasons he refused to play Frankenstein’s Monster later that year was because his face would be hidden under the makeup.

A surreal and wild ride to the castle follows, including the first appearance of a fake bat on wires. Get used to this sight, you will see a lot of them throughout the film. But what got my attention is the castle as it is approached. It is not the same one shown before! It was here that I began to notice the many errors amidst the generally sloppy production. It is glaring but not the worst of them.

The interior of the castle is impressively run down with a serious armadillo infestation making things worse. Armadillo infestation?! In Transylvania?!! Maybe that is why the castle has never been cleaned. I can see an issue with vacuum cleaners startling them and the following mid-air collision being painful…

Okay, I asked earlier for readers to try to look through the eyes of the people of the time, but this… this is hard to deal with. Sadly, RiffTrax have not done this movie – I have seen few films better suited to the MST3K treatment than this one.

But this is a classic, even legendary film. It must get better. Right?

The Count makes his entrance in dramatic fashion. Well, if you call watching him slowly walk down the steps to the landing dramatic. It is not very impressive, but it unnerves Renfield who is the excitable type anyway. Along the way back up the stairs one of the most famous lines of all time is said in Legosi’s stilted cadence and heavy Hungarian accent.

Some say this is due to his learning his lines phonetically, but by this point he had been in the United States long enough to speak the language. It is more likely that he was performing for effect and all the kids that copied him for decades afterward shows that to have been a wise decision.

In the novel, Dracula’s eyes are described as “wild” and there is a focus on his eyes in many scenes. To me, they are not wild, but the lack of blinking is certainly off putting. Instead, they are more like that of a mesmerist with concentrated will power being exerted on everyone the vampire interacts with.

As the Count serves Renfield dinner, I was hit be an impression I still cannot shake off. Ever been to a restaurant where the waiter hovers intrusively, feigning being obsequious, but projecting an aura of impatience – if not superiority? That is the feeling I got from watching the scene. It does not help the way Dracula is dressed.

One roofie later and Renfield is living out many men’s fantasy with three young women entering the room to ravage him. Of course, it does not go well, like most idiot’s fantasies once actually realized. Here again is a scene that belongs more in a silent film than a talkie and it does manage to be creepy.

Just to emphasize the point, the next scene makes use of footage from an older film to portray a ship at sea during a tempest. Sloppily intercut shots of Renfield and his new master fail to impress, mainly because the older footage is sped up due to silent films being hand cranked at a lower speed. It is clear Tod Browning was not comfortable directing a talkie and had not made the transition in the style needed.

But what saves the scene is the first glimpse of the insane version of Renfield. Dwight Frye’s performance is fantastic and, in my opinion, scene stealing whenever he is on screen. The only scary parts of this are the shadow of the dead captain and Renfield’s mad laugh. It is hard to describe, but it is something like a mad whimper escaping his soul despite him trying to suppress it. You will not forget it once you hear it.

Like most tourists in a strange land, Dracula looks for some local cuisine to sample in London. Employing his hypnotic eyes on a lowly flower girl, his seduction of her leads to a quick nosh and run. Anita Harder is only in the film briefly, but she outshines all the other actresses in it. To her credit, she chose a more normal life over that of Hollywood.

Tourists also like to take in the local culture, so the Royal Albert Hall is the Count’s next destination. However, the distinct impression is that he views the location as an ala carte buffet.  It also appears that the gentleman vampire prefers blondes as he uses his hypnotic powers to worm his way into Doctor Seward’s (Herbert Bunson) box. There he sizes up Mina Seward (Helen Chandler) and her friend Lucy (Frances Dade). Lucy does some sizing up of her own and a mutual infatuation begins.

There is also a cardboard cutout there. Oh, my mistake, it is John Harker (David Manners) being the boring, but steady love interest for Mina. They were mandatory in films of the period and often were thankless acting roles. Many years later, Manners was baffled that his appearance in this movie was all that people remembered him for.

A creative use of lighting while Dracula is speaking is one of the more effective shots in the film, subtle and moody. But it could have been executed better and in fact was. Read on for an explanation of that last sentence.

Later that night, Mina and Lucy indulge in some girl talk, with the mysterious and attractive Count Dracula being the main subject. Laugh if you will, but Legosi became something of a sex symbol thanks to this movie. Women swooned over him, which shows how utterly subjective attractiveness can be from era to era.

With only a snack to tide him over, Dracula moves on to the main course in a scene that was considered very daring. No bite is ever shown in the movie and the scenes always end before it happens. Not only is there a no biting rule, there is a no bite mark rule as well. Yet that is not the most surprising thing.

There are no fangs shown in Dracula.

That’s right, no fangs, no oversized canines, not even pointy teeth like in London After Midnight or Nosferatu. It is very strange and I wonder when fangs came back into use in vampire movies.

After the death of Lucy, the film slows down considerably. At one hour, fifteen minutes it is not a long film by any measure, but it drags from here on out. Much of it looks like they took the stage directions from the play and simply filmed it. Huge and unwieldy chunks of exposition are flung out there to hang weakly in the air.

Not all those expositions are bad, though. Any time Renfield is involved, things get interesting again. His is a pitiable and likeable character, which is a tribute to Frye’s acting abilities. The mournful tone when Martin (Charles Gerrard) confiscates the spider he has caught is pitch perfect. The broken struggles of Renfield are the best things in the film to me, especially his fears over his soul being eternally condemned. He would have made an excellent Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.

Less effective are Van Helsing’s (Edward Van Sloan) pseudo scientific lines. Yes, the hero of the story finally makes his appearance after Lucy’s autopsy. It is unusual to have the old guy be the main hero, but it makes sense given Dracula’s ability to mentally dominate the kiddies.

A battle of wills is inevitable as Van Helsing does his best to aid Doctor Seward. Aid will be needed once Dracula turns his eyes toward the sanatorium which houses Renfield and is also the home to Mina. It takes awhile, but the film does finally stumble to a conclusive ending.

Thoughts

If my review appears belittling, I will admit to that. It had been over thirty years since I had seen the much edited movie and I was in single digits then. Sometimes revisiting a childhood love renews those feelings of affection, but other times you wonder just what you saw in the thing. I am afraid it is the latter case in regards to Dracula.

If it were not for it establishing supernatural horror films as financially viable, I do not think it would be considered the classic it is today. It is a horribly sloppy film and shows signs of being slammed together at the last minute. Watching the documentary and listening to the commentary track, it turns out that is not the case.

Instead, the problem was that nobody took it seriously except Bela Legosi. The actors thought it was beneath them and the studio heads thought Laemmle, Jr. was out of his mind to think it would succeed. To add to the problems, nobody was in charge of filming it from all accounts. While Browning was officially the director, he rarely showed up and left things to be done by the cinematographer Karl Freund. It appears he didn’t care either.

Take a look at this scene above. In it, you can see a cardboard reflector attached to the prop lamp. It isn’t to block off the lamp light, it is to reflect a high intensity light coming from the left. In the close up, it would illuminate Legosi’s face as he leaned over the bed. But they left it there between shots!  Look for reflectors left up in other scenes too. Once you see one, you cannot miss them.

The acting is poor due to many of the actors not taking it seriously. For example, Chandler is on record as saying they had a hard time not laughing while shooting scenes because the script and movie were so bad. I already wrote what Manners thought about earlier.

Legosi, Frye, and Van Sloan are the exceptions in the main cast. Legosi and Van Sloane starred together in the same roles on Broadway, so their scenes together are well polished. Even so, the terrible directing and even worse editing dull the entire film.

If you think me harsh, I have excellent reason to be. That is due to seeing the Spanish version filmed at the same time, on the same sets, with the same script but a different cast and director. What the duece, you say? Well, I did not know of the existence of that version myself!  I will be reviewing that superior film as soon as this review is finished.

Dracula is suitable for all ages and I do not think even little kids would get scared of it these days. There is quite a bit of Christian imagery of the Roman Catholic variety in it that I enjoyed. The underlying theme of Godly good overcoming evil and saving souls is something you would not see in most movies today.

Audiences were thrilled by and loved Dracula when it was released in early 1931. Bela Legosi became an improbable star and the modern horror movie was born. For those reasons alone, every film buff and horror aficionado should see it. Serious film students should see it in order to see how not to do things and should watch it next to the Spanish version.

So did it last the test of time? I do not believe so, but see it yourself to make up your own mind about it.

Technical

The DVD edition I am reviewing is the 1999 Classic Monster Collection version that I picked up new at Wal-Mart earlier this month for $7.50. It has everything on a single disc, but the quality is excellent throughout.

Dracula is presented in its 1.33:1 original ratio (Fullscreen) and is fully restored and remastered from the best elements that could be found. Some image quality was permanently lost, but it looks pretty good.

Audio is monaural and sounds crisp. There is no soundtrack on the original, but there is an option to play it with a new score from 1999. More on that later.

Languages are English audio only, plus English and French subtitles.

Extras include:

The Road to Dracula – A documentary hosted by the girl wearing glasses from the film herself, Carla Laemmle. It explores the novel, stage plays, and production of the movie. It also goes into the Spanish production and how it was made.

Feature Commentary with Film Historian David J. Skal – This delves more deeply into same topics as the documentary but veers into PG-13 material when discussing theories of imagery in Dracula. Parents should note that. Skal also plugs the documentary repeatedly, which can get annoying.

New Score by Philip Glass – This score was created for this release and is ably performed by the Kronos Quartet. I did not care for it, personally. It is intrusive and constantly present, which is more appropriate for a silent film.

But the biggest extra by far is the Spanish Dracula from 1931, which is fully restored and for the most part in far better condition than the English language version.

The bonus materials are not easy to get at. When the DVD is put in, you get a choice between the two versions of Dracula, but clicking on either starts that movie. To get to the setup and extras, you have to back out using the menu button on your remote. This is very inconvenient.

A further problem I had was with playing it using VLC on my PC. The menu coding simply did not work correctly with it, but did with WMP12. Not show stopping, but something I hadn’t encountered before with other DVDs.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

When Dracula does not cast a reflection in a cigarette box mirror, the trap that Van Helsing sets up is executed well. But not as well as in the Spanish version. While the Count does lose his cool, I did not get the impression of a wild animal like Harker’s indicates.

People make a great deal of Legosi’s performance, but it is lackluster compared to his work in The Raven or The Black Cat. I thought this scene illustrated that, but I do wonder what he would have delivered with a competent director at the helm.

The mystery of what Renfield does to the maid off camera annoyed me. She shows up looking perfectly fine afterward, despite all the attention paid to his crawling toward her. Sadly, the answer lies only in the Spanish version. He was after a fly he saw on her, or thought he saw on her. Still a great moment for Frye again.

The battle of will power between Van Helsing and Dracula is good fun. It comes in the middle of very boring scenes and illustrates just what a worthy adversary the doctor is for the vampire. Legosi did like those hand gestures and posing, didn’t he?

I never once bought the romance between John Harker and Mina. Helen Chandler phoned her performance in and it really showed when she was supposed to be wanting to bite her beau. Other than widening her eyes a little, there was nothing feral there. Come to think of it, all the scenes between these two were excruciatingly boring.

It was strange that the only full shot of the Count in his coffin came at the end. Despite the staking being only heard and not shown, it was an effective moment. Perhaps too effective since the pained cries of Legosi were cut out on subsequent releases due to complaints by censors.

The final scene of the movie is anticlimactic in the extreme, with the two lovebirds walking slowly up the stairs at the abbey. For some reason Van Helsing refuses to return with them and stays behind. Again, it takes the Spanish version to explain why.

There are a lot of loose ends left dangling with the biggest being Lucy still on the loose to attack more children. Briefly seen wandering the night, her fate is never touched on again.

Also left out wandering around Transylvania are Dracula’s three brides. I guess he was a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of vampire.