Review
Dracula
- Director
- Tod Browning
- Year
- 1931
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- Gon C Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- Review date
- Thursday, December 20, 2001
This adaptation of John L. Balderston’s play, based upon Bram Stoker’s novel of the same name, is not as scary as Nosferatu (1922) or as faithful to the original story as Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), but it certainly is the most classic film about the vampire. Bela Lugosi is Count Dracula, a mysterious man who conquers with a simple look—and a lot of charm.
The conception of horror in this film is definitely old-fashioned. Nowadays, it hardly scares, plus it has poor editing, scoring and visual effects. However, the performances are top-notch, and the whole mood is attractive. This one is hard to dislike.
Other notable performers are Dwight Frye, excellent as confused Renfield, and Edward Van Sloan, perfectly cynic as Professor Van Helsing.
There is a restored version, featuring new scoring by Philip Glass; as usual with Glass’s scores, this one’s quite distracting, though it mostly succeeds in adding intensity to the dated classic.
“Good evening, I am Dracula. I bid you welcome.”
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Morris wrote at 6/22/2002:
I'm definitely going to see this movie one day if only to see Bela Lugosi playing his trademark character. It certainly is a classic of the horror genre!