DRACULA - 1931 - TRAILER

Dracula is a classic 1931 horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn is based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. On Walpurgisnacht, Renfield (Dwight Frye) goes to the Borgo Pass where he is met by Count Dracula's coach. The next day, Renfield and Dracula (Bela Lugosi) take 'the Vesta' to England. Ship arrives in Whitby harbor in a storm, captain lashed to boat, everyone dead, Renfield mad. Renfield is taken to Dr Jack Seward (Herbert Bunston)'s sanitarium near London. Newspaper clipping notes Renfield's strange desire to eat small living things. Dracula arrives in London. He goes to a play where he is introduced to Dr Seward, daughter Mina (Helen Chandler), Lucy Weston (Frances Dade) and John Harker (David Manners). Dracula announces he has taken Carfax Abbey which adjoins the Sanitarium. Shortly thereafter, Lucy dies of blood loss. Professor Van Helsing (rrives to examine her. At the same time, Dracula visits, and Van Helsing notes no reflection in mirror. While Van Helsing, Seward and Harker discuss vampires, Dracula summons Mina outside. She is found fainted on the lawn. When the film finally premiered on Valentine's Day 1931, newspapers reported that members of the audiences fainted in shock at the horror onscreen. This publicity, shrewdly orchestrated by the film studio, helped ensure people came to see the film, if for no other reason than curiosity. Dracula was a big gamble for a major Hollywood studio to undertake. In spite of the literary credentials of the source material, it was uncertain if an American audience was prepared for a serious full length supernatural chiller. Though America had been exposed to other chillers before, such as The Cat and the Canary, this was a horror story with no comic relief or trick ending that downplayed the supernatural....