.
tonight's feature: Dracula (1931) on Prime
The first "sound motion picture" version of Dracula is a classic of a classic and an epically frightening movie... by 1931 standards. There are possums, big ones. Armadillos! Jerusalem crickets too. The bounciest bats I've ever seen. But also Bela Lugosi playing the titular character in such a defining way that every Dracula thereafter would be held to his gold standard.
Apparently though, seeing as this was still 1931, they didn't want Dracula attacking Renfield on film because of the "gay subtext" of the situation. A memo was sent to the director that said "Dracula is only to attack women." Which is weird, because it's still implied he sucked anyone's blood, time permitting. My favorite thing about this movie is that since "sound" movies were so new, they didn't think it would make sense to have music in the background unless there was a band playing in the scene. So it's oddly creepier this way.
Due to a great depression happening at the time, the studio gave up on the idea of a full version based on Bram Stoker's novel and instead co-opted the popular theater version, which explains the disconnect between the source material and the film. They even stole a plot point from the unauthorized silent film Nosferatu, when Renfield cuts his finger and Dracula wants a taste really bad.
At some point, Dracula knows they know he's a vampire and they basically say they're going to kill him. He takes off and gets in his coffin before sunrise to hide, where Van Helsing obviously finds him sleeping and puts a stake through his heart, off-screen (also a controversial moment, Dracula's death screams were edited out of the original version, too ghastly!). Why am I still rambling? I don't know. But I do know you can't tell if a Dracula is good unless it's as good as Bela Lugosi's Dracula. 7 classic off-screen howling wolves out of 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment