Dracula (1931) - Meet the Vampire One Last Time at Borgo Pass on the Blog from the Darkside!

“Dracula” (1931) is indeed one of my true favorites, as I have often mentioned on the blog over the years, particularly in October. Since I was doing the “It’s October the whole year of 2020” series, focusing one last time on the favorites so I can dedicate the blog going forward to newer content, and I didn’t plan on focusing at all on the Universal Monsters series until mid-year but it’s a rain dump down here where I live in the United States, and a good Gothic Horror staple felt right. So I cut the lights off, popped in my Legacy Collection DVD of the film, and gave over the late afternoon to Lugosi’s Transylvanian Count for the one and only time this year. I have no idea what I’ll be watching in October later in the year, because so much of the month is often congested (that’s a bad word for films I wholly love, but seems fitting considering how much fatigue I have because I try to get so many of them in 31 days, by the end so tired on the genre the thrill is gone and obligation seems to replace that initial excitement at the beginning) with the films I am watching throughout this 2020. But I love knowing that I will be able to watch the films without the pressure of getting the viewings in “in time”. When watching the great iconic classics feels more like a chore than rewarding, the purpose of why October is beloved gets lost due to the aforementioned fatigue.

I’m sure I will be covering familiar ground again, but that’s okay. For the blog, this ground I am treading will be the end. Put a ribbon on this, feeling like I have very little else by the end left to say.

Carla Laemmle, as the carriage passenger in “Dracula”, hung around for 104 years. I was really bummed out when I read of her passing because I always thought it was cool that we still had someone alive from the 1931 Universal Classic with us. She was the last remaining cast member of that shoot surviving. Her uncle started Universal Pictures, for which I’m forever grateful. And she had the very first lines in the film. That carriage, hurriedly banging about the bumpy road to the Hungarian village before the sun sets, shakes Carla about as she reads of Transylvania to a rather nervous bunch in attendance. Renfield had no idea just why it was important for the carriage to get to the village, not persuaded by the “superstitious” innkeeper and farmer and his concerned wife (who convinces him to at least wear a crucifix around his neck “for his mother’s sake”) to wait until morning, startling them when he declares a planned rendezvous at Borgo Pass to meet Count Dracula. When the name Dracula is mentioned in this village, gasps and widened eyes are always the result. Probably with a Hail Mary to go with them. Laemmle’s time on screen was quite short…but how historic! When she passed in 2014, I remember just this grieving sigh of disappointment. Maybe I just love how romantic it is to know someone was still around considering that golden age of horror didn’t have very many left.

Some [rightful] criticism perhaps can be softballed towards Browning’s direction, a sense of static disinterest, lack of inspired style, and general apathy, but that opening appearance of Dracula, as I have mentioned time and again, just gets me right in the Gothic feels, man. I was eating some cereal (yes, in the afternoon, please forgive) when that scene happens and my mouth was agape with those same goose pimples just giving me the right proper chills as Lugosi appears for the first time. Like that moment when you know that this is a special moment in movie history that has a time and place and yet is eternal. “Frankenstein” (1931) does that, as does “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935), and later for me when Chaney’s Wolf Man carouses the dark woods with his fiendish lust to tear into something or somebody. Lugosi doesn’t speak, just looks right at us, the camera telling us that he is quite dangerous. His brides in their coffins in that basement, Lugosi’s “night critters” scattered about, just at home as the cob webs, castle debris, and relics from a bygone era, a countryside bled damn near dry, as Dracula seems to have nothing left to live in Transylvania for…so he plans for new digs, new environs, new, fresh bodies to bleed and feed.

So I have watched “Van Helsing” (1999) only once but I’m especially grateful, not for this movie at all but for the attention returned to the Universal Monster films and the Legacy sets that were produced because of marketing for it. Also there was a special score produced for “Dracula” by the Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass that I can imagine watching the film without now, particularly with how they do the lead vampire and Lugosi such justice. And later when Dracula confronts Van Helsing—this is sooooo my jam!—realizing that despite being human his will is impressively strong enough to resist his dark drawing, the score really heightens this magnificently, giving it a grandeur I appreciate as a fan of the film. But nothing compares to me as when Dracula is introduced with his first words inside the castle on the gigantic stairwell as a nervous Renfield enters when the creaky front door (everything in Dracula’s Transylvanian castle looms large, including the candelabra and fireplace in an upper floor room, with this big dinner table set for Renfield) calls to him. The score leads us to this masterful Lugosi, never in finer form, larger than life and owning the Dracula character as none other, bidding Renfield hello in an ominous fashion, a smile that might appear warm but hides a sinister intent the real estate agent couldn’t possible have prepared for. I love that moment (I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I can’t help but feel it bears repeating…) when Dracula moves through the cobwebs while Renfield has to cane a hole into them to pass to the “more inviting, cheerful” upper chamber room. And despite showing his face, Dracula was unrecognizable to Renfield when he met the carriage to the Count’s castle at Borgo Pass, later in the form of a bat guiding the horses…just all these inspired moments that really are the reason, truth be told, I love the film so much. I admittedly hold this film in such favor for the opening before London, and Dracula’s scenes with Van Helsing. My all-time favorite horror scene is Dracula in his Transylvanian Castle…the reason Gothic horror is my favorite subgenre. The “children of the night” and “spider spinning the web…” lines and how Lugosi deliciously delivers them…it holds a special place in my heart. I think why I love the man, and why my heart always hurts when I see his interview leaving the rehab due to his addictions ready to restart his career, is that you see all the promise and it is a grim reminder that no matter how bright the star the industry can strip you of all the mystique and greatness until you have nothing left but a name on a marquee in an Ed Wood picture that many laugh at. And I respect this icon too much…I just can’t watch, for instance, “Bride of the Monster” without hurting inside. He deserved better than what ultimately happened to him. But if you love Lugosi like I do, we have some great films and performances in the 30s to treasure regardless.