Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17611 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-11-01
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: English, Hungarian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 71 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
When Universal Pictures picked up the movie rights to a Broadway adaptation of Dracula, they felt secure in handing the property over to the sinister team of actor Lon Chaney and director Tod Browning. But Chaney died of cancer, and Universal hired the Hungarian who had scored a success in the stage play: Béla Lugosi. The resulting film launched both Lugosi's baroque career and the horror-movie cycle of the 1930s. It gets off to an atmospheric start, as we meet Count Dracula in his shadowy castle in Transylvania, superbly captured by the great cinematographer Karl Freund. Eventually Dracula and his blood-sucking devotee (Dwight Frye, in one of the cinema's truly mad performances) meet their match in a vampire-hunter called Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). If the later sections of the film are undeniably stage bound and a tad creaky, Dracula nevertheless casts a spell, thanks to Lugosi's creepily lugubrious manner and the eerie silences of Browning's directing style. (After a mood-enhancing snippet of Swan Lake under the opening titles, there is no music in the film.) Frankenstein, which was released a few months later, confirmed the horror craze, and Universal has been making money (and countless spin-off projects) from its twin titans of terror ever since. Certainly the role left a lasting impression on the increasingly addled and drug-addicted Lugosi, who was never quite able to distance himself from the part that made him a star. He was buried, at his request, in his black vampire cape. --Robert Horton

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
This is the first screen version of Bram Stoker's famous tale based on the smash hit stage production. Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) arrives in London and immediately works to enrapture and transform into vampires young Lucy Weston (Frances Dade) and her friend Mina Seward (Helen Chandler). After he succeeds in turning Lucy, and Mina's health suddenly deteriorates, Mina's father (Herbert Bunston), calls in a specialist, Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). Van Helsing quickly recognizes Dracula's vampirism, and sets about saving Mina (and in the process, becomes Dracula's archenemy). The film, arguably the most influential of the legend's film versions, launched Lugosi's career in horror movies and forever invited vampires across Hollywood's threshold, spawning many sequels and variations.

Customer Reviews

A Great DVD for fans of Dracula.
If you're a fan of Dracula, and particularly this 1931 version, then you should definitely seek this out. Restoration has produced an excellent print with no visible signs of damage. The sound, while never going to be DTS, is perfectly fine.

Extras -
The DVD shows of its true strength as a format with the extras Universal have provided. First, there's an entertaining 45 minute 'making of' documentary, which provides a fascinating insight into the movie's conception and production. There's also a commentary track by film historian David J. Skal, and though while scripted, tells us more than enough about the action on screen. There's the trailer and some production photographs, and last there's the opportunity to have a new orchestral score played with the film as you watch (the original features no music, except the opera scene).

Why not 5 stars?
The Region One version features the complete Spanish version of the movie, shot at the exact same time on the same sets (and reportedly superior) and is referred to frequently throughout the documentary and commentary. Why Universal, after taking so much care over this Region Two verson couldn't have provided us with this further look into Dracula's history is a shame.

Lugosi's sexually ambivalent blood predator still thrills...
Lugosi is the epitome of urbane menace and Victorian repression-melting sensuality in this classic chiller. He exudes class and sophistication - his much imitated/never bettered accent is essential to this movie's success. An aristocratic old-world psychopath and blood-rapist segues charmingly into the brash, modern, technocratic and meritocratic USA (supposedly a fog-ridden London) of the thirties like some metaphysical terrorist. Dracula prefers the ladies, but his use of Renfield as a blood host and slave indicates a bisexuality that moves beyond the need to feed. He's not just a one-dimensional ham-villain - listen the wistfulness with which he delivers 'to die, to be truly dead, that must be glorious' - a Shakespearian consummation devoutly to be wished. He's victim of an existential nightmare, elegantly clad in evening attire, trapped by darkness, superstitious villagers and his compulsion for blood, a parable of narcotics addiction to which, ironically, Lugosi succumbed towards the end of his life. Surrounded by three sepulchre-clad blood courtesans (who outlive him), his origins are never explained beyond the 'evil of the vampire' rhetoric preached by right-on man of science Van Helsing, who wields his crucifix like an AK 47.
The castle is beautifully done - watch Lugosi glide through automatically opening doors as we wonder what lies beyond. His dramatic exchanges with Van Helsing (Van Sloan) are electric, even now. You hardly ever got this exchange between Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, more's the pity. The sparing use of music helps immeasurably; the use of silence adds a nightmarish quality. Karl Freund's black and white photography is the height of Caligariesque unease. The latter scenes would benefit from a more fluid directorial approach (watch the Spanish version, made at the same time on the same sets to see how this film could have been improved), but Renfield's description of the sea of rats with their red eyes is chilling and beyond criticism. The ending is disappointing - a powerful villain like Dracula needs a better send-off. The underrated and excellent movie with Frank Langella and a hammy Laurence Olivier, made from the same script, shows how this can be done. But the preceding moments with Helen Chandler on the staircase (where he kills his acolyte Renfield, who begs for torture - anything but soulless oblivion) compensate for this.

Disc lacks only one thing...
...namely the Spanish version of the film, included in the US release.
When this film was made in 1930, it was common practice for Hollywood studios to make alternative versions of their films for foreign markets - a Spanish language version of Dracula, with a different cast and crew, was filmed simutaneously, using the same sets and script but working at night with a different cast and crew.
The Spanish version was included in the US release of this disc but someone in their wisdom has decided not to include it in the region 2 release. For that reason this is a very frustrating DVD - especially since the US disc is now unavailable.
Moving away from that point of contention, this is a very good DVD of an historic film with a memorable star performance, which is still very creepy and atmospheric if you can overlook its primitive technical level and stagey production. The commentary adds immeasurably to the viewer's appreciation, and the alternative soundtrack with Philip Glass's new musical score gives an additional, haunting dimension to the film, complementing Lugosi's theatrical manner rather nicely, though purists might find it a little inappropriate or intrusive. Definitely a worthwhile addition though.
An essential addition for any collector of classic movies - but again, very, very disappointing and frustrating that the Spanish version isn't here - especially since the commentary repeatedly refers to it and presupposes that the viewer has it to hand. When are we ever going to stop getting inferior releases over here?