Dracula 1931

      Renfield is a solicitor traveling to Transylvania through the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe.  He’s on a journey to transfer Carfax Abbey in London to Count Dracula.  Renfield thinks this is just a business arrangement but he doesn’t know Dracula is a vampire.  He is drugged and turned into a servant for Dracula.  They make a sea voyage together on the schooner Vesta to London.  During the voyage, Dracula feeds on the crew and Renfield is the only living person on the vessel.  Dracula has made the journey in his coffin.  Upon his arrival in London, Dracula is interested in turning both Lucy Weston and Mina Seward into vampires.  He succeeds with but Lucy but Mina’s father Dr. Seward calls in Dr. Van Helsing to diagnose Mina. 

     Bela Lugosi makes a statement just by his intimidating presence.  There is also a creepy silence throughout the film.  Renfield has gone crazy and Mina's fiancee John Harker doesn't understand how serious and dire Mina's condition is??  He wants to take her away but that won't reverse her being a vampire!!  It's surprising how creepy this can be considering it was made in 1934.  Dracula thought it was a gift to become a vampire but we consider it to be a heinous crime!!  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

 

75 min, Horror directed by Tod Browning with Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan, Herbert Bunston, Frances Dade.

Note:  Imdb 7.6 out of 10, 91% critic 81% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 502 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Universal City and Agua Dulce, California; North Yorkshire and Kent, England, UK.  Shown on TCM during Halloween.  Originally, Lon Chaney was scheduled to play Dracula but he died as this film went into production.  Bela Lugosi starred in the 1927 Broadway production of Dracula.  The masterpiece silent production of Nosferatu of 1922 is the greatest of all the vampire movies.  Bela Lugosi died in 1956 and he was buried wearing one of his many black silk capes but not the one worn in this film.  The cape is this film was auctioned by his son Bela Lugosi Jr. in 2011.  The starting bid was set at $1,200,000 but it failed to sell.  Dracula’s castle was painted on glass in front of the camera.  The coach was real but the background was not.  A Spanish-language version was filmed at night on the same set.  Lugosi was eager to repeat his stage success on film.  He agreed to $500 per week for seven weeks of shooting.  This was a very small amount even during the days of the Depression.