Film Review: Dracula (1931) – 7.5/10

‘There are far worse things awaiting man than death...’

Ahh… the Count. A cursory glance at this very website suggests that I have watched and reviewed nine different films that are either about Dracula or feature the old fella (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula (1979), Horror of Dracula, Dracula (BBC), The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, Blacula, Shadow of the Vampire and Nosferatu (1922). It’s quite the collection. And yet, up until now, I’d never seen the original. Let’s don our black cape and dive in…

As with Horror of Dracula, the superior Hammer Horror take on the Count, this iteration omits both Harker’s time at Dracula’s castle and the vampire’s arrival at Whitby. Instead, we begin with Renfield (Dwight Frye) becoming Dracula’s familiar before moving straight into the Count’s obsession with Mina (Helen Chandler). Attempting to defeat Dracula is Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) and Mina’s father John Harker (David Manners).

It’s an odd phenomenon with cinema that people refuse to acknowledge the context in which it was made. You wouldn’t dismiss Stonehenge as being just a few rocks cobbled together. You wouldn’t travel to the Maltravieso cave in Spain and deride the first-ever cave painting as being a bit shit, would you? And so, we must caveat any modern review of Tod Browning’s Dracula with the fact that this film was made before the Empire State Building was opened. It was made before America had adopted the Star Spangled Banner as its national anthem. Heck, The Jazz Singer, the first sound film, was only released three years earlier in 1927 (heavily featuring blackface, obviously). So, while Dracula may be a bit creaky and old-fashioned, it is essentially the first true horror film, and for that, it must be applauded.

Having said that, there are some genuine moments of greatness here. Bela Lugosi is the Dracula by which all others are judged, Browning’s direction is singular and compelling (he would go on to direct the similarly important Freaks in 1932) and many of the things we associate with modern vampire films have their roots in this version of the Dracula myth. Sure, there might be some shoddy editing here and there but what’s a few plotholes between friends?

It’s not as good as the Hammer version, and it also compares unfavourably with the original Nosferatu, but at 74 minutes, Dracula is pretty essential for horror fans or anyone with a general interest in film history. Leguosi’s close-ups are still chilling and Frye makes for an incredibly unsettling Renfield – an old-fashioned film but an important one.