Universal Monsters #1: Dracula

Last year I bought a box set of Universal's classic monster movies, restored for Blu-Ray, because I've never seen most of them and I know they're not only incredibly influential films, but also really good. Unfortunately, it's taken me a year to finally start watching them. Carol and I settled down the other night for the first of them, 1931's Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi.

I'm not a great reviewer so I'll just offer a couple of thoughts. If you'd like to read a quality film review, check out my friend SJHoneywell's review here.

Given that this was made in 1931, I didn't have a lot of hope for the scope and the special effects. Shockingly, however, right off the bat the film feels big and broad and the (few) effects almost seamless. For example, there's a scene where Renfield (not Jonathan Harker as in the book) is travelling to Castle Dracula. It starts with some excellent outdoor location shooting and moves into a phenomenal matte of the castle road as his carriage approaches. It looks great.

Then there's the interior of Castle Dracula with this incredible set design. Remember, this is 1931!

Storywise, the movie truncates the plot considerably, starting in Transylvania then moving to England, but never coming back. The book and other Dracula movies feature a thrilling race back to Castle Dracula between the vampire and the heroes, but this movie doesn't go there, ending rather perfunctorily in England.

One of the things that bothered me as I watched was that some of the action took place off-camera. For example, when the ship carrying Dracula to England arrives, the crew is dead. They don't actually show this, the camera just shows the ship's wheel while off-camera voices describe the carnage. These kinds of scenes are littered throughout the latter half of the movie. It turns out that this movie was based on a stage play, rather than the book itself, which explains why it was filmed this way. But it's disappointing as the movie seems to become smaller and smaller in scope, especially after the great beginning.

The script also leaves out a few crucial plot beats. Poor Lucy is "killed" by Dracula and her best friend, Mina Harker, doesn't even get a scene to react to Lucy's death. The next time we see Mina, she seems perfectly fine. It's a bit jarring.

Finally, without giving any spoilers (as if I could), this Dracula, the most iconic of all movie vampires, is the easiest to kill in cinematic history. And the death happens off-screen. Come on, 1931!

Still, Dracula is a classic, groundbreaking film that has quite a few surprises. It's absolutely well worth seeing.