The problem writing about Dracula, the 1931 Universal movie directed by Tod Browning, is that there's so much written about it already- in fact, David Skal's Hollywood Gothic is the book on the subject.
So I'm not going to try and go over any of it again- I'll just bring to the table what I can.
I've probably seen Dracula over a dozen or so times- I've got copies of both the Legacy Collection and the seventy-fifth anniversary edition. The anniversary edition pretty much duplicates the contents of the Legacy collection- which has expert commentary by Skal as one of it's features- with the addition of commentary by Stephen Haber, scriptwriter of Dracula: Dead and Loving It, which adds nothing to the overall package.
What I like about Browning's Dracula is how quiet it is. Once you've seen it enough to appreciate it as a classic Hollywood film, it's almost hypnotic in its quiet. The absence of a score is part of it, but there are many scenes where things are communicated through a glance or a shift of posture.
Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't say something about Bela Lugosi as Dracula. He's smooth.
Seductive. He sets the bar for any actor playing that character so high, even he couldn't meet it- reprising the role only one more time in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Well, playing the role of Dracula only one more time.
He played the Vampire several times, including Count Mora in Mark of the Vampire and Armand Tesla in The Return of the Vampire.
Sad, how he got trapped in his own success.
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