Review: Dracula (1931)

Directed by: Tod Browning
Written by: Garrett Fort
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye and Edward Van Sloan

When the advent of sound, it's no surprise that silent cinema went into decline very quickly. Filmmakers and studios had a remarkable new power available and needed to learn quickly how best to put it to use. The silent era featured some truly important horror movies like The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and The Phantom of the Opera. I think it's fair to say that Dracula was a great leap forward for the genre and understandably rivals Nosferatu. I'm gonna go ahead and say that it's actually better. This isn't to say Nosferatu isn't an excellent movie, but the way Dracula holds up as entertainment, an adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel and as the reason for how we've imagined cinematic vampires since has earned it a special admiration from me.

The plot is very simple. So much that it's realized quite competently in as little as 70 minutes. A solicitor travels into the heart of Transylvania to finalize a transaction for the mysterious Count Dracula. He falls under the spell of his client, who turns out to be a vampire. Dracula then travels to London accompanied by his lunatic slave and begins to prey on a young woman while the specialist Dr. Van Helsing tries to stop him.

Dracula typically gets credited as being the first sound horror film and it's very apparent based on the audio techniques are employed. I can only imagine the pressure on director Tod Browning, but I think he did a fantastic job with only a limited sample of movies to draw ideas from. Minus the use of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake in the opening credits it uses music pretty minimally and we're treated to a very eerie silence accompanied by the heavily-visual storytelling seen throughout the 1920s. This isn't necessarily better, but I think it holds up as a bridge between the two eras.

You can't talk about this movie without discussing Bela Lugosi's unforgettable performance as Count Dracula. He is hands down the best performer ever to don the cloak. With the evil seen in his eyes, his creepy gestures and ominous voice he popularized the vampire image: devilish creatures of the night with a sensual allure to draw in victims. It's no surprise that Universal offered Lugosi the role of the monster in Frankenstein very shortly after this movie was released. All this said I do feel I need to give special praise to Dwight Frye as the Dracula's insane servant Renfield. He's the polar opposite of the quiet and calculating Count and spins the horror in different directions in his scenes.

If there's any weakness, my only major criticism is in its ending. Aside from feeling a little rushed, it's a bit disappointing to see Dracula defeated so abruptly and in his most vulnerable state.

Although many understandably credit the Spanish language version as the superior of the two films, my vote still goes to the English version just for the appeal of Lugosi. Dracula is one of the very best of Universal's classic monster movies, and arguably among the greatest horror movies ever made.

My Rating: 9/10