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Dracula
Product Group: Video
Studio: Universal Studios
ISBN: B00000JPHE
EAN: 9780783236971
UPC: 096898486934
VHS Tape
Running Time: 75 minutes
Original Release Date: 1931-02-14
Theatrical Release Date: 1931-02-14
Release Date: 2001-08-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
SKU: 130460
Condition: Very Good
Comments: 096898486934 VHS tape plays perfectly. Label on tape is intact and fully legible. Sleeve shows only slightest signs of wear. Your tape will be carefully protected for transit in sturdy, weather-resistant packaging. We are prompt, efficient, communicative.
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com essential video
When Universal Pictures picked up the movie rights to a Broadway adaptation of Dracula, they felt secure in handing the property over to the sinister team of actor Lon Chaney and director Tod Browning. But Chaney died of cancer, and Universal hired the Hungarian who had scored a success in the stage play: Béla Lugosi. The resulting film launched both Lugosi's baroque career and the horror-movie cycle of the 1930s. It gets off to an atmospheric start, as we meet Count Dracula in his shadowy castle in Transylvania, superbly captured by the great cinematographer Karl Freund. Eventually Dracula and his blood-sucking devotee (Dwight Frye, in one of the cinema's truly mad performances) meet their match in a vampire-hunter called Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan). If the later sections of the film are undeniably stage bound and a tad creaky, Dracula nevertheless casts a spell, thanks to Lugosi's creepily lugubrious manner and the eerie silences of Browning's directing style. (After a mood-enhancing snippet of Swan Lake under the opening titles, there is no music in the film.) Frankenstein, which was released a few months later, confirmed the horror craze, and Universal has been making money (and countless spin-off projects) from its twin titans of terror ever since. Certainly the role left a lasting impression on the increasingly addled and drug-addicted Lugosi, who was never quite able to distance himself from the part that made him a star. He was buried, at his request, in his black vampire cape. --Robert Horton
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Customer Reviews
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2 Disc Anniversary Set You Can Sink Your Teeth Into!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-08-16
9 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
I've seen Dracula movies many a time in my day, but I tell ya, nothing like looking at the original! Pick this up! All subsequent Dracula films take their cue from Lugosi.
Universal Pictures made this 75th Anniversary edition, 2 DVD set perfect, that any horror fan/geek would love.
Lugos almost didn't get the part. It's all explained in this DVD. As you know the Stoker story very well, no need to detail it. What I didn't know is that it's loosely based on the Stoker novel. The majority of the film is based on the earlier Broadway screenplay. The letters and articles that Stoker wrote, in a diary style, were little used in the film. The film is in glorious black & white, too.
Other features:
Legend of the Dark Prince was an amazing mini biography of Bela Lugosi, typecast from the start, playing all kinds of madmen and freaks, never made it to the star quality of a Boris Karloff, but every script he was ever given, he played seriously, no matter how bad or crazy that script was.
When you turn on "Monster Tracks", all kinds of trivia pop up during the film, little tidbits, which I highly recommend you activate.
The feature commentaries are interesting but David J. Skal is a bit longwinded. I didn't listen to Steve Haberman's opinions. He's best known for the comedy script, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, a film that closely follows Bela Lugosi's film.
The talkies were still relatively new, so there was not a lot of music in this film - but I think the silence, the brooding and the horror of Dracula really came through on this outing. There is a score by Philip Glass that you can turn on during the DVD movie, but I kept it off. Too distracting.
Disc 2 has the same film, but with Spanish actors. Universal would film their star Lugosi in Dracula during the day, then, using the same sets, Carlos Villarias played Dracula nights. How appropriate. Intro by the gal who played Mina (Eva in the Spanish version), Lupita Tovar Kohner, who married the producer soon after production. She's hot in this film, lots of lace and low cut blouses in the Spanish version. Si, si. The production values in many ways were superior to the English version, but no one can match Bela Lugosi!
The trailers of that time, the posters and a general documentary of Universal horror pictures of the 1930s and 1940s tops the feature parade, nicely done but overly long, by Kenneth Branagh, with Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., and even an Abbott & Costello clip (with Bela Lugosi reprising his role).
Other films mentioned:
Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
Dracula (the Frank Langella version)
Plan 9 from Outer Space (Lugosi's last film, sadly).
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The blood is the life
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-08-11
19 out of 19 customers found this reveiw helpful
Back in 1931, the gloves came off. American cinema firmly grasps full-fledged horror and all the shadows that surround it. This is such a beautifully shot B&W classic that paved the way for the genre.
Watch The Count glide with commanding grace during his nocturnal exploits. Dark, spellbinding, and terrifying, Director Tod Browning does a masterful job. No graphic horror shots or cheap scares, we've got ATMOSPHERE. Something current horror films are sorely lacking.
Plus you can't forget about Bela. He's outstanding with his mannerisms and cultivated demeanor. And his cold smile and European accent? ICONIC!!
There are far worse things awaiting man than death.
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The Optional Philip Glass Soundtrack Finally Makes the Film Accessible,
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-16
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
There's always going to be a rift when you tamper with a classic film. That's why I think that both this Anniversary Edition and the Legacy Collection edition offer us such a rare opportunity, being able to watch the film with its original soundtrack or the new Philip Glass soundtrack, depending upon our preference. I was initially reluctant to watch with the new soundtrack, believing that classics should generally be left untouched. It was only after more than thirty minutes of viewing, when things were feeling thoroughly tedious, that I changed the soundtrack in utter desperation. What happened next utterly amazed me.
Suddenly, everything clicked and flowed beautifully. I began to discover that, all along, the film had possessed strong acting, rich, expressive shots and lighting, and a compelling story. All it had been missing was momentum. This 1931 film feels very uncomfortable with the concept of sound and, as a result, uses it poorly. Long spaces of silence and little action cause high points to feel jarred and unrelated. More than that, the film simply begins to feel boring. But Glass's soundtrack fixes all of this, bringing out the richness of tone, leveling out seemingly over the top and restrained acting alike, and adding a true sense of momentum and direction to scenes and cuts that formerly felt amorphous and, perhaps, arbitrary. Loyal fans of the film may argue that it was good enough for them to begin with. But, for someone like me, even with a strong affinity for silent and early talking films, "Dracula" shifted from utterly inaccessible to frightfully compelling with the push of a button.
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Listen to Them, the Children of the Night... What Music They Make
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-25
3 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
-This review pertains to the Dracula 75th Anniversary Edition DVD-
There have been many attempts to adapt Bram Stoker's 1897 novel into a film. In most cases the adaptations are unsuccessful for the primary reason that the novel is so convoluted in its narrative structure. Although most Dracula films are repetitive and formulaic, there are a handful that have stood the test of time. The film that most people remember is Tod Browning's 1931 masterpiece starring Hungarian expatriate Béla Lugosi. Browning had been one of the premier American filmmakers in the `20s. His most famous films, other than Dracula, are those that he made with Lon Chaney, Sr. Browning had a fascination with gothic imagery, macabre subject matter and suspenseful minimalist storytelling, which made him the perfect director for a filmed version of Dracula. The film, though in sound, feels like earlier silent expressionist movies most of which were made in Europe.
As for Béla Lugosi, he has become the most iconic performer to ever play the undead Count. He'll forever be associated with this role, in part because unlike the repulsive old man in Stoker's novel Béla was attractive and he played the part of Dracula as though he were a sex symbol. He brought to the character an air of sophistication and an implied perversion, which later were adopted as characteristics in most portrayals of Dracula. Another reason for Béla's longevity is his accent (ironically, the very thing that limited his success as an actor). His heavy Eastern European accent (in Stoker's novel Dracula speaks fluent English and has no trace of an accent) helped to make his performance feel more authentic and even made the fact that Dracula was a vampire more plausible. Other notable cast members include Dwight Frye who is perhaps the best Renfield the screen has ever known and Edward van Sloan who plays Professor Van Helsing to near perfection.
The screenplay was written by Garrett Fort and rather than basing it solely upon Stoker's book, he chose to use the stage play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston for his inspiration. This is why some fans of the novel consider the film to be a travesty. However, the fact that the film Dracula isn't faithful to its literary source material is somewhat irrelevant. The film remains a true classic.
The story begins when real estate agent Renfield travels to Transylvania where he is to meet the reclusive Count Dracula. Upon his arrival, the locals repeatedly warn him that Castle Dracula is a home to vampires, but Renfield disregards these warnings as superstitious ramblings. A dark and mysterious coachman takes him to the castle and then vanishes, leaving him in the courtyard. When Renfield meets the Count for the first time, he is visibly unnerved by his pale and malevolent appearance. Renfield and Dracula sort out the necessary paperwork, for Dracula intends to buy a house in London, but then Dracula reveals himself. Using his vampiric powers he makes Renfield his slave. Together they journey to London on a ship, all the while Dracula feeds on the ship's crew. Then they arrive in London. Before long Dracula has infiltrated the London social scene, where he feeds off of beautiful, aristocratic, young women. But when a Professor Van Helsing uncovers the truth about Dracula he becomes London's only defense from this parasitic intruder. Van Helsing carries out a counterattack against the vampire Count while the lives of all Londoners hang in the balance.
The DVD includes two audio commentaries, an optional score by Philip Glass, three excellent documentaries, an informative trivia track, a poster montage, a theatrical trailer and the Spanish Version of Dracula.
For those interested in learning more about the fictional Count Dracula, the historical Vlad the Impaler or the making of this film, I recommend the following books:
The Essential Dracula
In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires
Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times
The Vampire Film: From Nosferatu to Bram Stoker's Dracula
Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen
Dracula - The Legacy Collection
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should have been better
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-02-01
2 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
The 75th anniversary edition of this horror classic really disappointed me. While it's true that the picture is crisp and sharper than earlier editions its too bright and the sound is disgraceful the famous monsters edition had much better audio I think universal needs to go back to the drawing board on this one If you have a previous edition dont waste your money on this one!
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