Dracula (1931) is Universal Pictures’ pre-Code vampire film, directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the Count. It is based on Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston’s stage play, itself adapted from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, and it was the first sound film adaptation of Stoker’s story. Lugosi’s accent, cape and hypnotic stare fixed the popular image of Count Dracula for generations. The film’s success launched Universal’s cycle of horror films, beginning with Frankenstein later the same year. It is widely seen as the starting point of the American horror film.
At a glance
| Release date | February 12, 1931 (Roxy Theatre, New York City); February 14, 1931 (US) |
| Director | Tod Browning |
| Writer | Garrett Fort (screenplay) |
| Based on | Dracula (1897 novel) by Bram Stoker and the 1924 play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston |
| Starring | Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan |
| Runtime | 74 minutes (85 minutes as first released) |
| Rating | Released before the MPAA rating system; cut for its 1936 reissue under the Production Code |
| Budget | $341,191 |
| Franchise | Universal Monsters; Dracula (novel and franchise) |
Plot summary
Renfield (Dwight Frye), an English solicitor, travels to Transylvania to close a property deal with the reclusive Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), ignoring the villagers’ warnings about the castle. The Count turns out to be a vampire and makes Renfield his insane servant. The two sail to England, and when the ship arrives, Renfield is the only person left alive on board. Dracula settles at Carfax Abbey, next to Dr. Seward’s sanatorium, where the raving Renfield is soon confined. He charms Seward’s daughter Mina (Helen Chandler), her fiancé, John Harker (David Manners), and their friend Lucy at the theater, before preying on the women one by one.
When the Dutch scientist Professor Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) arrives, he recognizes the signs of vampirism. A battle of wills begins between the professor and the Count, with Mina’s soul at stake.
Spoiler section: the ending
Under Dracula’s spell, Mina turns against Harker, and the Count has her guard remove the protective wolfsbane. Renfield unknowingly leads Van Helsing and Harker to Carfax Abbey, where Dracula kills him for the supposed betrayal. As dawn breaks, the Count is forced into his coffin, and Van Helsing drives a stake through his heart. Mina returns to normal.
Production and behind the scenes
Stoker’s novel had already been filmed without permission as Nosferatu (1922), and Stoker’s widow won a court order that all prints be destroyed. To avoid any repeat, Universal paid $40,000 for the rights to the novel and the stage plays. The studio first intended the role for Conrad Veidt, who returned to Germany, and then for Lon Chaney, who died in 1930. Producer Carl Laemmle Jr. was not keen on Lugosi, even though Lugosi had played Dracula on Broadway, and considered more established screen actors. Lugosi lobbied hard and accepted just $500 a week for seven weeks of work, a total of $3,500.
Accounts describe a disorganized shoot. Browning, a silent-film veteran who never seemed at ease with sound, reportedly left much of the work to cinematographer Karl Freund, who has been called an uncredited co-director. The effects are simple, mostly fog, lighting and flexible rubber bats, and Dracula’s transformations always happen off camera. The film uses long silences and only two intertitles, a holdover from the silent era. Universal reused the sets at night for a separate Spanish-language version, directed by George Melford and starring Carlos VillarÃas, and it also released a silent version for theaters that had not yet been wired for sound.
Release and reception
A serious supernatural horror film with no comic relief and no trick ending was a gamble for a major studio. Dracula premiered at New York’s Roxy Theatre on February 12, 1931. Newspapers, encouraged by the studio’s publicity, reported audience members fainting, and it sold 50,000 tickets in its first 48 hours. It made a $700,000 profit, the largest of Universal’s 1931 releases. Reviews were good. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times called it “the best of the many mystery films,” and Variety said it was hard to imagine anyone matching Lugosi in the role.
Later critics have pointed to stagey stretches in the middle of the film while still praising Lugosi and Freund’s images. Roger Ebert added it to his Great Movies list in 1999, and Empire called Lugosi the Dracula “against which all others are measured.” The film holds a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2000.
Legacy and influence
Dracula made Universal the leading horror studio of the 1930s. It was followed by Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein, and then by its own sequels, Dracula’s Daughter (1936) and Son of Dracula (1943). John Carradine took over the Count in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945). Lugosi played the role on film only once more, in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), and he was typecast as the Count for the rest of his career. The play and this film created much of Dracula’s lasting image: a handsome nobleman instead of Stoker’s repulsive old man, entering through French windows and wrapping victims in a satin-lined cape. Hammer’s Dracula (1958), with Christopher Lee, was a deliberate reinvention of that image. Chris McKay has called his comedy Renfield (2023) a “quasi-sequel” to the 1931 film.
Trivia
- The line “I never drink … wine” was written for this film. It does not appear in Stoker’s novel or in the original stage production.
- The opening credits use an excerpt from Act II of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which Universal reused for The Mummy (1932).
- An epilogue in which Edward Van Sloan reassures the audience was shown only during the first run. It was cut for the 1936 reissue for fear of encouraging belief in the supernatural.
- In 1998, Philip Glass composed a new score, performed by the Kronos Quartet, and it is offered as an option on Universal’s home releases.
- In 2017, a rare “Style A” poster, one of only two known copies, sold at auction for $525,000, a world record for a film poster at the time.
- Christopher Lee was unimpressed when he finally saw Lugosi’s performance. He found the Count “too nice at the beginning,” with “practically no menace.”
Related links
- Count Dracula and Abraham Van Helsing (characters)
- Universal Monsters and Dracula (novel and franchise)
- Frankenstein (1931), Universal’s next horror hit
- Nosferatu (1922), the unauthorized adaptation that came first
- Dracula (1958) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
- Tod Browning (director) and Karl Freund (cinematographer)
- Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye (cast)
- Bram Stoker (author)
