Possibly the most famous horror movie ever, Tod Browning's 1931 version of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi in the title role, opened up doors for it's studio, Universal, and lead to the creation of the famous monsters the studio created, as well as defining how the vampire would be portrayed in nigh on everything to use the character from that point in time.

While not the first Dracula movie, this was the first official one, based on a stage play, rather than directly based on Bram Stoker's novel, and would become the standard that nearly all vampire, especially Dracula related movies until present day would be judged against.
Universal originally planned to create an epic movie that would follow Stoker's book to the letter, however budget restraints meant that the stage play would have to suffice,despite the fact his performance went down in history,Lugosi wasn't even the first choice, with the makers aiming for Lon Chaney, who died before filming commenced and Lugosi, who had portrayed the Count on stage, was brought in.

The movie begins with a real estate worker named Renfield(Dwight Frye - Frankenstein) being sent to Transylvania to try and sell Carfax Abbey to the mysterious Count Dracula(Lugosi - White Zombie). While there, he encounters locals terrified of the Count, but he falls under his influence in the Castle he owns, and Renfield soon finds himself helping the count get to London via a ship where he kills all the crew.
When this ghost ship drifts ashore in Whitby, Renfield is the only living survivor found, and he is ranting about eating insects for their blood, so he is shipped off to the Seward Sanitarium, located next door to Carfax Abbey. There he will be under the eye of Dr.Jack Seward(Herbert Bunston - Charlie Chan's Chance), who has a beautiful daughter named Mina(Helen Chandler - The Worst Woman In Paris), who is engaged to a young chap named John Harker(David Manners - The Mummy) and friends with a girl named Lucy(Frances Dade - The She-Wolf). They first encounter Dracula at the opera, where he introduces himself and makes an impression on Lucy. That evening he bites her, and she is pronounced dead of mysterious blood loss by Dr.Seward. He calls in the help of the eccentric Dutch Professor Dr.Abraham Van Helsing(Edward Van Sloan - Dracula's Daughter), who declares that he believes this to be the work of a Nosferatu, or Vampire.

With Seward and Harker half believing, the group set out to find out what is happening, but they will have to worry, because Dracula now has his eye on Mina...

Now, I never noticed this the first time I viewed it, but I've since read the novel again, and there are a few key differences,such as the fact that Mina is Seward's daughter here, and the fact that he is actually old enough to be her father, where as in the book he, along with two other ommitted characters were suitors for Lucy. The book also climaxed back in Transylvania, whereas the movie ends in Carfax Abbey, although this was probably more down to time constraints than anything else. Renfield also gets some changes, seeing as the book saw Harker go to Transylvania, and not him. I actually felt this last change harmed the story, as it added even more of a personal vendetta between John and Dracula, whereas the movie makes John little more than a supporting character.

The movie has flaws of it's own, most notably that we never actually see a resolution to the Lucy issue, we hear Van Helsing is going to sort it out, but never actually see or hear of him doing it.
This aside, I feel the plot is farely solid, and probably as decent a representation of the novel as we could have hoped for in 1931. The one thing that wasn't plot, but I don't know where else to comment, is the fact that not one single act of violence appears onscreen. Not one bite,slap or even Drac's demise takes place onscreen, which I found rather disappointing, although it shows you how the times were when a movie like this could kick up such a storm despite nothing offensive appearing onscreen.

The acting is fairly well done, with nobody going below what I class as acceptable, and Frye and Lugosi putting in wonderful shows. Frye's show as Renfield is over the top,manic, and generally everything that is called for and more, and I probably don't even need to say anything about Lugosi's performance, which is a defining performance in the history of the character. As I said in my review of Nosferatu, I feel there are two defining Dracula portrayals, one is Max Schrek's, and the other is Lugosi's. His voice, delivering each line in slow,deliberate and heavily accented speach wonderfully fits the character, and his use of his hands to gesture while talking is wonderful. He plays Dracula as an elegant menace, the polar opposite of Schrek's turn in the role in terms of characterisation, although both actor's use of their hands in their roles helped make them so effective.

There is no score to the version of the movie I watched, only some stock music at the beggining, and while a version with a new score was included on the DVD I have, I didn't bother to watch that particular version. This was an early 'talkie', and for it's time, it uses the added plus of dialogue well, if rather sparingly in parts. The reason nigh on every line of Lugosi's script is so memorable is due to the fact he doesn't actually say much, because the director, and the cast and crew were fairly adjusted to working without sound, so were using other means to convey what was happening, although they do have dialogue, their body language and so on tells what is going on a whole lot better.

The special effects in the movie consist mainly of sets, and the bat that Dracula transforms into. We never actually see fangs displayed, or wounds, but the sets for Castle Dracula and Carfax Abbey are spectacular and as atmospheric as you could hope for. spider-webs,rats,bugs and armadillos(?) aplenty. Sadly the bat isn't too impressive, but for 1931, I'll let them away with it.

Overall, while it is flawed, there is something compellingly watchable about Dracula, possibly even the sole reason of Lugosi. I watched the movie anticipating his arrival into scenes, and while proceedings do contain a little more dialogue than is needed at some points, the movie never drags, and is definitely one of the easiest Universal Monster movies to watch.

Despite all it's failings,for which I feel I should relegate it to at least 4 stars, I can't help but feel Dracula deserves full marks. The story isn't perfect, a lot of the key incidents take place off-screen and it differs from the wonderful novel quite a lot, but there is just something wonderful about it that makes it watchable, no matter how many times I see it, it never gets boring. Things in it that many may say are cliched began here. Im going to give it full marks, but just. Had this movie lacked Lugosi's presence in the title role, it would probably have struggled to hang on to a 4-Star rating, but with him it goes up a star, and takes 5-Stars. But why on Earth armadillos?...

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8