Front Office Football Central - View Single Post

sabotai · 09-20-2015, 11:35 AM

Dracula (1931)

Directed By: Tod Browning, Karl Freund
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan
Length: 85 minutes
Genre: Horror

It was actually kinda hard to take the film seriously as I kept remembering all of the scenes from Dracula Dead and Loving It. I'm probably going to have the same problem when I get to Frankenstein.

Bela Lugosi plays the perfect Dracula...well of course he does, everything about Dracula today is still modeled off his performance in this movie. But still, his portrayal of Dracula is fantastic.

In these early "talkies", a lot of the scenes are still acted like in the silent movie. A lot of emoting, over the the top movement, etc. In one early scene, Dracula goes in for the kill...very slowly. Arms out, the women slowly backing away....perfect for a silent movie, not so much in a sound version. It's interesting how adding sound to a movie makes it feel like it should be much more realistic. Probably similar to watching a play, ballet or musical on stage vs. a movie.

And the ending was very anti-climatic. Just a short chase scene and then it was over.

Spoiler

That's the negatives. The positives are that it was very well acted IMO (silent movie style performance aside), especially from Lugosi, and that, well, it's Dracula. And who doesn't love the story of Dracula?

My Rating: 7 / 10

IMDB User Rating: 7.6 / 10 (30,381 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 91% critic (41/4 votes), 82% Audience (44,039 votes)

09-20-2015, 11:35 AM	#216
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	Dracula (1931) Directed By: Tod Browning, Karl Freund Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan Length: 85 minutes Genre: Horror It was actually kinda hard to take the film seriously as I kept remembering all of the scenes from Dracula Dead and Loving It. I'm probably going to have the same problem when I get to Frankenstein. Bela Lugosi plays the perfect Dracula...well of course he does, everything about Dracula today is still modeled off his performance in this movie. But still, his portrayal of Dracula is fantastic. In these early "talkies", a lot of the scenes are still acted like in the silent movie. A lot of emoting, over the the top movement, etc. In one early scene, Dracula goes in for the kill...very slowly. Arms out, the women slowly backing away....perfect for a silent movie, not so much in a sound version. It's interesting how adding sound to a movie makes it feel like it should be much more realistic. Probably similar to watching a play, ballet or musical on stage vs. a movie. And the ending was very anti-climatic. Just a short chase scene and then it was over. Spoiler I mean, they just find Dracula laying in his coffin, open it a few times, create a stake out of the lid, Van Helsing drives the stake off-screen... That's the negatives. The positives are that it was very well acted IMO (silent movie style performance aside), especially from Lugosi, and that, well, it's Dracula. And who doesn't love the story of Dracula? My Rating: 7 / 10 IMDB User Rating: 7.6 / 10 (30,381 votes) Rotten Tomatoes: 91% critic (41/4 votes), 82% Audience (44,039 votes) Last edited by sabotai : 05-25-2018 at 06:01 PM.