036 - Dracula

Talkin' Movies episode 036 - Dracula (1931)

NOTES, SOURCES, & FURTHER READING

For an overview of Universal Horror in general, the bible remains Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas, and John Brunas’ Universal Horrors: The Studio’s Classic Films, 1931-1946 (second edition, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2007)

For more on the workings of Universal during the Classical Hollywood era, we recommend chapters 1, 6, 13, 18, and 23 of Thomas Schatz’s The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era (1988)

The Gary Don Rhodes article “The Twelve Biggest Myths of Classic Horror Film History!” is spread out over issues 140, 141, 142, and 143 of Filmfax Plus (Spring 2015-Winter 2016)

Tim’s dislike of David Fucking Manners was partially fuelled by the Gregory Mank article “David Manners Revisited: He Outlived Them All!” which appeared in issue 60 of Midnight Marquee Monsters (Summer/Fall 1999)

For information on the career of Bela Lugosi and his relationship with Universal, read Gregory William Mank’s Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009)

For a thorough look into the origins of Dracula, there is David J. Skal’s Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen (W.W. Norton & Company, 1990)

If you enjoyed our brief exploration of the sexual undertones of Dracula’s relationship with Renfield, you will probably be interested in Harry M. Benshoff’s Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the horror film (Manchester University Press, 1997)

For the history of horror cinema in general we recommend Carlos Clarens’ An Illustrated History of Horror and Science-Fiction Films: The Classic Era, 1895-1967 (1967), William K. Everson’s Classics of the Horror Film (1974) and More Classics of the Horror Film (1986), and David J. Skal’s The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror (1993).  Like many of the films they discuss, these books have their flaws but have become too influential to ignore.  They remain insightful, informative, and entertaining.