Dracula 1931
Universal released a box set of six of their classic monster movies a few years ago. The price came down recently at Universal’s online store, Gruv, plus you get digital copies of all six movies, and there are some nice extras too. For the first of the movies, Dracula, there is an alternate soundtrack that includes music Phillip Glass wrote for the movie instead of the original classical music selections. The set also includes Bride of Frankenstein which I was surprised to find out generally gets more acclaim than the original Frankenstein. So I got the box set and watched the first movie with the score by one of my favorite composers. I had never seen this movie. Even though it is pre-code, it is quite tame, never showing the moment Dracula bites or kills anyone, nor his transitions from or to a wolf or bat. You never even see the wolf and the bats are decent, but clearly fake. Instead there are a lot of closeups of Dracula’s face with weird lighting and fog. Bela Lugosi is still great in it with none of the campy stuff people say when they imitate him ("I vant to bite your neck!” is not in this movie). Instead he understates the role which works better, bringing a lot of class to Dracula plus he wears a great tux and cape throughout. He had played Dracula in live theater, so he had everything down pretty well. The rest of the story wasn’t that familiar to me since I don’t generally like horror movies, and while it is good, the story isn’t really that strong, kind of a mystery where you already know the answer and watch while the characters try to figure it out. The movie is pretty short at only 79 minutes, so things move pretty quickly. The standout, other than Lugosi, is it has a great look to it in black and white and the restoration makes it look its best. So it is still a fun movie to watch, with Lugosi’s signature character, but more as an artifact of an era (very early sound films, early horror, though Universal had done a silent version of Dracula before).
Written: 13 Jul 2021
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital