Universal's Dracula
Okay, I finally got around to watching this, so I can comment on it! A few things to start off with: First, Dracula was based on the stage version of the story, rather than the novel, and it shows. There is a definite reduction of the cast and number of sets, relative to a direct translation of the novel. The story is simplified. Bela Lugosi and the guy who played Van Helsing were carry overs from the stage version. Second, they simultaneously made an English language version and a Spanish language version -- English during the day and Spanish during the night, using the same sets and script -- but more on that later. Third, it was made in 1931, pretty early in the talkie days, and was almost completely lacking a soundtrack. Personally I think the lack of music gives it a great ambience. (Both versions, in fact!)
The story diverges substantially from the novel, but follows the basic outline fairly well. I will briefly summarize the story here. It starts more or less as with the novel and other adaptions with the travel through Transylvania, the arrival at Count Dracula's castle, the signing over of Carfax Abbey, the attack of the vampire women, and Dracula wiping out a ship's crew while en route. In this case, however, it is Renfield in the place of Jonathan Harker. Renfield is attacked by the three vampire women in Dracula's castle, and then accompanies him to London aboard the ship, where he is commited to a sanitarium, which is conveniently located next to Carfax Abbey. At the opera, Count Dracula introduces himself to Dr. Seward, who runs the sanitarium, his daughter Mina, her boyfriend Jonathan, and her friend Lucy. (A much simplified cast!) He attacks Lucy that night and we cut to her on the autopsy table, with the comment that there have been other similar attacks. Doctor Van Helsing thinks it is a vampire.
Later, Van Helsing is visiting the Seward residence and Dracula drops by. Mina has been having bad dreams and has the two marks on her throat like the other victims. Dracula says it's probably because he told her some stories of his homeland. Van Helsing sees his lack of reflection and asks him to take a look in the mirror, as he can hardly believe what he sees with his own eyes. Dracula sees his lack of reflection, knocks the mirror away, apologises and leaves. Renfield has escaped and is outside, and they try to get him to talk about his master, but he refuses. Dracula has Mina come to him outside and he drinks of her blood.
Later, they try to guard Mina against Dracula, but the maid is hypnotized into removing the wolvesbane and opening the window. Renfield has escaped again and is saying that it's already happened, or some such. (The security at the sanitarium is terrible.) They pursue Dracula and Mina to Carfax Abbey, following Renfield. Dracula realizes Renfield has lead them there ("Renfield, you asshole!") and kills him. As he is about to finish Mina, daylight comes and he must retreat to his coffin, where Van Helsing kills him. The end!
There are some strangely out-of-place animals in this version: some oppossums and armadillos inhabit Count Dracula's castle. Very weird. Further, when he is first shown coming out of his coffin, it cuts to a de-winged hornet (?) crawling out of a tiny coffin. I'm not sure what the point of this is, but it's very weird. Is it a metaphor for how icky Dracula is? Strange indeed. As an aside, the first filmed version of Dracula, Nosferatu, also had an out-of-place animal: an aardwolf, so I guess there was a precedent. Worthy of note is that Dracula's influence over people is straight up mesmerism in these movies. He looks into people's eyes and give them hypnotic suggestion. The special effects amount to a rubber bat on a fishing line. However, the crumbling ruin and catacomb sets are really great.
The real draw here is Bela Lugosi, who really made this part his own with his great accent and delivery. There were many who followed in his footsteps through the 30's and 40's, but none really clicked the way he did. He only played the part one more time, in Abbot and Costello meet the Wolfman, along with Lon Chaney Jr. reprising that role. A pity they didn't get Boris Karloff to reprise his role as Frankenstein's Monster, just to get them all in one movie together. Oh well! Anyways, Bela did do a lot of other Universal horror movies, but this is his trademark role and with good reason. When asked about it, he said it was a blessing and a curse. The guy who played Renfield, Dwight Frye, was also great, playing his insanity with great enthusiasm. He also appears in a lot of Universal horror movies. The director, Tod Browning, didn't do a lot of movies after this, effectively ruining his career a few years later with the infamous film Freaks.
In spite of my apparent praising of the film, it really was kind of mediocre. Without Bela Lugosi, it would have been pretty forgettable, honestly. This is where the Spanish language version comes in. Apart from the guy who plays Dracula, who bears an unfortunate resemblance to Gomez Addams sans moustache, the cast is entirely better, aside from their Renfield, who matches Dwight Frye. Most noteable is the woman who plays Eva (Mina), who is very pretty. Her costumes are much more revealing too, especially the cleavage-intensive and transluscent nightgown she wears. They basically looked at what the English group did during the day and tried to outdo them. I think they succeeded, much of the time, and it really is a better film. It's half an hour longer -- clocking in at 1 hour 45 minutes, the longest of the 14 films I have on my Universal monster collections -- without having any substantial differences to the story. This means that it just takes more time to breath and has better pacing. I'd give the two films a 7/10, with the English version coming closer to a 6.
Differences between the English and Spanish versions:
* Dracula doesn't obscure his face when acting as the carriage driver in the English version, but Renfield still doesn't recognize him later. In the Spanish version his face is obscured with a scarf.
* In the castle, it is much clearer that Dracula walked through a giant spider web without disturbing it in the Spanish version.
* When he sees Renfield's crucifix, Dracula recoils much more violently in the English version.
* In the English version Dracula attacks a young woman selling flowers in the streets of London before going to the opera. This scene is absent in the Spanish version.
* The scene where Van Helsing sees that Dracula casts no reflection is much more elaborate in the Spanish version.
* When shown the mirror, Dracula smashes it with his cane in the Spanish version, but only knocks it away in the English version.
* When Dracula tries to put Van Helsing under his thrall, in the American version, he resists and drives Dracula away with a crucifix. In the Spanish version, he pretends to be under Dracula's thrall, who requests that he put whatever he was reaching for in his inside pocket inside a box. Dracula hides his eyes behind his cape while Van Helsing pretends to put his crucifix in the box, then drives him away with it.
* Lucy is never dealt with in the English version, but in the Spanish version there is a scene of Van Helsing and Juan coming out of a graveyard and Van Helsing telling Juan they did the right thing by driving a stake through her heart.
* When the sanitarium worker tells the maid he thinks that everyone's crazy but him and her and sometimes he wonders about her, she reacts very differently in the two versions. In the English version, she just sort of nods dumbly, while in the Spanish version she looks offended and stalks off.
Next: Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein
The story diverges substantially from the novel, but follows the basic outline fairly well. I will briefly summarize the story here. It starts more or less as with the novel and other adaptions with the travel through Transylvania, the arrival at Count Dracula's castle, the signing over of Carfax Abbey, the attack of the vampire women, and Dracula wiping out a ship's crew while en route. In this case, however, it is Renfield in the place of Jonathan Harker. Renfield is attacked by the three vampire women in Dracula's castle, and then accompanies him to London aboard the ship, where he is commited to a sanitarium, which is conveniently located next to Carfax Abbey. At the opera, Count Dracula introduces himself to Dr. Seward, who runs the sanitarium, his daughter Mina, her boyfriend Jonathan, and her friend Lucy. (A much simplified cast!) He attacks Lucy that night and we cut to her on the autopsy table, with the comment that there have been other similar attacks. Doctor Van Helsing thinks it is a vampire.
Later, Van Helsing is visiting the Seward residence and Dracula drops by. Mina has been having bad dreams and has the two marks on her throat like the other victims. Dracula says it's probably because he told her some stories of his homeland. Van Helsing sees his lack of reflection and asks him to take a look in the mirror, as he can hardly believe what he sees with his own eyes. Dracula sees his lack of reflection, knocks the mirror away, apologises and leaves. Renfield has escaped and is outside, and they try to get him to talk about his master, but he refuses. Dracula has Mina come to him outside and he drinks of her blood.
Later, they try to guard Mina against Dracula, but the maid is hypnotized into removing the wolvesbane and opening the window. Renfield has escaped again and is saying that it's already happened, or some such. (The security at the sanitarium is terrible.) They pursue Dracula and Mina to Carfax Abbey, following Renfield. Dracula realizes Renfield has lead them there ("Renfield, you asshole!") and kills him. As he is about to finish Mina, daylight comes and he must retreat to his coffin, where Van Helsing kills him. The end!
There are some strangely out-of-place animals in this version: some oppossums and armadillos inhabit Count Dracula's castle. Very weird. Further, when he is first shown coming out of his coffin, it cuts to a de-winged hornet (?) crawling out of a tiny coffin. I'm not sure what the point of this is, but it's very weird. Is it a metaphor for how icky Dracula is? Strange indeed. As an aside, the first filmed version of Dracula, Nosferatu, also had an out-of-place animal: an aardwolf, so I guess there was a precedent. Worthy of note is that Dracula's influence over people is straight up mesmerism in these movies. He looks into people's eyes and give them hypnotic suggestion. The special effects amount to a rubber bat on a fishing line. However, the crumbling ruin and catacomb sets are really great.
The real draw here is Bela Lugosi, who really made this part his own with his great accent and delivery. There were many who followed in his footsteps through the 30's and 40's, but none really clicked the way he did. He only played the part one more time, in Abbot and Costello meet the Wolfman, along with Lon Chaney Jr. reprising that role. A pity they didn't get Boris Karloff to reprise his role as Frankenstein's Monster, just to get them all in one movie together. Oh well! Anyways, Bela did do a lot of other Universal horror movies, but this is his trademark role and with good reason. When asked about it, he said it was a blessing and a curse. The guy who played Renfield, Dwight Frye, was also great, playing his insanity with great enthusiasm. He also appears in a lot of Universal horror movies. The director, Tod Browning, didn't do a lot of movies after this, effectively ruining his career a few years later with the infamous film Freaks.
In spite of my apparent praising of the film, it really was kind of mediocre. Without Bela Lugosi, it would have been pretty forgettable, honestly. This is where the Spanish language version comes in. Apart from the guy who plays Dracula, who bears an unfortunate resemblance to Gomez Addams sans moustache, the cast is entirely better, aside from their Renfield, who matches Dwight Frye. Most noteable is the woman who plays Eva (Mina), who is very pretty. Her costumes are much more revealing too, especially the cleavage-intensive and transluscent nightgown she wears. They basically looked at what the English group did during the day and tried to outdo them. I think they succeeded, much of the time, and it really is a better film. It's half an hour longer -- clocking in at 1 hour 45 minutes, the longest of the 14 films I have on my Universal monster collections -- without having any substantial differences to the story. This means that it just takes more time to breath and has better pacing. I'd give the two films a 7/10, with the English version coming closer to a 6.
Differences between the English and Spanish versions:
* Dracula doesn't obscure his face when acting as the carriage driver in the English version, but Renfield still doesn't recognize him later. In the Spanish version his face is obscured with a scarf.
* In the castle, it is much clearer that Dracula walked through a giant spider web without disturbing it in the Spanish version.
* When he sees Renfield's crucifix, Dracula recoils much more violently in the English version.
* In the English version Dracula attacks a young woman selling flowers in the streets of London before going to the opera. This scene is absent in the Spanish version.
* The scene where Van Helsing sees that Dracula casts no reflection is much more elaborate in the Spanish version.
* When shown the mirror, Dracula smashes it with his cane in the Spanish version, but only knocks it away in the English version.
* When Dracula tries to put Van Helsing under his thrall, in the American version, he resists and drives Dracula away with a crucifix. In the Spanish version, he pretends to be under Dracula's thrall, who requests that he put whatever he was reaching for in his inside pocket inside a box. Dracula hides his eyes behind his cape while Van Helsing pretends to put his crucifix in the box, then drives him away with it.
* Lucy is never dealt with in the English version, but in the Spanish version there is a scene of Van Helsing and Juan coming out of a graveyard and Van Helsing telling Juan they did the right thing by driving a stake through her heart.
* When the sanitarium worker tells the maid he thinks that everyone's crazy but him and her and sometimes he wonders about her, she reacts very differently in the two versions. In the English version, she just sort of nods dumbly, while in the Spanish version she looks offended and stalks off.
Next: Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein