Dracula (1931)

      I've had a goal for a while now to watch the three original Universal horror movies from the early 30's. I've acquired The Mummy (1932) and Dracula (1931) and now all I need is Frankenstein (1931) to complete my collection. Following this I hope to acquire more classic horror films from the 40's which many say is the Golden Age. Anyway, I watched Dracula today so I'm going to give my opinion on it.

      Everyone knows the name Dracula and his home of Transylvania so it was only a matter of time before an adaptation of Bram Stoker's book was going to be made. However, there was a German silent expressionist adaptation of the novel in 1922 with the release of Nosferatu where they changed the name from Count Dracula to Count Orlok, unauthorized adaptation I might add. This aside, I think people mark this film as the beginning of an endless cycle of Dracula films. Other notable mentions include Christopher Lee taking on the role, with Peter Cushing tackling Van Helsing, this would be seen in Hammer's series of horror pictures in the 50's, Lee would play the role in 6 films.

      When I heard the Swan Lake theme come on at the beginning it sunk in that I was watching one of the most iconic horror films of all time. I think its status is purely reliant on Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is so commanding and menacing but subtle at the same time. His weird hand positions and facial expressions completely suck you in, no pun intended. However, I'm not writing this review to just tell you how amazing Lugosi is but rather to show the bigger picture.

      The plot of the film very much sticks to the novel I believe, I haven't read the book so don't take me up on that. It's very much about Dracula's pursuit of a woman, Mina played by Helen Chandler, and his attempts to convert her to a vampire herself. Whilst this goes on, Van Helsing played by Edward Van Sloan tries to uncover Dracula and defeat him using the traditional methods. There is never a boring a moment as something is always happening affecting the path of the story. 

      One performance to me that stuck out just as much as Lugosi's was Dwight Frye's portrayal of Renfield. When it jump cuts after Dracula attacks him to when we see him transformed to bug crazy slave it shocked me, two such contrasting characters made it hard for me to realise that it was the same person we saw at the start. I think Frye deserves as much recognition as Lugosi in my opinion.

      Now I have one little thing that bugged me, David Manners in the role of John Harker was pretty much annoying in every scene he was in. All he does is shout and say Mina's name and you just want to tell him to shut up. But apart from that it's excellent.

      Overall this film is a classic, in the horror genre and in general. I think it's a must see for anyone who enjoys old movies like me. All I need to do now is to get my hands on Frankenstein and my collection will be complete.