Dracula

Item: Dracula
Rating: 5
Author: Frank Showalter

1931 | United States | 75 min | More...

Reviewed Oct 4, 2020

I first saw Dracula on TV. I don’t remember when, but I was still fishing prizes out of breakfast cereals and watching Saturday morning cartoons. I do remember loving the movie. Toys, costumes, books, and a lifelong interest followed. In the decades since, I’ve seen the film dozens of times.

Yet, it wasn’t until this viewing that I realized the film leaves the Lucy plot-thread unresolved. Embarrassing, but true.

More directed by Tod Browning

The Thirteenth Chair 1929
Bela Lugosi’s first talkie. He plays a sharp-dressed police inspector investigating a mysterious murder at a British estate in colonial India. I always assumed a) Lugosi and director Tod Browning first worked together on Dracula and b) Dracula was Lugosi’s first significant talkie. Wrong on both counts. Back to this movie. It’s an atmospheric mystery undone by a convoluted ending that reveals a slew of information the audience couldn’t have intuited. Disappointing, but Lugosi’s performance remains strong. The Warner Archive DVD print is watchable.
Drama | Mystery
Outside the Law 1930
Starts strong, with gangster Edward G. Robinson noticing crook Owen Moore’s presence in town. Robinson shakes down Moore, demanding half of any job he’s planning to pull. Robinson also takes an interest in Moore’s moll, played by Mary Nolan.
Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller
The Iron Man 1931
Solid melodrama set in the boxing world. Ayres plays the titular Iron Man, a lightweight pugilist with a blind spot for opportunistic Harlow. Armstrong underplays a meaty role as Ayres’s manager.
Drama | Romance
Freaks 1932
Though shot with actual carnival performers, Freaks features no carnival performances. Instead, the film focuses on the self-contained world behind the scenes. We see performers celebrate a new baby, struggle through a bitter breakup, and find new romance. Director Todd Browning paints these characters as relatable, not idealized saints or sullen outcasts, just folks living their lives. We relate. Then Browning strikes.
Drama | Horror

More with Bela Lugosi

Renegades 1930
Another strong pre-Dracula performance from Bela Lugosi. He plays a sheik backing Warner Baxter’s Dirty Dozenesque band of French Foreign Legion deserters in North Africa. Baxter builds a formidable force but can’t shake his grudge against vamp Myrna Loy. Commanding performances from Loy and Lugosi make for a better-than-expected viewing experience.
Action | Adventure | Romance | War
Oh, for a Man! 1930
Opera diva Jeanette MacDonald runs roughshod over everyone in her life only to fall for cat-burglar Reginald Denny, who she meets when he burgles her bedroom. Denny, of course, has aspirations of a singing career himself.
Musical | Romance
The Black Camel 1931
Competent—if unremarkable—Charlie Chan mystery. Bela Lugosi cuts a striking figure as an enigmatic psychic who may—or may not—figure in a starlet’s murder in Honolulu.
Crime | Mystery | Thriller
Broadminded 1931
Clown-faced comedian Joe E. Brown heads west with his skirt-chasing cousin, ending up in Pasadena where he enrages a towering South American, played by Bela Lugosi.
Comedy | Romance

More Universal Monsters

The Wolf Man 1941
After the tragic death of his brother, a man (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns home to be with his father (Claude Rains) only to fall prey to a werewolf (Bela Lugosi).
Horror | Mystery | Romance
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948
Two porters (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) become the part-time allies of the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) in his quest to stop Dracula (Bela Lugosi) from reviving Frankenstein’s monster (Glenn Strange).
Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Horror
Drácula 1931
A Spanish-language production shot on the same sets as the more famous version. The English production worked days, the Spanish production nights. Some critics consider the Spanish version superior. I disagree.
Drama | Fantasy | Horror
Frankenstein 1931
Like Dracula, I’ve seen this movie countless times. Boris Karloff still shines as the monster, but this latest viewing gave me a new appreciation for Jack Pierce’s makeup work. Even in the harsh daylight scenes blown up to 4k, it looks seamless. I always forget how those daylight scenes open up the picture. The lack of echo during the mountain chase finale betrays the soundstage artifice, but the genuine outdoor scenes are fantastic.
Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

More Reviews

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is, perhaps, the greatest black comedy ever made.
Comedy | War
Drácula 1931
A Spanish-language production shot on the same sets as the more famous version. The English production worked days, the Spanish production nights. Some critics consider the Spanish version superior. I disagree.
Drama | Fantasy | Horror
Dracula 1979
Langella’s a seductive force of nature in this streamlined version of Stoker’s tale.
Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Romance
Dracula 2000 2000
A group of thieves unwittingly frees Dracula (Gerard Butler) from his century-old imprisonment at the hands of Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer).
Action | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller