To countdown to this year’s Halloween, Luke Owen reviews a different horror film every day of October. Next up is 1931’s Dracula…
Released in 1931 to critical and public praise, Dracula is not only one of Universal’s most iconic movies, but is a film that would kickstart their Monster Movie line that would dominate the 30s and 40s. It was also the film that would give us the defining Dracula performance from Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi – a performance that has been rivalled and challenged, but never beaten. Nearly 80 years later, people are still imitating this legendary performance.
However, Lugosi’s genius is not the sole reason why Dracula was a success. Director Tod Browning creates an incredible and chilling atmosphere with gorgeous cinematography, brilliant lighting choices, incredible sets and a haunting score that utilities Act II from Swan Lake. The script is also very strong with some wonderful lines of dialogue and its 85 minute runtime never wastes a single frame.
The acting on display from the supporting cast is hardly ground-breaking or thought-provoking, but they all do a serviceable job in bringing the script to life and creating a captivating movie. In particular, Edward Van Sloan is superb as Van Helsing, the fist man to work out the truth behind Count Dracula and he is a great opposing performance to the flamboyance of Lugosi.
But as mentioned already, Dracula is Bela Lugosi’s movie. His cold stare, his imposing presence and unique dialogue delivery created a breath-taking performance that still would have carried it to the closing credits should other elements of the movie failed. In an interesting note, Lugosi was not Universal’s first choice with the role originally being primed for “The Man of a Thousand Faces”, Lon Chaney Sr., but due to his death in 1930 the role went to the Hungarian.
There have been long-standing rumours that Lugosi’s grasp of the English language wasn’t very strong and he had to have his script written out phonetically so that he could read it – hence the the pronunciation of certain words and cantations of his sentences. Such rumours have since been debunked, but Lugosi’s tone, pitch and delivery have become the staple of how Dracula speaks and sounds. To this day, if you were to ask someone to do an impression of Count Dracula, this would be the voice they do – regardless of whether they’d seen the film or not. For such an iconic performance, Lugosi would only ever wear the cape once more in the comedy movie Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948, but would play a similar style role in the Ed Wood “classic” Plan 9 From Outer Space.
But while his voice is part of what made Lugosi’s Count Dracula performance so memorable, it was also the one thing that held him back from having any major form of success. After Dracula, he was primed to play the role of The Monster in James Whale’s adaptation of Frankenstein, but was replaced by Boris Karloff upon the studio seeing a picture of him of the doctor’s table (although others claim he turned the role down and/or it was Whale’s choice to recast). Lugosi would often joke that he launched the career of the man who would eventually be credited as KARLOFF and the pair reportedly had somewhat of a rivalry on and off set. Had Lugosi played The Monster, it would not be a stretch to imagine he’d have gone on to play Imhotep in Karl Fruend’s The Mummy, seeing as the two characters share a lot in common in terms of screen presence (although Karloff is incredible in the role and his height and tone were major assets to the character). Lugosi would eventually play The Monster in Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman in 1943 but by this point his eyesight had become so poor from his years in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I that his performance is rather stilted and very haphazard. However, his actions would actually give birth to one of The Monster’s clichés – the shuffling walk with arms outstretched, which Lugosi needed to do so as not to bump into set decorations.
Lugosi and Karloff would team up on several films with the Lugosi’s leading performance in The Raven being one of his all-time best. Although he will be forever remembered as Count Dracula (he was buried wearing the cape), his role of Dr. Richard Vollin truly shows off what an incredible actor Lugosi was. However another team-up movie, Black Friday, really highlighted the limitations his voice provided him as an actor as he gives an almost laughable performance as an American wise-guy gangster.
But regardless of the career path he took, Bela Lugosi will always be the man who epitomised Count Dracula. And while it would be unfair to say that he didn’t find success outside of Dracula, this would be the movie that defined him as an actor. It’s a beautiful (if a little flawed at times) movie with a phenomenal central performance, a haunting score and a sense of wonder that is missing from modern-day horror films. In a day and age where vampires are now used as sex symbols for teenage girls and YA enthusiasts, it’s great to go back to a time when they were scary monsters. Many claim that you need to be in a certain mood to appreciate the brilliance of Universal’s Monster Movies, but Dracula is a film that can be enjoyed by anyone at any time – even 80-odd years later.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published October 7, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
