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Dracula
by James (movies profile)
Jan 11, 2009
This 1931 release wasn't the first movie based on Bram Stoker's novel but it is certainly the best remembered. The plot is probably know to most everyone; Dracula arriving in England, seducing young Lucy Weston and turning her into a vampire and then turning his attention to Mina Harker only to be destroyed at the end by the wise Dr. Van Helsing and the dashing Jonathan Harker. The movie runs only 75 minutes and everything is figured out way to quickly but it is atmospheric and, at times genuinely creepy. As I write this I am 65 years old and I believe I'm one of the few of my generation to have actually view this movie on a 'big' theatre screen (it played at the Gem Theatre in Brooklyn, NY as part of a revival sometime in 1956) and I do remember what a different impact it had there than it did when I first saw it on late night television. As unique as this movie is it is as much about its star as it is about the plot. Bela Lugosi was an accomplished stage actor in his native Hungary having appeared in numerous classical productions including Hamlet and Richard III and had appeared in film in the early 1900's. He appeared as Dracula in the 1927 Broadway stage production to excellent reviews. Lugosi however was not director Tod Browning's first choice for the movie version of Dracula. Browning wanted Lon Chaney and was waiting for Chaney to finish a project. Chaney died shortly after finishing the project and the role went to Lugosi. At the time of the shoot, Lugosi's English was choppy at best and he used the same technique that he did in the Broadway version; he spoke many of his lines phonetically. When Dracula was released in February of 1931 Bela Lugosi shot to instant superstardom. His performance as Dracula created such a sensation that, it is said, he received more fan mail from females than even Clark Gable and in 1931 that was really saying something. |
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