Today, as you may notice from the date stamp, is February 14, 2006. This is a momentous occasion, though probably not many folks are aware of it. Horror film fans, though, may recognize this as an important anniversary: 75 years ago today the tradition of Universal Studio’s classic horror films began as Tod Browning’s Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, premiered in New York.
Now, I’ll admit that this film hasn’t aged terribly well. The acting is seriously over-the-top, for one thing. The script was adapted almost verbatim from the stage play, which is fine except that movies have (or should have) more scope than plays; Browning didn’t use every tool his medium supplied him with. I really hate David Manners (Jonathan Harker), who made a lot of money playing the boring “hero” in several ‘30’s horror films; Hollywood history would have been a bit brighter if he’d gone into another line of work. Lugosi, of course, wrung every ounce of melodrama out of his role, as was typical of his entire career. The man never did bother to become fluent in English, but in this early role his accent is frankly comical. Although the sets and atmosphere of the movie are beautifully scary at the beginning, when we’re in Transylvania, once the scene shifts to London the movie loses any edge it had. And don’t tell me the film’s problems are a product of the time in which it was made…Frankenstein came out just a few months later, and it is dramatically superior (and still holds up well today). All that being said, this is still a movie that deserves respect. In the first place, the first bit really is good, even after all these years. Lugosi descending the staircase, passing through the cobwebs without touching them, that’s a great moment; and the face of Renfield (Dwight Frye) when he’s discovered in the hold of the Vesta, half-starved and gibbering mad, is one of the genre’s enduing and haunting images.
Also, of course, there’s Lugosi. Yeah, he hams it up terribly, and yes, he reportedly learned his lines phonetically (supposedly he didn’t know what he saying half the time, though he’d played the part on the London stage), but still, Lugosi is Dracula. In all of Hollywood history there is no actor more strongly associated with a role, and no character more strongly associated with the man who played it. Christopher Lee was a far superior actor who did a much better job in the role than Lugosi (and who played the part far more often), but it is impossible to think of Dracula without thinking of Lugosi, and vice-versa.
The big thing, though, is the film’s legacy. This movie basically saved Universal from bankruptcy. It led directly to James Whale’s Frankenstein project being approved, giving the genre its first non-silent classic. And it began the whole series of classic horror films from the studio, including The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, Werewolf of London, The Black Cat, and The Mummy (my personal favorite). Each of these films is better than Dracula, but each owes a debt to the original.
Dracula also demonstrated that Americans could, in fact, make decent horror movies. Prior to 1931, the genre was dominated by the great German classics, like Nosferatu, Der Golem, The Man Who Laughs, Faust, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. During the silent era, the only American horror film that could compete with these was Lon Chaney’s magnificent Phantom of the Opera; as brilliant as that film was, though, German supremacy in the field was largely unquestioned. In 1931 all that changed. After Dracula, American movies would dominate the genre until Hammer exploded onto the scene in 1957 with The Curse of Frankenstein.
And, whatever its problems, this is one of the most influential films ever made. The major Gothic sets from this film (Castle Dracula and Carfax Abbey) are still being copied today, all over the world. Every film villain is measured against the alien mystery of Lugosi’s vampire, and every monster killer stands in the shadow of Edward Van Sloan’s Dr. Van Helsing. Also, though Browning took a lot of grief (most of it justified) over his lazy and lackluster direction (this was his last picture for Universal before returning to MGM, and apparently he felt no compulsion to put himself out for the company he was leaving behind), he certainly had the photographer’s eye. Whatever else it was, Dracula was a beautiful movie. However tired the acting, the script, and the characters might be, the film itself is just lovely.
So tonight, I’m gonna buy a bottle of wine, I’m gonna go home and order a pizza, and I’m gonna lose myself in the original horror classic on its 75th birthday. Anyone care to join me?
