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Rating: ***
Genre: Classic Vampire Horror Review #: 9 MPAA: NR (Should be G) Cast: Béla Lugosi...Count Dracula Helen Chandler...Mina Seward David Manners...Jonathan Harker Dwight Frye...Renfield Edward Van Sloan...Professor Van Helsing Herbert Bunston...Doctor Seward Frances Dade...Lucy Weston Joan Standing...Maid Charles K. Gerard...Martin Nicholas Bela...Coach Passenger Daisy Belmore...Coach Passenger Tod Browning...Harbor Master Moon Carrol...Briggs, a Nurse Carla Laemmle...Young Girl Passenger Donald Murphy (I)...Coach Passenger Josephine Velez...Grace, English Nurse Michael Visaroff...Innkeeper |
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Review:
The mother of all movies! This movie kicks some serious ass. It was made in 1931, and that is part of it's strength. It's usually very difficult to review classics like this, but this movie has so many strengths that it will be a piece of cake. It's written unlike any movies made since. Here's the plot The movie opens with a young buisinessman visiting Transylvania to visit a rich client who is planning on buying a castle in England. This client is Count Dracula, and the buisinessman, named Renfield, can't find any local villiagers willing to drive him up to the castle. When he finally reaches the castle, he meets Dracula, who signes the contract, and then manages to hypnotize Renfield somehow. When Renfield finally makes it back to England, he is changed. He now is obsessed with the idea of catching small rodents and insects, to such their life fluids. He is at once put in an insane asylum, but manages to break out every night. |
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When Count Dracula moves into the neighborhood, he causes quite a stir.
He's especially popular with John Harker and his Fiance Mina. Their friend,
Professor Van Helsing, realizes that there is something amiss with the
new neighbor, and realizes just what it is when he discovers that Dracula
doesn't have a reflection. Unfortunatly, by that time, Dracula's set his
eyes one the lovely Mina.
This movie is a true classic, and not like 2001, which is called a classic, but really sucks. Dracula is a cinematic masterpiece, full of great performances by very memorable characters, like Dracula. Oddly enough, people always hear about Lugosi's Dracula, but all of the people in the movie rule. The standout has to be Renfield, who's obsession with sucking the blood of animals comes from the fact that he doesn't want to be responsible for killing a human. |
| There are also an exceptional ammount of very well executed scenes. One comes right at the beginning, when Renfield gets a papercut in the prescence of the Count. Dracula gazes at the wound hungrily, and gets a look of pure desire as Renfield puts his finger in his mouth and licks off the blood. The only quibble that I have with the movie is the ending. It is a bit of a disappointment. The ending sequences build and build into a high-speed chase scene in which Harker and Professor Van Helsing race to Dracula's castle before Dracula can suck Mina's blood, but then the movie ends. It is wrapped up, but the energy created my the chase just diffuses into nothing. It's one of those "Ok I just killed the bad guy in his sleep offscreen while you weren't looking, let's go home" endings. Everyone should see this movie, which shaped the modern view of vampires, and has been ripped off countless times. Go get it! |
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