Dracula (1931)

Director: Tod Browning                            Writers: Garrett Ford
Film Score: Philip Glass                         Cinematography: Karl Freund
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye and Helen Chandler

Say what you want about the talkiness, the stageyness, the off-center pencil spots, the piece of cardboard on the bedroom lamp, the schizophrenic nature of the direction, but the magic of the original Dracula is what all vampire moves have been trying to emulate for the last eighty years. Based on the popular novel by Bram Stoker, Universal’s Dracula is the first modern horror film, and what it lacks in polish or excitement, it more than makes up for by its position as the first, free from the overwhelming burden of clichés and stereotypes that have plagued vampire films ever since.

I recently watched Dracula with the Philip Glass score, and it’s brilliant. Although new scores have been commissioned for numerous silent films over the past two decades, I can’t think of a new score for a sound film other than this one. What made it possible was the utter lack of scoring in the original; other than the opera scene, there is no music at all. My one problem with the new score, however, is that it is engineered too loud and, at times, tends to compete with the dialogue instead of supporting it. But it is a revelation, bringing out what is eerie and horrifying that the film isn’t able to quite manage on its own. The first twenty minutes, generally credited to cinematographer Karl Freund, is a completely different film, drenched with atmosphere and moving camera shots. Another thing that the Glass score does, however, is unify the two halves and make them more of a coherent whole.

It’s Lugosi, though, who makes the film the powerhouse it is. Again, at the time, Lugosi himself was free from cliché and controls the film with measured (probably phonetic) dialogue and movements. Edward Van Sloan is the ultimate Van Helsing, bold and unafraid in the face of the supernatural, the model for the great Peter Cushing’s portrayal. Dwight Frye’s performance as Renfield is so singular that he was never again able to move from beneath its shadow and was mired the rest of his career in similar performances. The rest of the cast has little to offer, especially David Manners, for whom the phrase “ineffectual leading man” must have been coined. Helen Chandler had the potential for a much better performance, but I think was hampered by her direction, or lack thereof. Manners is said to have claimed he rarely remembered Browning being on the set at all.

Carl Laemmle, Jr. was responsible for the green light on this film as well as the original Frankenstein, both of which were credited for keeping Universal from going under during the Depression. There wasn’t really a horror genre in films before that time, in spite of the string of great German silent masterpieces. It was only after Universal’s foray into these kinds of sound films that the genre became one. It’s easy to pick apart early talkies and cast them aside as inferior to those that came later. But if you really give them a chance, turn the lights off and watch them on the biggest screen you can, they really are rewarding. Dracula, with the Philip Glass score, is even more so.