Perhaps one's 90th anniversary isn't as momentous as one's 100th, but there's still good cause to celebrate, especially if it's Tod Browning's film adaptation of Dracula, starring the one and only Bela Lugosi.
Based on the popular play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, based on Bram Stoker's masterpiece novel, and produced by the canny Carl Laemelle, Dracula may have been headlined by any number of top actors of its day, but destiny dictated the role go to the hypnotic Hungarian who made his vampiric mark as the Count on stage. Horror cinema has never been quite the same and all for the macabre better.
Like the novel, Dracula is a dark, offbeat romance, which is why Universal Studios released it on Valentine's Day. Dracula also churns a surreal atmosphere (especially in its original, scoreless format), distinguishing itself from other Browning movies that roll at a much quicker clip. In addition, thanks to Karl (the Mummy) Freund's fantastic cinematography, the movie holds a comparable atmosphere to Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyre, Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead: a gripping, slow-burn document spooled from one's brain and imprinted on celluloid for the masses to examine.
Lugosi's cast mates complement the eerie flavor: Helen Chandler as Mina Harker; David Manners as Jonathan Harker; Francis Dade as Lucy Weston; Herbert Bunston as Dr. Seward; Dwight Frye as the poor, deranged Renfield; and Edward Van Sloan as the moral and wise Dr. Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula is iconic, historic, haunting and in every sinister way well played. Whether one watches it for the first or the ninetieth time, one can't pull one's eyes from it.
Watch Dracula this Valentine's Day. Add on Lambert Hillyer's Dracula's Daughter to make an extra-saucy double feature. The batty combination will surely season one's blood for any fanged night-roamer one wishes to invite.
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