Dracula '31

I am Dracula.

You have often read or seen or heard how certain movies were responsible for seducing fans into the horror genre. Dracula was one of those movies that was of such specialty for yours truly. Gothic horror is my favorite subgenre, and one of the very reasons that is: Dracula. I understand loud and clear the criticisms. It has those long stretches of talky stagy static scenes. It cannot quite live up the opening minutes of Dracula's castle. It has a ton of exposition where an unflappable Van Helsing tells us everything we need or ever want to know about vampires. How everything slows to a crawl when Mina has been "marked" to be Dracula's next undead bride, how her fiance John (David Manners) thinks Van Helsing's ramblings about vampires is bogus, how Renfield somehow continues to get out of his asylum cell and intrude upon conversations between Dr. Seward, John, and Van Helsing: all of this I have read used against the movie.

Perhaps right, but I have never been bothered by anything the movie produces except maybe how boring Manners is as the matinee idol vanilla love for Dracula's desired conquest, Mina. I do find him funny when responding with aggravating frustration when Van Helsing questions Mina of matters regarding possible vampirism. I'm the first to admit that it is the opening minutes that thrill me the most. The underground dungeon of Castle Dracula, the entrance where we see Dracula for the first time on the stairwell, Renfield sits at dinner, cuts his finger, gets weirded out by Dracula's staring at him as if he were on the menu, goes to the open window where a bat appears, falls in a heap as the undead trio of brides closes in as they are shooed away by their vampiric Master, and the Vesta schooner's docking as a demented-looking Renfield, with an unnerving fiendish laugh that tells the local dockworkers of his presence. But, for me, the movie doesn't quit entertaining while it seems to leave many a bit disappointed once Dracula walks the streets of London, dressed to the nines, on his way to meeting the film's remaining principles.

I bid you welcome.

Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.

This was a man who commanded an army, awakening from a casket, his castle only "inviting" in one room, that room prepared by Dracula to set Renfield at ease before making him an undead servant to do his will. His presence keeps those in the nearby village in their locked homes at night, ill at ease, nervous, mortified, saying their prayers, and positively aware what "lives" up through the Borgo Pass of the Carpathian Mtns in Transylvania, warning anyone who'd listen that only horror awaits at Castle Dracula. We know and the villagers know that Renfield's doomed. Then we get a look inside the crumbling castle, its cob-webbed ruins, centuries of age welcoming decay and creepy critters, Dracula now ready to make his abode elsewhere.

The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly. The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield.

The strange introduction between Dracula and Renfield is probably one of three of my favorite scenes. It is always the little things. When he passes through the giant spider web. And then Renfield has to use the cane. This bit of subtlety is what I love. It is a small detail that gives us an idea of who, or better what, Dracula is. Like the little touch just previous to the introduction with the bat guiding the horses as they carriage Renfield to Dracula's castle. The creaking door opening on its own. Ever notice the opening door as Dracula carries away Renfield's coat and umbrella?

It's just a scratch.

I always got a kick at how immediate Dracula responds to Renfield's cut finger; Browning loves the face shot of Dracula, brief moments where the vampire and his blood lust are established in their importance to the character.

Aren't you drinking?
I never drink wine.

I think fate plays a major role in the opening sequence of events because Renfield, despite the warnings, without assistance, all alone, undeterred in doing the job, is in a world alien to him, in the spider web of the predator.

Why, he's mad....look at his eyes. He's gone crazy.

The shadow of the dead captain tied to the wheel of his Scandinavian ship, the Vesta that brought Dracula and the deranged giggling of a mad Renfield who yearns for the blood of "puny things". What a wonderfully over the top character. There have been so many imitators, but Renfield was the first truly entertaining lunatic. That scene where he's sorrowful, yearning for blood, stuck in his cell, it's just dark enough for his eyes to seem a little extra white, and there's this devious smile when Renfield realizes his Master is near.

The walls around are bare, echoing to our laughter as though the dead were there.

Dracula is barely in London no time before he's already feasting from the throat of a flower girl merchanting on the street with a basket. It's a small meal to keep him nourished. His sights are set for the London symphony. Dr. Seward runs a sanitarium housing his slave, Renfield, a daffy young man once perfectly normal and sane, now at the mercy of a blood lust for small animals. What humanity remains tries to warn others of Dracula's designs on Mina.

To die, to be really dead, that must be glorious. There are far worse things...awaiting man...than death.

I love how the aristocratic squares, Mina and John, respond to Dracula, obviously a bit too dark and foreboding while their pal, Lucy, finds him appealing. It's that idea that there's an interest in a different kind of "gentleman", someone who chooses his words wisely and carefully, and carries an aura of mystery that is a bit  too ominous to the glamorous kids.

He probably wants his flies again!

Renfield is a character often mocked for his devouring of flies and spiders, but there's a mentioning that he disappears for long periods. I consider this rather fascinating; when he later crawls towards the fainted maidservant of Seward's while the others are away, it hints that he doesn't stop at just insects and arachnids.

Gentlemen, we are dealing with the undead.

...the superstition of yesterday will become the scientific reality of today..

Van Helsing has a lot of dialogue. He attempts to be the voice of reason. How he knows everything there is to know about vampires is explained in that Van Helsing has studied all over the world, learn of the occult, made it his passion to gain an understanding of subjects most normals haven't the foggiest notion about. How anyone takes him seriously seems rooted in his reputation with scientists and scholars. His knowledge in science, medicine, and all things arcane and esoteric gives his opinion merit and respect.

Bad dreams.
 
We know why the wolves talk, do we not Mr. Renfield? And we know how to make them stop.

I enjoy how Van Helsing and Renfield work off each other in scenes; many consider all of this tiresome and lengthy, snailing the pace into a lull. But I just like seeing how the prof knows what he's up against and his attempts to draw them out from the ole flyeater has always been fun to me.

And when the dream came, it seemed the whole room was filled with mist. It was so thick...I could just see the lamp by the bed. A tiny spark in the fog. And then I saw two red eyes staring at me...and a white, livid face came down out of the mist. It came closer...and closer.. I felt the breath on my face, and then its lips...

We always see Dracula as a predator. He hides under the guise of sophistication and affluence, but it all allows him to maneuver through society, choosing his target, eyeing his prize, and taking a bite.
"What could have caused them, Professor?" Then, immediately, "Count Dracula!" is announced as arrived. I always thought this was a great touch. The goods are delivered here. Van Helsing sees no cast reflection of Dracula in the mirror of an open cigarette box. Van Helsing lets Dracula know he knows by letting him look into the mirror, as the Count ferociously knocks it out of the professor's hands. His expression of anger as it dissolves into a smirk as he addresses Van Helsing, acknowledging his new foe by saying:

For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man, Van Helsing.

Your will is strong...Van Helsing.

Seeing Van Helsing withstand Dracula's seemingly inpenetrenable mental power is another of the film's moments I consider a thrill. It proves just how worthy an adversary Van Helsing is and what kind of superior intellect he actually has. Dracula played one of his cards, normally successful when he draws it on the weaker minded, and was unsuccessful. Dracula has the sunlight against him and perhaps dooms himself further when carrying Mina with him to the ruins of his newly acquired abbey.

The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him.
 
God will not damn a lunatic soul.
 
But this horror...he wills it.
 
Isn't this a strange conversation for men who are not crazy?

Poor Renfield. His fate is sealed the moment he decides to meet Dracula's coach at Borgo Pass. He just wishes to follow his master and is disposed of because he tips Van Helsing off to the location of Dracula's resting place. That long stairway in Carfax Abbey, director Browning shooting it from a distance is quite a sight, as is Renfield's body shambling down them.

A red mist spread over the lawn, coming on like a flame of fire. And then he parted it. And I could see that there were thousands of rats, with their eyes blazing red. Like his, only smaller. And then he held up his hand and they all stopped. And I thought he seemed to be saying, "Rats. Rats. Rats! Thousands, millions of them. All red blood, all these will I give you if you obey."

Dwight Frye really gets into the part, doesn't he? He really plays it to the hilt. His face, speech, eyes, just relinquishing the words with a crazed articulation. He's about as iconic as Lugosi's vampire count and Van Helsing's wise prof.

The ending is considered by some to be a bit abrupt, not quite as satisfying as it could have been. The staking of Dracula is completed, Mina saved and in the arms of John, her beau, Van Helsing urging them to leave the premises as he cleans up. It ends. It doesn't bother me, although, I can see why there'd be a desire for the final confrontation to be more dramatic and overpowering. I'm not unfulfilled by the ending, although Dracula's demise is a bit too easy for Van Helsing. It gives the audience what they want...the scary count is dead, the young couple free to live out their lives together, and Van Helsing has saved the day.

The Kronos Quartet with Phillip Glass at the helm performed for the movie, special, and this is the only way I watch it now. I think their work layers it with an accompaniment of power that only builds scenes like Van Helsing's resistance of Dracula or when we see Dracula in the dungeon of his castle. That's what music can do due deter the static, the sluggish feel that seems to be one of the film's most vocal critiques.

This film will always have a fondness that keeps me returning to it warmly, with open arms and heart. Lugosi's place in my joy of this beloved horror genre is sound, especially because of his contribution with this character and Ygor a little later on. Many actors never have one role that defines their place in cinema: Lugosi has Dracula, The Black Cat, Son of Frankenstein, and White Zombie. Not a bad career even if it was book-ended by Ed Wood.