Rating: NR
Genre:
Horror
Release Date: 12/21/1999
SubTitles: French/Espanol/English
Dubbed: English/Espanol
Sound: 1
Run Time: 179 Minutes
Flags: Questionable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Universal Studios
"I am....Drac-u-la. I bid you velcome." Thus does
Bela Lugosi declare his presence in the 1931 screen version of
Bram Stoker's
Dracula. Director
Tod Browning invests most of his mood and atmosphere in the first two reels, which were based on the original
Stoker novel; the rest of the film is a more stagebound translation of the popular stage play by
John Balderston and
Hamilton Deane. Even so, the electric tension between the elegant Dracula and the vampire hunter Professor Van Helsing (
Edward Van Sloan) works as well on the screen as it did on the stage. And it's hard to forget such moments as the lustful gleam in the eyes of Mina Harker (
Helen Chandler) as she succumbs to the will of Dracula, or the omnipresent insane giggle of the fly-eating Renfield (
Dwight Frye). Despite the static nature of the final scenes,
Dracula is a classic among horror films, with
Bela Lugosi giving the performance of a lifetime as the erudite Count (both
Lugosi and co-star
Frye would forever after be typecast as a result of this film, which had unfortunate consequences for both men's careers). Compare this
Dracula to the simultaneously filmed Spanish-language version, which makes up for the absence of
Lugosi with a stronger sense of visual dynamics in the lengthy dialogue sequences. In 1999, a special rerelease of
Dracula was prepared featuring a new musical score written by
Philip Glass and performed by
The Kronos Quartet.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
