Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931)

A flawed classic, Tod Browning's very loose adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula was his third sound film after an incredible run of silents in the '10s and '20s. The result is a mixed bag with several moments of genius, especially Bela Lugosi's scenes, and a constant tension between Browning's wonderfully perverse sensibility and the studio's corny blandness. Fortunately, the bad scenes are pretty forgettable and the great scenes are immortal.

Browning's Dracula takes many liberties with the source material, limiting the importance of some characters, abbreviating much of the plot, and making Renfield the character who visits Dracula's castle in the Carpathians instead of Jonathan Harker. None of these changes hurt the film much, except for Frances Dade's truncated scenes as Lucy. She has a real spark, and the film could have used a lot more of her, especially considering her importance in the novel.

The most egregious problem is the dullness of the characters of Harker (David Manners) and Mina (Helen Chandler), fascinating characters in the novel and in some of the other film adaptations. Chandler is reasonably competent in her scenes, but only shows a few flashes of personality and only really comes alive when she shares the screen with Dade. (Bette Davis was Browning's choice for the role, but studio head Carl Laemmle, Jr., didn't think she had enough sex appeal.) Manners as Harker is a milquetoast bore, a snooze who drags the film down whenever he's onscreen. It's strange to see such flat characters in a Browning film considering how most of his other work is full of memorably strange people, from the leads to the extras, but Browning didn't have final cut. Laemmle, the same genius who vetoed Bette Davis, said Browning's cut was too creepy and forced a re-edit. Browning has said of the final product that most of his best scenes were removed.

What we have left, and what has made this film endure, is Lugosi's iconic performance as Dracula, Dwight Frye's unsettling turn as Renfield, Karl Freund's wonderful cinematography, the gorgeously creepy set design, the underused but memorable shots of Dracula's brides, and Browning's weird personal touches (like having a couple armadillos roaming around Dracula's castle). I was also particularly fond of this line of dialogue: "Isn't this a strange conversation for men who aren't crazy?"

Dracula is not the triumph it could have been, but there are enough great scenes, images, lines, and performances to make it worthy of its classic status. Browning would go on to make three more horror films that better represented the strangeness and complexity of his point of view (Mark of the Vampire, Freaks, and The Devil-Doll), but Dracula is still very much worth visiting and revisiting. Except for that dork Harker. Catch you later.