Dracula

1931

Action / Drama / Fantasy / Horror

40
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 94% · 52 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 82% · 25K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.4/10 10 58353 58.4K

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Plot summary

British estate agent Renfield travels to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a castle in London and is, unbeknownst to Renfield, a vampire. After Dracula enslaves Renfield and drives him to insanity, the pair sail to London together, and as Dracula begins preying on London socialites, the two become the subject of study for a supernaturalist professor, Abraham Van Helsing.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
January 02, 2019 at 10:36 PM

Director

Top cast

Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula
Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing
Dwight Frye as Renfield
David Manners as John Harker
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
606.19 MB
978*720
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 15 min
Seeds 8
1.16 GB
1456*1072
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 15 min
Seeds 46

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Smells_Like_Cheese 9 / 10

Bela is king! Great Universal classic!

Thinking back to 1931, it's hard to imagine what going to the movie theater was like for people. It was something new and exciting; instead of having 6 movies open in one weekend, they were lucky if 6 movies opened in one month. Horror movies were nothing new in 1931, but one's with sound were and Universal Studios cranked out hit after hit after hit, one of the first being was Dracula. Not too many people realize that these films created exactly what we think of the typecast today with the most popular monsters. Dracula, if you've read the book, is nothing like what Bela created: the cape, the accent, the charm, the presence, the looks, etc. This was the first time we ever had a romantic Dracula, the silent film released before called Nosferatu was a monster, Bela created a Dracula that could charm you one second and the next he's draining the life out of you. Dracula is one of the most memorable movies of all time and it's not hard to see why when you watch it.

Renfield, a British solicitor, travels to the Carpathian Mountains. He enters a castle welcomed by charming but odd nobleman Count Dracula, who unbeknownst to Renfield, is a vampire. They discuss Dracula's intention to lease Carfax Abbey in London, where he intends to travel the next day. Dracula's three wives suddenly appear and start to move toward Renfield to attack him, but Dracula waves them away, and he attacks Renfield himself. Aboard the Vesta, bound for England, Renfield has now become a raving lunatic slave to Dracula, who is hidden in a coffin and gets out for feeding on the ship's crew. Some nights later at a London theater, Dracula meets Dr. Seward, who introduces his daughter Mina, her fiancé John Harker, and the family friend Lucy Weston. Lucy is fascinated by Count Dracula, and that night, after Lucy has a talk with Mina and falls asleep in bed, Dracula enters her room as a bat and feasts on her blood. She dies in an autopsy theater the next day after a string of transfusions, and two tiny marks on her throat are discovered. Later on Mina has the same bite marks and now the men call on Professor Van Helsing to take on Dracula and save Mina before she meets the same fate as Lucy.

Despite the fact that it might not be as terrifying as it was back in the day, you have to consider that this movie made people faint in the theater and gave them nightmares for years to come. The film does have flaws, Lucy dies and that's it, she never comes back which was interesting that Mina was becoming a vampire when bitten, but Lucy doesn't. However, the atmosphere of the film still holds up incredibly well, Dracula's castle has the perfect shadows and isolation that could send shivers down anyone's spine. Makes you wonder how the heck Renfield could stay in that place? I would've camped outside, especially when Dracula comes down and says in that creepy voice "I bid you welcome"; would you trust someone like that while looking at your neck like it was a Thanksgiving turkey leg? Bela gave a terrific performance that will be remembered for all time. But also much credit to Dwight Frye who plays Renfield and still has one of the most horrific images of all time when they open the door on the ship to see him laughing manically with his eyes wide open. Not to mention his scene with the maid where he's laughing at her, she faints and he crawls towards her. You know what? I lied; this is still a scary movie and I will continue to watch it every Halloween. Bela is king and made Dracula one of the most terrifying monsters in movie history.

9/10

Reviewed by bkoganbing 10 / 10

Stopping By Dracula's Castle on a Windy Evening

One kind of film that Universal Studios did better than any other was the Gothic horror story. Carl Laemmle practically took out a patent on those films. The sets were already on the lot, he just kept making Frankenstein, Wolfman, and Dracula films at minimal cost and they made money for Universal. In fact until Deanna Durbin started singing for this studio and Abbott&Costello brought over their vaudeville routines, these horror films were the bread butter of Universal Pictures.

Interestingly enough though Bela Lugosi only played the role of Count Dracula twice on film, he became so overwhelmingly identified with the part that Lugosi's whole life was taken over by the undead Count. He was buried in fact in his Dracula costume.

Lugosi however did portray the vampire Count on Broadway in a play adapted from the Bram Stoker novel three years before he did the screen version for Universal. It was on Broadway that Lugosi first got acclaim for Dracula. Carl Laemmle bought the screen rights to the play after seeing Lugosi on stage and just in time for sound. Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing and Herbert Bunston as Dr. Seward also came over from the Broadway cast.

Although Bela got his career role from this film, Edward Van Sloan as the vampire killer Van Helsing also got the role that people identify him with. Van Sloan practically duplicated his role in The Mummy which also became another series of horror films for Universal.

Oddly enough Lugosi himself killed the Universal horror genre by that second appearance as Count Dracula in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. When those mythic horror monsters became comic foils for Bud and Lou, the demand ceased for these kind of films. It only started again when British Hammer films revived the genre by making them far more explicit and bloody.

Still with that Hungarian accented voice of cultured menace, Bela Lugosi remains for purists the only real Dracula ever put on screen, Christopher Lee notwithstanding.

Like in The Mummy which I've also reviewed good use is made of themes by Tschaikovsky as background music by Director Tod Browning. But it's Bela Lugosi who makes this film a horror picture for the age.

Dracula will be still frightening viewers centuries from now. After all vampires are eternal.

Reviewed by MartinHafer 10 / 10

A slightly more sophisticated vampire than good 'ol Nosferatu!

This incarnation of Dracula is quite a bit different from the previous Dracula (NOSFERATU). In the previous film, the names were changed in a cheesy attempt to get past copyrights, but Dracula (called "Orlock") was much as he was described in Tod Browning's novel--and probably back in 1922 was the scariest version of Dracula to date. This 1931 Dracula isn't nearly as viscerally scary--gone are the rats climbing about his feet, the excessively long and pointy fingernails and the bat-like face. In its place is a pretty sophisticated and cultured Bela Lugosi. While not exactly a "sex symbol", but by comparison to Orlock, he was quite the stud! Lugosi's performance, with its heavy Hungarian accent, is wonderful and measured. However, I think the biggest star of the film is the wonderful cinematography--with gauzy filters and a delicate touch when the action moves to Britain. A great horror film sure to please everyone.

UPDATE: I just saw the restored version on TCM and was totally shocked at the cinematography. The film was simply gorgeous...one of the best films of the era simply from an artistic standpoint. So gorgeous that it really deserved a 10 (I had originally given it a 9).

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