Dracula (1931)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1931
Running Times: 75m
Length:
Format: 35mm
Colour Format: black and white
Ratio:
Sound: mono

DIRECTION

Directed by: Tod Browning

PRODUCTION
Copyright: MCMXXXI [1931] by Universal Pictures Corporation
Production Company: Carl Laemmle presents a Tod Browning production  It's a Universal picture
Produced by: Carl Laemmle Jr
Associate Producer: E.M. Asher

SCRIPT
Play Script: Garrett Fort, Tod Browning (uncredited)
Adaption: Louis Stevens (uncredited)
Scenario Supervisor: Charles A. Logue (uncredited)
Treatments: Frederick Stephani (uncredited), Louis Bromfield (uncredited)
Additional Dialogue: Dudley Murphy (uncredited)
By: Bram Stoker
From the Play Adapted by: Hamilton Deane & John L. Balderston

DIRECTION
Continuity: Louis Bromfield (uncredited), Dudley Murphy (uncredited)

PHOTOGRAPHY
Cinematographer: Karl Freund

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Supervising Film Editor: Maurice Pivar
Film Editor: Milton Carruth

MUSIC
Music: Franz Schubert (from Symphony no.8 - uncredited); Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (from Swan Lake -uncredited); Richard Wagner (uncredited); Philip Glass (new score for 1999 re-issue)
Conductor: Heinz Roemheld (uncredited)

SOUND
Recording Supervision: C. Roy Hunter
Western Electric Sound System

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Costumes: Ed Ware (uncredited), Vera West (uncredited)
Make Up: Jack P. Pierce (uncredited)

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Photographic Effects: Frank H. Booth (uncredited)
Miniatures: William Davidson (uncredited)

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Charles D. Hall
Set Designers: Herman Rosse, John Hoffman (uncredited)
Set Decorator: Russell A. Gausman (uncredited)
Title Art: Max Cohen (uncredited)

OTHER CREW
Researcher: Nan Grant (uncredited)

LOCATIONS
Locations: Los Angeles, California, USA

CASTING
Casting: Phil M. Friedman (uncredited)

CAST

Bela Lugosi (Count Dracula)
Helen Chandler (Mina Seward)
David Manners (John Harker)
Dwight Frye (Renfield)
Edward Van Sloan (Professor Van Helsing)
Herbert Bunston (Dr Seward)
Frances Dade (Lucy Weston)
Joan Standing (maid)
Charles Gerrard (Martin)

UNCREDITED CAST

Moon Carroll (maid)
Josephine Velez (English nurse)
Michael Visaroff (innkeeper)
Daisy Belmore (English coach passenger)
Nicholas Bela (Transylvanian passenger)
Carla Laemmle (girl passenger)
Donald Murphy (passenger)
Tod Browning (voice of harbour master)
Anna Bakacs (innkeeper's daughter)
Geraldine Dvorak, Dorothy Tree (Dracula's wives)

PLOT SUMMARY

When estate agent John Harker visits the Count Dracula at his castle in Transylvania, he sets in motion a tragic series of events that brings the undead Dracula to England and in conflict with vampire expert Professor Van Helsing.

This adaptation of the popular stage play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston never escapes its stage roots and creaks along arthritically under the lumbering direction of Tod Browning. For many, Lugosi remains the definitive screen Dracula, but he's just too stodgy and mannered to be truly frightening - he would do much better work in the genre later. This certainly isn't the classic it's often claimed to be. (Full Review)

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Universal

USA
Theatrical Distributors: Universal Pictures; Realart Pictures Inc
Video/Laserdisc Distributor: MCA

Australia
Rating: PG

USA
Rating: unrated

1930
September
29: Production begins

October
10: Filming starts

November
8: Filming ends

1931
February
12: USA - theatrical release, New York City
14: USA - theatrical release

1974
February
8: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1977
July
2: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1983
July
9: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1986
January
11: UK - television broadcast (on Channel Four)

1996
October
28: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1998
March
4: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1999
January
5: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

Drácula - Spanish title
Drakula - Hungarian title
Ksiaze Dracula - Polish title

The story of the strangest passion the world has ever known!

The Vampire Thriller

SEQUELS
Dracula's Daughter (1936)
House of Dracula (1945)
House of Frankenstein (1944)
Son of Dracula (1943)

ALTERNATE LANGUAGE VERSION
Drácula (1931)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
100 Years of Horror (1996)
American Nightmare, The (2000)
Coming Soon (1982)
Heartstoppers: Horror at the Movies (1992)
Innocent Blood (1992)
Many Faces of Christopher Lee, The (1996)
Road to Dracula, The (1999)
Universal Horror (1998)

PERIODICALS

Dark Side April 1993 p.44 (UK)
review

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991-1992 p.112
credits, review

Hollywood Gothic: The tangled web of Dracula from novel to stage to screen
article (by David J. Skal)

Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide pp.16-17
illustrated credits, review (by Stephen Jones)

Universal Horrors
article (by Michael Brunas, John Brunas and Tom Weaver)

abbeys, bats, book into film, castles, dracula, scientists, ships, shipwrecks, vampires

Last Updated: 27 April, 2010