Directed by: Tod Browning
Written by: Bram Stoker and 8 others
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners
Black and White, 75 Minutes
Video was sharp enough, but the audio was pretty awful.
Renfield gets off the stagecoach and the locals warn him about Dracula and his castle. They literally tell him about vampires, even using that word. We then cut to the castle, where we see multiple coffins open and hands reaching out. We see the vampires awaken.
Renfield rides to the castle in another coach, without a driver. Dracula shows up and says all his well-known lines right away. He wants Renfield to help him sign the lease to Carmax Abbey. Dracula leaves him alone, and three remain vamps come in. Drac reappears and drives the three away, then leans down toward Renfield’s unconscious body…
Aboard ship, we see Renfield saying “Master, the sun is gone!” As he opens the box. Later, find out that all the crew has been killed. They arrest Renfield and commit him to Dr. Seward’s asylum in London.
Dracula comes to London, and the body count starts rising. He goes to the opera and meets Seward, his daughter Mina, friend Lucy, and fiancée John. Lucy recites a creepy poem about death, which turns on the Count.
That night, Lucy opens the window and Dracula flaps inside in bat form. He kills her.
Van Helsing analyzes Renfield’s blood and knows he’s been bitten by a vampire. He confronts Renfield with wolfsbane, and Renfield reacts badly.
He then bites Mina, who wears a scarf laundry her neck the next day. Van Helsing examines her and finds the marks. Dracula shows up, he he knows the name Van Helsing. Van Helsing notices that Dracula doesn’t show up in the mirror.
Mina starts reporting seeing Lucy at night. Van Helsing believes her, but Jonathan doesn’t. “She looked like a hungry animal; a wolf.” Van Helsing says they have to drive a stake through Dracula’s heart. Dracula confronts Van Helsing, and they both say too much. Dracula hypnotizes him, but is run off with a cross.
Later that night, Dracula comes in again and goes after Mina. The two of them head back to the Abbey where Dracula sleeps. They run into Renfield, who was followed by Van Helsing and Jonathan. Dracula kills Renfield. Van Helsing and Jonathan find Dracula asleep in him coffin and stake him. Mina feels better immediately.
There is mostly no soundtrack. The director didn’t think people would accept music without an obvious source. This is particularly obvious with the hissing of the old film; music would have filled in the silence far better.
Renfield and Van Helsing steal the show with two over-the-top performances. Dracula doesn’t say much, but he’s definitely creepy in every scene. The others are mostly forgettable.
Amazon Link https://amzn.to/2TLH3AX
