“I am Dracula. I bid you welcome.”
In which the Universal Monsters film series moves away from the silent era and legitimately begins! Pre-Code Horror doesn’t get any better than here with Producer Carl Laemmle’s Dracula, a film that is often overlooked by some headstrong disciples of cult classics.
It’s time to pay this film the respect it deserves.
The cobwebs! The castle! The coffins! The brides! And the looming figure at the center of it all: Dracula, played by the one and only Bela Lugosi. Lugosi is phenomenal in the role. He doesn’t speak much. He doesn’t have to. The way his long fingers move tells more of a story than his lips ever could. He’s chilling, showing off his unstoppable ways in front of Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) and openly seducing Mina Stewart (Helen Chandler) all while defining EXACTLY what vampires would and wouldn’t be for generations to come.
How’s that for a lasting impression?!
Sure, sure, F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized version of Dracula was absolutely the first when it came to adapting Bram Stoker’s book, but with copyright laws being virtually non-existent at the time it was made, one can hardly bring Nosferatu into the discussion of who did it better. The film, once released, faced several legal issues.
So, with most of the prints of Murnau’s masterpiece on their way to being destroyed (thankfully, not all of them!!), Universal and Tod Browning jump to fill the 10-year void between films. And now the horror can be presented in sound!
Okay, so maybe Browning—using long gaps in sound and dialogue—wasn't all that comfortable with the new technology just yet, but with help from cinematographer Karl Freund, there’s certainly some gothic poetry being crystallized on the screen. Let the camera do the talking here, and brains virtually melt. There’s so much going on as Dracula makes his first appearance on the stairs!
Browning’s version of this beloved figure is at once a masterpiece of mood and lighting. It is both gothic in nature and haunting in its overall attitude, charming audiences with subtle camera zooms and long tracking shots that, ultimately, highlight the supernatural creature who desires to move from his remote location in Transylvania to bustling London in order to carry on his vampiric legacy. 
So much of Dracula—perhaps more than Frank Whale’s Frankenstein—defines what gothicism is in film. The caverns, the spiders, the pasty women, the ghoulish brides of Dracula, and the castle and its tall, tall shadows. The film—especially in its first half—is a literal bible on how to bring Gothicism to the silver screen. It’s both threatening and theatrical, drawing the audience in through the arrival of the solicitor Reinfeld (Dwight Frye), who is warned time and time again by the locals to be very wary about who has hired him, and shocking them with his ultimate transformation thanks to the children of the night . . .
. . . and that’s only what transpires in the first half of the movie!
Lugosi—ignoring the animalistic tendencies of his character as imagined by Stoker—portrays him as a high-end tent show gentleman, complete with a bow and knowing glances. Everyone knows he’s the villain, but the constant charm he pours into the performance is popcorn fun. To this day, his caped persona continues to work its magic. Who here hasn’t used the accent when the topic of bloodsucking comes up?! No one.
Dracula is often ignored. And that is unfortunate. This film is creep-centric and has plenty in its design to leave viewers trembling in fear. From the madness of Renfeld when he is lost among dead bodies while aboard the schooner Vesta to the makeshift wooden cross Van Helsing silences the creature with, the lasting effect of Dracula is immortal.
Dracula is now on 4K Ultra HD and housed in a glorious-looking packaged SteelBook, thanks to Universal Home Entertainment.
Dracula (1931) - Limited Edition Steelbook 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital
Home Video Distributor: Universal Studios
Available on Blu-ray - December 5, 2024
Screen Formats: 1.33:1
Subtitles: English; French; Spanish; Mandarin
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0; DTS-Digital Sound Mono
Discs: 4K Ultra HD; Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set
Region Encoding: 4K region-free; blu-ray locked to Region A
The original Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, launched the Hollywood horror genre and defined the iconic look and frightening character of the famed vampire. Towering ominously among the shadows of the Carpathian Mountains, Castle Dracula strikes fear in the hearts of the Transylvanian villagers below. After a naive real estate agent succumbs to the will of Count Dracula, the two head to London, where the vampire sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night. The inspiration for hundreds of subsequent remakes and adaptations, this classic film directed by Tod Browning is the signature adaptation of Bram Stoker's story, with its eerie passion, shadowy atmosphere, and thrilling cinematography.
VIDEO
Framed in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, 1.33:1, Browning’s work here is impressive, as this release marks a newly restored version of the film. The blacks and grays are handled expertly by the transfer. Beads of sweat are visible, wet city streets, textures in clothing, and even the dirt in the castle are all visible with fine textures throughout.
Shadows, while not too terribly detailed, are thick and atmospheric throughout. Black levels are strong, and the cobwebs are thick!
AUDIO
The original uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition has been restored.
Supplements:
Commentary:
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See breakdown below.
Special Features:
Universal celebrates the living dead with the following supplemental items.
- Dracula (1931) Spanish Version
- The Road to Dracula
- Lugosi: The Dark Prince
- Dracula: The Restoration
- Dracula Archives
- Trailer Gallery
- Monster Tracks
- Play Movie with Alternate Philip Glass Score
- Alternate Score by Philip Glass - Performed by the Kronos Quartet
- Feature Commentary with Film Historian David J. Skal
- Feature Commentary with Steve Haberman, Screenwriter of Dracula: Dead and Loving It
- Introduction by Lupita Tovar Kohner
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