October 11, 2025 • 14 mins
today i will be talking about the universal monster movie dracula from 1931 , which starred bela lugosi in a role that would define how we think of count dracula
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In eighteen ninety seven, Bram Stoker published Dracula, and it
wasn't long before his tale of a Gothic, sophisticated and
terrifying vampire found its way onto the stage. Then in
nineteen twenty one, the Hungarvian silent film loosely based on
the novel was released. It was titled Dracula Halala, which
translated to Dracula's Death. This is considered to be the
(00:20):
first time Dracula appeared on film, but unfortunately that film
is now lost to time it no longer exists. In
nineteen twenty two, another silent movie was released that was
also an adaptation of Stoker's book, and that film with
Noceatu with Matt Shrek as Count Orlock.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The filmmakers changed their names and the.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Details to avoid legal issues, but the eerie essence of
Stoker's novel remained. And then in nineteen thirty one, Universal
released Dracula, starring Bella Lagosi, and this one was a
game changer, and although the filmmakers did make changes such
as changing Count Dracula's name to Count Orlock, these were
(00:59):
just superfer changes and Bramstalker's widow actually sued for copyright
infringement and one. Universal actually got around this by obtaining
the rights to the stage play, and in nineteen thirty one,
Universal released Dracula, directed by Todd Browning and starring Bella Lugosi.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Now Bella Lagosi is widely regarded as.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
The most iconic and influential portrayal of Count Dracula to
have ever graced our screens. But it may surprise you
to find out that Logosi was not Universal's first choice
to play Count Dracula. Universal originally wanted Lon Cheney to
play the part of Count Dracula, who was known for
his silent film roles like The Phantom of the Opera
and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Sadly, Cheney died of
(01:40):
throat cancer in nineteen thirty Lugosi, who had already played
Dracula in the nineteen twenty seven Broadway production, desperately wanted
the role, and Universal hired him knowing this, and they
paid him just five hundred dollars a week, on much
lower salary than.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Most actors at the time.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Now it is said that Lagosi actually played Dracula on
the stage over a thousand times, so it is very
safe to say that Legosi was very comfortable in this
role and knew the character inside and out. His portrayal
was unlike anything that had come before. He spoke with
a thick, onngoing accent. His Dracula was well groomed, aristocratic, charming,
(02:20):
and hypnotic. Lugosi didn't just play Dracula, he defined him.
And to this day, when we picture a Count Dracula character,
we see a tall, dark figure with slip back black hair,
a long black cape with a high collar, and a pale,
commanding face. And we see the character that Legosi created
in many other vampire movies to this very day now,
(02:43):
Count Draculau was the first film to kick off the
universal monster cinematic universe. Think of it like the Marvel
movies where Ayman kicked off those movies.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Count Dracula did the.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Same for the universal monsters. But this isn't a straight
adaptation of the book. This is actually an adaptation of
the stage play. And at times when watching this movie
it does actually feel that way. It feels like you're
watching a stage play. The film was made in the
early days of talkies. In those days of talkie was
a movie with sounding dialogue and the movie didn't include
(03:16):
an original score. Instead, Swan Lake was used at the
beginning of the movie, which in my opinion, gave the
film a tragic tone rather than nerve shredding horror. And
there is also another piece of music called Die meister
Singer von Nuremberg by Richard Wagner, which is played during
the scene at the opera word Dracula attends. Other than that,
(03:37):
there's no other music in this movie. And you'll find
that this film is very, very silent, including very little
sound effects. Also, we linger sometimes on a scene and
it's just engulfed in silence. In some ways, this makes
some of the scenes a little bit more eerie as
you're watching it unfold in silence. And let's not forget
(03:59):
the vision. A lot of the things that happen in
this film happen off camera. A lot of the violence
is suggested, a lot of the more supernatural elements of
Dracula's character is suggested and happens off camera. For example,
Dracula's power is such as shape shifting a muscle shown
off camera or with a simple jump cut. There's a
scene early on in the movie where Dracula seems to
(04:21):
walk straight through a cobweb without breaking it. And they
achieved this with a simple jump cut which I must
have made. It works pretty well. It's simple and yet
very effective. There's also scenes in this movie where Dracula
is in his bat form, which is just a toy
bat on a piece of string. Sometimes there's a jump cut,
and sometimes the camera just basically looks the other way
(04:42):
and then looks back and Dracula has changed form. It's
very simple, it's very basic, but it's effective and it works.
There's also another scene later on where Dracula is confronted
by Van Helsing and company and he changes into.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
A wolf and he flees the scene.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Now, we don't actually see him changing to a wolf,
and we don't actually see the wolf that's changed into.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It's all done off screen.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
We never see it happen, but it is described to
us by other characters on screen.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And yet again simple but effective.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Now, one of my favorite special effect techniques was used
to show Dracula's hypnotic stir, and they did this by
simply using special lighting effects only lighting Bela Lugos's eyes,
whilst the rest of his face remained in the shadows,
which made Dracula look so menacing and terrifying, and it actually.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Works extremely well.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
They get across to the audience that Dracula is using
his hypnotic powers by using just light, and I think
that is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Now, although these.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Jump cuts and special effects using lighting are pretty simple
techniques and they work really well, there were some more
complicated effects that we used, especially Matt paintings, which were
used to paint in the background of some scenes. For example,
there's a shot where a coach is riding along very long,
winding road with the mountains in the background. This was
(06:03):
achieved by using a painting on a sheet of glass
that was placed in front of the camera to create
the backdrop, and it blends in really well. The carriage
on the road is actually real whilst the background is
painted and you're looking at something which you know isn't
entirely real, but it's really hard to define where the
real short starts and the fake one begins.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's flawless.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Universal made this movie with censorship in mind. This was
the nineteen thirties and audiences were more sensitive to graphic
content and disturbing storylines. Much of the horror and violence
which happened in this movie was suggested rather than shown.
You won't see a drop of blood in this movie,
apart from a small amount of blood when Renfield cuts
his finger at the beginning of the movie in Dracula's Castle,
(06:47):
but that's about it.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
There's no more blood.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And for a film which involves Dracula sucking on people's necks,
you would expect to see just a little bit more blood.
And you won't see any fangs in this movie or bite.
That's right, a vampire movie without vampire teeth, you just
don't see them. Legosi is not wearing any fake fangs
in this movie, so when Dracula does actually attack people,
(07:12):
you never actually see him bite. It's all implied or
the picture simply fades away before he.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Actually starts to bite their neck.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
But it still is kind of creepy, as the bite
is normally the punchline, whereas in this film it's the
approach of Lagosi as Dracula as he slowly creeps up
on his prey, and then it's simply phades to black.
There's a scene where Dracula bites Lucy and she dies offscreen.
Of course, later we see that Lucy has risen from
(07:41):
the dead and is feeding off children, but we don't
see the feeding scenes. We learn that she is feeding
of children through dialogue between two other characters. Also, in
the scene where Dracula is traveling to London on board
the ship called the Vesta, we see that Dracula kills
all the crew. Once again, we don't actually see it,
but we do learn that he has killed all the
(08:02):
crew on the ship by dialogue from other characters when
the ship actually arrives in London, another example of violence
happening off screen, although we do get the shadow of
a dead captain who has tied himself to the wheel
of the ship. Also, you might be interested to know
that the shots of the storm on the deck of
the ship were actually reused from an older movie called
(08:23):
The Storm Breaker from nineteen twenty five, and will do
you actually believe that we very nearly had Dracula fly
to London in a plane, and that plane would have
had the wings of a bat It sounds like something
out of a Batman comic. But luckily that insane idea
never happened and Dracula traveled by ship as he should.
Now back to the suggested violence in this movie, I
(08:44):
actually think that the most violent part of this movie
is where Dracula kills Renfield on the staircase in Carfax,
Abby at the end of the movie, and basically he
kind of gives Renfield this hug of death and then
froze him down the stairs. And I would say that's
the most violence we actually get out of this movie, and.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
It's quite an impressive stunt as well.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Even Dracula's final demise is done off screen, as we
see Van Helsing lift Dracula's lid off his coffin, place
the steak on Dracula's chest and raise the hammer, and
then these scene switches and we hear that the hammer
has been brought down on this steak, and we hear
Dracula screaming, but we don't actually see any of it.
And would you believe that the audio was missing from
(09:26):
this film for the longest time as well, so you
didn't even hear.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Dracula get killed at first.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It was only with the release of the laser disc
that this audio.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Was put back in the movie.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And whilst we're on the demise of Dracula, let me
say that my one main negative for this film is
that ending. It's very anti climatic. There's no big confrontation
between Dracula, Harker or Van Helsing. You simply hear Dracula
scream as Van Helsing stakes him, like I said, once
again off camera, and that's it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
The movie is over. You hear a few more words.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Exchange between the main characters, and then the movie just ends.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
It's almost like the ranet of time when filming it
just suddenly stops.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That being said, I love the performances in this movie,
well three in particular from Bella Lugosi, Edward Van Sloan
and Dwightfry. They are absolutely great, as the rest of
the cast just fine, but nothing done worthy. Of course,
Bella Lugosi is brilliant and most certainly brings an element
of unease to the role. I especially like the close
(10:27):
up shots of his hypnotic stir with his eyes illuminated
as the rest of his face is somewhat shadowed, and
of course the accent and the way that Lugosi creeps
slowly upon his prey. Lugosi is Dracula. Edward Van Sloan
plays Van Helsing, who is a vampire expert who is
generally spouting out some general knowledge on vampires throughout the movie,
(10:48):
and I particularly like one scene where he and Dracula
have a confrontation and Dracula attempts to bend his will
by using mind control, but Van Helsing is able to
overcome dracula spell and the acting in the scene is brilliant,
especially from Van Sloane, who makes you actually believe the
struggle that he's going through breaking Dracula's hold upon him.
(11:08):
Then we have Dwight Frye, who plays Renfield who slips
into insanity due to Dracula's power over him. Dwight Frye
actually plays this insane character so well, and he was
kind of typecast for the rest of his career. You
may recognize fry as Fritz from Frankenstein, which was a
very similar role. My favorite scenes of Renfield includes a
(11:30):
beautiful shot where Renfield is found below the decks of
the ship that brought him to London with Dracula. His
manic smile in that scene is so disturbing, and my
other favorite scene is where Renfield is crawling up to
a fainting nurse with a twisted, hungry smile and the
scene just simply ends before he reaches her, although we
see the nurse alive and well later on, but we
(11:52):
don't actually know what Renfield did to her. But there
is actually a Spanish version of this movie which was
made at the same time, used in the same sets
and some of the same costumes. And in the Spanish version,
Renfield simply crawls over to the nurse and catches a fly.
That's it. It doesn't actually harm the nurse.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And would you believe this?
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Many believe that that Spanish version of Dracula is actually
the better version. You see, the American cast and crew
filmed in the daytime, whilst the Spanish cast and crew
filmed at night, and it's been said that the Spanish
version had an advantage. They could watch how the scenes
were shot first, and then when it was their turn,
they would try and outdo the American version. The Spanish
(12:35):
version seemed to be edited a whole lot better. They
would use some different camera angles which were more effective.
They'd use some sweeping shots and panning in on the characters,
which were a lot more effective, and they would also
get better performances.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
In my opinion, they would.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
See what the Americans did and they would better it.
I found that a lot of the scenes in the
Spanish version just work better. Sometimes they were drawn out,
maybe a little bit too long, but it kind of
built tension, and sometimes it just gave him more clearer
picture of what was actually going on in the movie.
For example, there's a scene in the American version where
Van Helsing shows Dracula his reflection in the mirror. In
(13:12):
the American version, I think it's not clear what is
actually going on as Dracula hits the mirror away from
Van Helsing's hands. It's only when Van Helsing explains what
just happened do you understand that Van Helsing just showed
him his reflection, or more to say, is non reflection.
But it's not filmed in a way that makes it
clear to the audience. Whilst in the Spanish version we
(13:34):
clearly see the camera facing the mirror, we see Van
Helsing's reflection, but we don't see Dracula's reflection. And then
Dracula hits the mirror away not with his hand but
with his cane, and it smashes into pieces, and it
made for a more satisfying shot. The American version of
Dracula was somewhat shorter in length than the Spanish version,
(13:55):
and I think this is mainly because the Spanish version
gave us much longer drawn out which I think most
of the time bill suspense.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
But not always.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And even though many people feel that the Spanish version
is the better version, Lugosi is still the one who
comes out on top. This movie was so influential for
every vampire movie that came after it. Even to this
very day, Bella Lugosi's portrayal is still the stereotypical vampire
we think of when someone mentions Count Dracula. Forget the
(14:26):
brooding vampires of Twilight and the Vampire Diaries. For me,
the original and still the greatest, will always be Bela Lugosi,
who showed the world in nineteen thirty one exactly what
it means to be Count Dracula.
In eighteen ninety seven, Bram Stoker published Dracula, and it
wasn't long before his tale of a Gothic, sophisticated and
terrifying vampire found its way onto the stage. Then in
nineteen twenty one, the Hungarvian silent film loosely based on
the novel was released. It was titled Dracula Halala, which
translated to Dracula's Death. This is considered to be the
(00:20):
first time Dracula appeared on film, but unfortunately that film
is now lost to time it no longer exists. In
nineteen twenty two, another silent movie was released that was
also an adaptation of Stoker's book, and that film with
Noceatu with Matt Shrek as Count Orlock.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The filmmakers changed their names and the.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Details to avoid legal issues, but the eerie essence of
Stoker's novel remained. And then in nineteen thirty one, Universal
released Dracula, starring Bella Lagosi, and this one was a
game changer, and although the filmmakers did make changes such
as changing Count Dracula's name to Count Orlock, these were
(00:59):
just superfer changes and Bramstalker's widow actually sued for copyright
infringement and one. Universal actually got around this by obtaining
the rights to the stage play, and in nineteen thirty one,
Universal released Dracula, directed by Todd Browning and starring Bella Lugosi.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Now Bella Lagosi is widely regarded as.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
The most iconic and influential portrayal of Count Dracula to
have ever graced our screens. But it may surprise you
to find out that Logosi was not Universal's first choice
to play Count Dracula. Universal originally wanted Lon Cheney to
play the part of Count Dracula, who was known for
his silent film roles like The Phantom of the Opera
and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Sadly, Cheney died of
(01:40):
throat cancer in nineteen thirty Lugosi, who had already played
Dracula in the nineteen twenty seven Broadway production, desperately wanted
the role, and Universal hired him knowing this, and they
paid him just five hundred dollars a week, on much
lower salary than.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Most actors at the time.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Now it is said that Lagosi actually played Dracula on
the stage over a thousand times, so it is very
safe to say that Legosi was very comfortable in this
role and knew the character inside and out. His portrayal
was unlike anything that had come before. He spoke with
a thick, onngoing accent. His Dracula was well groomed, aristocratic, charming,
(02:20):
and hypnotic. Lugosi didn't just play Dracula, he defined him.
And to this day, when we picture a Count Dracula character,
we see a tall, dark figure with slip back black hair,
a long black cape with a high collar, and a pale,
commanding face. And we see the character that Legosi created
in many other vampire movies to this very day now,
(02:43):
Count Draculau was the first film to kick off the
universal monster cinematic universe. Think of it like the Marvel
movies where Ayman kicked off those movies.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Count Dracula did the.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Same for the universal monsters. But this isn't a straight
adaptation of the book. This is actually an adaptation of
the stage play. And at times when watching this movie
it does actually feel that way. It feels like you're
watching a stage play. The film was made in the
early days of talkies. In those days of talkie was
a movie with sounding dialogue and the movie didn't include
(03:16):
an original score. Instead, Swan Lake was used at the
beginning of the movie, which in my opinion, gave the
film a tragic tone rather than nerve shredding horror. And
there is also another piece of music called Die meister
Singer von Nuremberg by Richard Wagner, which is played during
the scene at the opera word Dracula attends. Other than that,
(03:37):
there's no other music in this movie. And you'll find
that this film is very, very silent, including very little
sound effects. Also, we linger sometimes on a scene and
it's just engulfed in silence. In some ways, this makes
some of the scenes a little bit more eerie as
you're watching it unfold in silence. And let's not forget
(03:59):
the vision. A lot of the things that happen in
this film happen off camera. A lot of the violence
is suggested, a lot of the more supernatural elements of
Dracula's character is suggested and happens off camera. For example,
Dracula's power is such as shape shifting a muscle shown
off camera or with a simple jump cut. There's a
scene early on in the movie where Dracula seems to
(04:21):
walk straight through a cobweb without breaking it. And they
achieved this with a simple jump cut which I must
have made. It works pretty well. It's simple and yet
very effective. There's also scenes in this movie where Dracula
is in his bat form, which is just a toy
bat on a piece of string. Sometimes there's a jump cut,
and sometimes the camera just basically looks the other way
(04:42):
and then looks back and Dracula has changed form. It's
very simple, it's very basic, but it's effective and it works.
There's also another scene later on where Dracula is confronted
by Van Helsing and company and he changes into.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
A wolf and he flees the scene.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Now, we don't actually see him changing to a wolf,
and we don't actually see the wolf that's changed into.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It's all done off screen.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
We never see it happen, but it is described to
us by other characters on screen.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And yet again simple but effective.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Now, one of my favorite special effect techniques was used
to show Dracula's hypnotic stir, and they did this by
simply using special lighting effects only lighting Bela Lugos's eyes,
whilst the rest of his face remained in the shadows,
which made Dracula look so menacing and terrifying, and it actually.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Works extremely well.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
They get across to the audience that Dracula is using
his hypnotic powers by using just light, and I think
that is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Now, although these.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Jump cuts and special effects using lighting are pretty simple
techniques and they work really well, there were some more
complicated effects that we used, especially Matt paintings, which were
used to paint in the background of some scenes. For example,
there's a shot where a coach is riding along very long,
winding road with the mountains in the background. This was
(06:03):
achieved by using a painting on a sheet of glass
that was placed in front of the camera to create
the backdrop, and it blends in really well. The carriage
on the road is actually real whilst the background is
painted and you're looking at something which you know isn't
entirely real, but it's really hard to define where the
real short starts and the fake one begins.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's flawless.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Universal made this movie with censorship in mind. This was
the nineteen thirties and audiences were more sensitive to graphic
content and disturbing storylines. Much of the horror and violence
which happened in this movie was suggested rather than shown.
You won't see a drop of blood in this movie,
apart from a small amount of blood when Renfield cuts
his finger at the beginning of the movie in Dracula's Castle,
(06:47):
but that's about it.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
There's no more blood.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And for a film which involves Dracula sucking on people's necks,
you would expect to see just a little bit more blood.
And you won't see any fangs in this movie or bite.
That's right, a vampire movie without vampire teeth, you just
don't see them. Legosi is not wearing any fake fangs
in this movie, so when Dracula does actually attack people,
(07:12):
you never actually see him bite. It's all implied or
the picture simply fades away before he.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Actually starts to bite their neck.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
But it still is kind of creepy, as the bite
is normally the punchline, whereas in this film it's the
approach of Lagosi as Dracula as he slowly creeps up
on his prey, and then it's simply phades to black.
There's a scene where Dracula bites Lucy and she dies offscreen.
Of course, later we see that Lucy has risen from
(07:41):
the dead and is feeding off children, but we don't
see the feeding scenes. We learn that she is feeding
of children through dialogue between two other characters. Also, in
the scene where Dracula is traveling to London on board
the ship called the Vesta, we see that Dracula kills
all the crew. Once again, we don't actually see it,
but we do learn that he has killed all the
(08:02):
crew on the ship by dialogue from other characters when
the ship actually arrives in London, another example of violence
happening off screen, although we do get the shadow of
a dead captain who has tied himself to the wheel
of the ship. Also, you might be interested to know
that the shots of the storm on the deck of
the ship were actually reused from an older movie called
(08:23):
The Storm Breaker from nineteen twenty five, and will do
you actually believe that we very nearly had Dracula fly
to London in a plane, and that plane would have
had the wings of a bat It sounds like something
out of a Batman comic. But luckily that insane idea
never happened and Dracula traveled by ship as he should.
Now back to the suggested violence in this movie, I
(08:44):
actually think that the most violent part of this movie
is where Dracula kills Renfield on the staircase in Carfax,
Abby at the end of the movie, and basically he
kind of gives Renfield this hug of death and then
froze him down the stairs. And I would say that's
the most violence we actually get out of this movie, and.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
It's quite an impressive stunt as well.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Even Dracula's final demise is done off screen, as we
see Van Helsing lift Dracula's lid off his coffin, place
the steak on Dracula's chest and raise the hammer, and
then these scene switches and we hear that the hammer
has been brought down on this steak, and we hear
Dracula screaming, but we don't actually see any of it.
And would you believe that the audio was missing from
(09:26):
this film for the longest time as well, so you
didn't even hear.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Dracula get killed at first.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It was only with the release of the laser disc
that this audio.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Was put back in the movie.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And whilst we're on the demise of Dracula, let me
say that my one main negative for this film is
that ending. It's very anti climatic. There's no big confrontation
between Dracula, Harker or Van Helsing. You simply hear Dracula
scream as Van Helsing stakes him, like I said, once
again off camera, and that's it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
The movie is over. You hear a few more words.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Exchange between the main characters, and then the movie just ends.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
It's almost like the ranet of time when filming it
just suddenly stops.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That being said, I love the performances in this movie,
well three in particular from Bella Lugosi, Edward Van Sloan
and Dwightfry. They are absolutely great, as the rest of
the cast just fine, but nothing done worthy. Of course,
Bella Lugosi is brilliant and most certainly brings an element
of unease to the role. I especially like the close
(10:27):
up shots of his hypnotic stir with his eyes illuminated
as the rest of his face is somewhat shadowed, and
of course the accent and the way that Lugosi creeps
slowly upon his prey. Lugosi is Dracula. Edward Van Sloan
plays Van Helsing, who is a vampire expert who is
generally spouting out some general knowledge on vampires throughout the movie,
(10:48):
and I particularly like one scene where he and Dracula
have a confrontation and Dracula attempts to bend his will
by using mind control, but Van Helsing is able to
overcome dracula spell and the acting in the scene is brilliant,
especially from Van Sloane, who makes you actually believe the
struggle that he's going through breaking Dracula's hold upon him.
(11:08):
Then we have Dwight Frye, who plays Renfield who slips
into insanity due to Dracula's power over him. Dwight Frye
actually plays this insane character so well, and he was
kind of typecast for the rest of his career. You
may recognize fry as Fritz from Frankenstein, which was a
very similar role. My favorite scenes of Renfield includes a
(11:30):
beautiful shot where Renfield is found below the decks of
the ship that brought him to London with Dracula. His
manic smile in that scene is so disturbing, and my
other favorite scene is where Renfield is crawling up to
a fainting nurse with a twisted, hungry smile and the
scene just simply ends before he reaches her, although we
see the nurse alive and well later on, but we
(11:52):
don't actually know what Renfield did to her. But there
is actually a Spanish version of this movie which was
made at the same time, used in the same sets
and some of the same costumes. And in the Spanish version,
Renfield simply crawls over to the nurse and catches a fly.
That's it. It doesn't actually harm the nurse.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And would you believe this?
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Many believe that that Spanish version of Dracula is actually
the better version. You see, the American cast and crew
filmed in the daytime, whilst the Spanish cast and crew
filmed at night, and it's been said that the Spanish
version had an advantage. They could watch how the scenes
were shot first, and then when it was their turn,
they would try and outdo the American version. The Spanish
(12:35):
version seemed to be edited a whole lot better. They
would use some different camera angles which were more effective.
They'd use some sweeping shots and panning in on the characters,
which were a lot more effective, and they would also
get better performances.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
In my opinion, they would.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
See what the Americans did and they would better it.
I found that a lot of the scenes in the
Spanish version just work better. Sometimes they were drawn out,
maybe a little bit too long, but it kind of
built tension, and sometimes it just gave him more clearer
picture of what was actually going on in the movie.
For example, there's a scene in the American version where
Van Helsing shows Dracula his reflection in the mirror. In
(13:12):
the American version, I think it's not clear what is
actually going on as Dracula hits the mirror away from
Van Helsing's hands. It's only when Van Helsing explains what
just happened do you understand that Van Helsing just showed
him his reflection, or more to say, is non reflection.
But it's not filmed in a way that makes it
clear to the audience. Whilst in the Spanish version we
(13:34):
clearly see the camera facing the mirror, we see Van
Helsing's reflection, but we don't see Dracula's reflection. And then
Dracula hits the mirror away not with his hand but
with his cane, and it smashes into pieces, and it
made for a more satisfying shot. The American version of
Dracula was somewhat shorter in length than the Spanish version,
(13:55):
and I think this is mainly because the Spanish version
gave us much longer drawn out which I think most
of the time bill suspense.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
But not always.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And even though many people feel that the Spanish version
is the better version, Lugosi is still the one who
comes out on top. This movie was so influential for
every vampire movie that came after it. Even to this
very day, Bella Lugosi's portrayal is still the stereotypical vampire
we think of when someone mentions Count Dracula. Forget the
(14:26):
brooding vampires of Twilight and the Vampire Diaries. For me,
the original and still the greatest, will always be Bela Lugosi,
who showed the world in nineteen thirty one exactly what
it means to be Count Dracula.
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