Dracula (1931) on Netflix
A solicitor named Renfield travels to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula, who wants to lease Carfax Abbey in England. The villagers fear vampires and warn him away.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.3/1065,461 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Renfield is a solicitor who travels to Transylvania on business to see Count Dracula at his castle. The villagers believe vampires live in the place and warn him not to go, but he refuses the inn and has his driver carry him on to the Borgo Pass. The Count's own coach, with the Count disguised at the reins, brings him the rest of the way. His host, charming and eccentric, receives him and explains that he intends to lease Carfax Abbey in England and set out for it the following day. The Count drugs and hypnotizes his guest into opening a window; a bat appears, Renfield faints, and the Count's three wives close in on him before their master waves them off.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dracula (1931)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bela Lugosi, who had played Dracula on Broadway, lobbied hard and won over the studio executives against the tide of opinion, taking a paltry $500 a week for seven weeks, $3,500 in all.
- Dracula proved both a blessing and a curse for Bela Lugosi: despite earlier stage successes in a variety of roles, the moment he donned the cape on screen typecast him forever as the Count.
- The shoot was, by numerous accounts, a disorganized affair: the usually meticulous Tod Browning left cinematographer Karl Freund to take over much of it, making Freund something of an uncredited director.
- A rare "Style A" poster for the film, one of only two known copies, sold at auction in December 2017 for $525,000, a new world record for the most expensive film poster.
- The film and the Deane-Balderston stage play introduced Dracula's now familiar entrances through French doors and windows and his satin-lined cape, and stressed his transformation into a bat, unlike Stoker's repulsive novel Dracula.
- The line "I never drink ... wine" was written for this film; it appears in neither Stoker's novel nor the original stage production and was added to the play's script for its 1977 Broadway revival with Frank Langella.
- While Tod Browning filmed by day, George Melford used the same sets at night to shoot the Spanish-language Dracula, with Carlos Villarías as Conde Drácula.
- The storm scenes of the crew struggling aboard ship were lifted from a Universal silent film, The Storm Breaker; shot at silent projection speed, they look jerky and sped up when run at sound speed.
