carnivals, where he learned that anything apparently magical had a logical, backstage ex- planation—may be central to his film’s reticence to show as much as it implies. It is important to remember this because, if DRACULA can only be appreciated in terms of the horror films that came before, many of those films were by Browning and they all took a rational approach to horror; indeed, for many viewers, they are rational to a fault. So it was not, to my thinking, DRACULA’s intention to appear progressive but, rather, to resist progres- sion, to relate the Count not only to an historic past but to a past form of cinema. Bela Lugosi is rightly celebrated for his line readings, but in this film, rich in quotable dialogue, he is most formi- dable in those unforgettable moments when he says nothing.


Another misconception about the film, revealed to my mind as such by this restoration, is that Lugosi gives a “no-holds-barred” performance. With one notable exception (that unnerving mo- ment when he informs Renfield of having chartered a ship to take them to England which “will be leaaaaaavinnnnng.... tomorrrrow... eeeeeevenink”), Lugosi comports himself with admirable restraint, part of which is knowing precisely when to strike such eerie grace notes. Mind you, this is not a fault with the film nor with his performance, but—or so I suspect—a deliberate ploy. When Lugosi strikes these notes, it is always to disrupt the standard Thirties jolliness of his co-stars with opportunities to roll their eyes and broadly indulge in double- takes. As soon as Dracula approaches Dr. Seward (Herbert Bunston) in the opera box, we see Jonathan Harker (David Manners) and Mina Seward (Helen Chandler) exchanging looks that ask “Can you believe this guy?”—the same re- sponses evoked in more subterranean terms by Renfield (Dwight Frye) in the scenes of their first encounter, in which Frye does everything but break the fourth wall to invite the viewer into his creeped- out misgivings, or when Mina openly mocks Lugosi’s delivery when teasing Lucy’s (Frances Dade) romantic interest in the Count. All of this is a perfectly valid approach to delineation of the character since, as Van Helsing later notes, “The strength of the vampire is that people will not be- lieve in him.” (Likewise, the weakness of some people, like Lucy, is that they have an affinity with death, which makes them all the more attractive and susceptible to Dracula.) With this parallel in mind, Lugosi’s performance looks less uncon- trolled than adhering strictly to Browning’s direc- tion, which, to serve the material, required him to venture beyond the perimeters of the believable.


Lugosi’s manner evokes the unbelievable and the unnatural and also the Old World and its for- malities. All of these are mirrored in his adversary Van Helsing, played by van Sloan as adroit and Old Testament rigid, so confident in his old rug- ged cross that the viewer never once fears that the vampire (whom we never see asserting his authority by turning into a wolf or a bat or even climbing out of his coffin) might gain the upper hand. Dracula, strangely enough, is never graphi- cally portrayed as evil; he is shown as true to his unnatural nature but his appetites are fed off-cam- era. Lugosi portrays Dracula as a Valentino of the night, a gloating ghost whose eyes seem to be revelling in the details of holocausts only he can see, but the portrayal of his animal nature is kept subservient to his austerity—remarkable restraint in what is, after all, a precode film. This is why it seems, on reviewing, that the film would probably lose more of its terror without Dwight Frye than without Lugosi, because it is the purpose of Renfield to articulate and demonstrate what Dracula is free only to hint at. Browning’s DRACULA is presented with two al- ternate soundtracks, one presenting the almost music-free film with an original score by Philip Glass, performed by the Kronos Quartet and the other a French language track with a fuller uncredited mu- sic score. Viewable with English subtitles, the latter track (undated but evidently recorded closer to our time than the film’s original release) is a fascinating alternative way to experience the enduring power of cameraman Karl Freund’s visuals. The two audio commentaries included with previous DVD releases of this title are also reprised, one an authoritative and persuasive talk by HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC author and Tod Browning biographer David J. Skal and the other a friendly but not particularly necessary track by DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT screenwriter Steve Haberman. Also included on the disc: the re- turning documentary shorts “The Road To Dracula” (35m 4s) and “Lugosi: The Dark Prince” (36m 7s) and the new “Dracula: The Restoration” (8m 46s). According to DARK CARNIVAL, David J. Skal and Elias Savada’s biography of Tod Browning, the di- rector “suffered with” DRACULA following its 1957 sale to television, complaining that it wasn’t his ver- sion but “a thing put together and sold to television out of the scraps on the cutting room floor.” (p. 151) The most illustrative index to the extent of that inter- ference is offered by George Medford’s Spanish ver- sion, Drácula (103m 16s), which was shot simultaneously with Browning’s version on the same sets, from a translation of the same script, but dur- ing the night while the main production was at rest. It runs 30m longer than Browning’s film and shows


43


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84