Product Description

When Universal Pictures picked up the movie rights to a Broadway adaptation of Dracula, they felt secure in handing the property over to the sinister team of actor Lon Chaney and director Tod Browning. But Chaney died of cancer, and Universal hired the Hungarian who had scored a success in the stage play: Béla Lugosi. The resulting film launched both Lugosi's baroque career and the horror-movie cycle of the 1930s. It gets off to an atmospheric start, as we meet Count Dracula in his shadowy castle in Transylvania, superbly captured by the great cinematographer Karl Freund. Eventually Dracula and his blood-sucking devotee (Dwight Frye, in one of the cinema's truly mad performances) meet their match in a vampire-hunter called Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). If the later sections of the film are undeniably stage bound and a tad creaky, Dracula nevertheless casts a spell, thanks to Lugosi's creepily lugubrious manner and the eerie silences of Browning's directing style. (After a mood-enhancing snippet of Swan Lake under the opening titles, there is no music in the film.) Frankenstein, which was released a few months later, confirmed the horror craze, and Universal has been making money (and countless spin-off projects) from its twin titans of terror ever since. Certainly the role left a lasting impression on the increasingly addled and drug-addicted Lugosi, who was never quite able to distance himself from the part that made him a star. He was buried, at his request, in his black vampire cape. --Robert Horton

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Product Details

Number Of Discs	1
Format	DVD PAL
Creator	Bram Stoker Dudley Murphy Garrett Fort Hamilton Deane John L. Balderston Louis Bromfield
Region Code	2
EAN	3259190324992
Directed By	Karl Freund,Tod Browning
Starring	Bela Lugosi,Helen Chandler,David Manners,Dwight Frye,Edward Van Sloan
Title	Dracula
Theatrical Release Date	1931-02-14
Original Release Date	1931-02-14

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Customer Reviews

Dracula

Review by Jose Lopez, 2010-05-28

The Real Original Dracula(as far as movies go) Bela Lugosi, The movie is a Masterpiece,While I prefer Frankenstein and more so Bride of Frankenstein to Dracula,there is no denying the ability of Bela to be the only true Dracula.

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Dracula 75th Anniversary Edition

Review by William D. Tipton, 2010-05-16

Excellent movie.
The box design and graphics are fantastic.
If you want the movie, this is the way to get it.

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Dracula meets Philip Glass!!!

Review by Alan Riva, 2010-02-16

I personally feel that the Philip Glass soundtrack is perfect for this film. The cast is great, the film is great, but by today's standards, the film by itself could seem a little slow, drawn out and overly melodramatic in some parts. Once again, that's from today's standards, and in many ways, this IS the definitive Dracula film...however...

The Philip Glass soundtrack beautifully weaves the whole film together in a hypnotic tapestry and brings much more power to it. In fact, if you just LISTEN to the movie, you will see how perfectly the dialogue and the music work together. The pacing is wonderful. The music also ties together the long, silent, sections. When the actors move, it sometimes appears as if it were choreographed to the score...like a ballet.

I think this was a BRILLIANT IDEA. I can appreciate the "purists" feelings etc., but I sure don't agree with them, and of course you can watch it without the score (as an option). I can now watch this movie over and over again, as the music makes it an audio as well as a video experience.

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Shoddy Packaging for Otherwise Superb Release

Review by Leif Sheppard, 2010-01-29

This review refers specifically to the 2-Disc 75th Anniversary edition of Dracula.

Clearly, this 1931 version of "Dracula" is the definitive version of the tale, yet to be surpassed going into 2010. The special features here are fantastic as well: a great tribute to Lugosi, a documentary on the making of the film, a great "Universal Horror" documentary, and the Spanish version of "Dracula". Considering how wonderful this release is, I simply had to award at least three solid stars. Still, those two crucial stars are lost on awfully kitschy, occasionally defective packaging. This probably won't be an issue for most, but any serious DVD collector should be aware of these packaging issues.

The discs are packaged in the "little golden book" packaging that is the norm for all titles in the Universal Legacy Series. It is essentially two plastic trays that connect into each other, held together by a folded piece of cardboard. The problem is that the glue isn't entirely effective, and the trays often detach from the cardboard. I've bought four titles in the Universal Legacy Series, and all but one have fallen apart in this manner. Granted, it's a reasonably simple enough task to reglue the sets, but this wouldn't be an issue at all if the studio would simply package them in standard DVD cases, or even those flimsy Eco-Box cases they're so fond of lately.

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UNDEAD!

Review by L. Noon, 2010-01-21

Classic Bela Lugosi. I loved the DVD. I own the majority of Bela Lugosi movies and sadly I hadnt had this one in my collection. I had scene the movie multiple times and know almost every word but had never actually BOUGHT it.
The quality of the dvd was good. I purchased it from a used seller because quite frankly I have no desire to spend a crap load of money on ANY DVD. It came in like new condition. Some people have complained about the soundtrack but I didn't even notice it.

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