Dracula-The Photograph Album

I basically updated my original Dracula (1931) post on 10/7/13 with a photograph album. This allows me to put a final stamp on one of my favorite horror films, concluding with images and accentuating visually with said images why I love Dracula.

Throwing together some thoughts about Dracula '31 which I covered exhaustively last year (will drop the link in time), there are specific moments that rise and shine every October.

The whole Renfield visiting Dracula Castle is just what makes my day. I love the little things. Like the giant spider web. Dracula walks right through it without touching the web, but Renfield has to use his cane to take it down so he could pass. The way Renfield gets to freaked out the way Dracula seems to look at him with a fiendish/lustful gaze (his blood, so fresh and red for consumption). I like the hilarious fear on the villagers of Transylvania before Renfield heads out to meet his destiny. The bat and spider are obvious props but the castle is a forgone relic dying away. Carfax Abbey in England mirrors it, but we get so little of it and at least the opening of Dracula '31 lets us take in Castle Dracula's decadent ruins. Whether you are of the number that finds Lugosi hammy, I just love watching him in Castle Dracula. This is his moment and gives it all that he has. Sure his Ygor is the shit, but I relish Lugosi's opening moments in Castle Dracula.

It kind of becomes tedium for many who watch this...the whole point that it is static and slows to a crawl and becomes talky. I'm not really in the mood to examine this, but I enjoy seeing Renfield, far gone and totally damaged thanks to Dracula's bite and control over him, interacting with Dr. Seward and Van Helsing (his back-and-forth with a male nurse of the sanitarium can be a bit silly, I will give the critics that), trying to allow the last bit of his humanity warn them of his master's plans for Mina.

I love Mina's talk with Harker about her dream of Dracula and Renfield's promise from his master of all the blood from rats he could ever desire. A great deal of Dracula's "orders" and scolding of Renfield is through thought than in direct voice-active conversation. It takes Renfield having to sell that to us, especially when Dracula peers up at him from the grounds or in the form of a bat.

I love Van Helsing's important confrontation with Dracula when the Count decides it's time to force his will and end this serious threat to the vampire's existence.  I also enjoy the angered reaction of Dracula when swiped that mirrored cigarette box from Van Helsing's hands. Van Helsing's reaction of, "I got you!" is really fun. I enjoy how Lugosi twists his face from fiend to civilized once he realizes that the wildman reaction is noticeable to Dr. Seward and Harker. Lugosi's performance is stage-like, but I think the part in '31 required a little extra oomph. How he slowly speaks in Hungarian-English always is a joy to my ears. Like when he says, "Tommmmorrrrrowww Eveeeening" to a baffled Renfield in the early Castle Dracula scene.

I like the subtle stuff I sometimes ponder like the hint that perhaps Renfield does feed from humans because Van Helsing points out that Dracula's servant escapes from his cell at times for hours. In one ridiculous moment even I can't defend has a maid fainting just because Renfield looks at her with a crazed expression and mad eyes (Nobody, and I mean NOBODY does mad and crazy like Dwight Frye), with him crawling towards her unconscious body as if an animal seizing upon its fallen prey. I also like the little scene where "The Lady in White", Lucy, is seen barely visible in the dark after feeding from a child she tricked into following her into the darkness of night. I enjoy the stiff sexual tension between Mina and her rather square beau Harker as Dracula attempts to inspire her to take a bite from him.

So the ending does seem like it has missing footage and goes rather abruptly without a bit of finesse, Van Helsing knows Dracula is vulnerable, the sun starting to rise, and can now take advantage. Mina and Harker embracing as the danger has been quelled kind of does indicate that all is well. So the ending doesn't necessary send me into the blahs as it does others.