Talk:Dracula (1931 English-language film)

message: This page was moved from "Dracula (1931 movie)" to "Dracula (1931 film)" as per the naming convention set out at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (films) – Ianblair23 (talk) 11:39, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Page move

message: The now-iconic depiction of Dracula with the widows peak and slicked back, black hair and the high collar is very similar to how Mephisto appears in the German silent film Faust (1926), by F. W. Murnau (beginning with the scene where he gives Faust his youth).  Is this anywhere cited as an influence on Dracula, or were these features already internationally common in depictions of evil characters by then?  Postdlf 00:43, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Commentaries in the bonus section of the DVD release mention Dracula's appearance to have been changed by the playwrights, having in mind the typical vaudeville magician of the 1920s.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.180.109.163 (talk) 12:37, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Appearance of Dracula

message: Why is there no summary of the story? It differs slightly from the novel, so naturally I would assume there'd be a summary. --St jimmy86 17:05, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Summary?

message: It is mentioned in the movie that Dracula changes into a wolf. In the scene after Van Helsing confronts him with the mirror, Dracula goes out of the room to the balcony. Jonathan Harker looks out and remarks about a big black dog bounding across the yard. WerewolfSatanist 18:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Dracula's Transformations 

message: Is it really advisable to have two plot sections, one summarized and one detailed? This seems rather needless! Isn't one enough? Dutzi (talk) 21:54, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Two plot sections (summary vs detailed)

message: ...children of the night. What music they make. --62.216.118.84 (talk) 14:10, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Listen to them... 

message: van Sloan's adress to the audience is featured in the bonus material of the dvd release. It is of rather poor quality, maybe that is the reason for not being included in the restored movie.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.180.109.163 (talk) 12:25, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: censorship

message: I was just listening to Tchaikovsky, and I believe it is the same music used in the title sequence of Dracula. I think the piece I was listening to was his Sleeping Beauty ballet. although, I'm not certain.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Photoactivist (talk • contribs) 21:07, 6 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: opening music

message: I discovered a mistake in connection with the film. I have seen the film, and the willagers on the beginning of the film are speaking Hungarian, not romanian. Béla Lugosi was a hungarian-born actor, so he spoked hungarian and he worked with hungarians in many of his films ( like in the The Black Cat (1934 film)).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Illes.a88 (talk • contribs) 08:07, 29 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Language

message: "The film also employs extended periods of silence and character close-ups for dramatic effect, and employs several intertitles "
Since when is "two" considered "several"? "Aboard the Vesta" and "London." These comments are POV and skewed to make the thing sound like a movie made in 1920.
"Intertitles" are a card which contains only text, appearing between movie images, not superimposed location identification.  The latter is hardly some sort of obsolete remnant from the silent era; it's still used today.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ted Newsom (talk • contribs) 20:52, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Weird, skewed POV. 

message: Below information was tagged in 2013 for needing sources. Feel free to reinsert with appropriate references. 
Background/Production
==Background/Production==
Enthusiastic young Hollywood producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. also saw the box office potential in Stoker's gothic chiller, and he legally acquired the novel's film rights. Initially, he wanted Dracula to be a spectacle on a scale with the lavish silent films The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
Like those films, Laemmle insisted it must star Lon Chaney, despite Chaney being under contract at MGM. Tod Browning was then approached to direct this new Universal epic. Browning had already directed Chaney as a fake vampire in the (lost) 1927 silent London After Midnight. However, a number of factors would limit Laemmle's plans: Firstly, Chaney himself, who had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 1928, succumbed to his terminal illness. Furthermore, studio financial difficulties, coupled with the onset of the Great Depression, caused a drastic reduction in budget, forcing Laemmle to look at a cheaper alternative, which meant several grand scenes that closely followed the Stoker storyline had to be abandoned.
Already a huge hit on Broadway, the tried and tested Deane/Balderston Dracula play would become the blueprint as the production gained momentum. The screenwriters carefully studied the silent, unauthorized version, Nosferatu for inspiration. One bit of business lifted directly from a nearly identical scene in Nosferatu that does not appear in Stoker's novel was the early scene at the Count's castle when Renfield accidentally pricks his finger on a paper clip and it starts to bleed, and Dracula creeps toward him with glee, only to be repelled when the crucifix falls in front of the bleeding finger.  In the analogous scene in the book, Jonathon cuts himself while shaving and is wearing the crucifix which stops Dracula.
The eerie speech pattern of Lugosi's Dracula was said to have resulted from the fact that Lugosi did not speak English, and therefore had to learn and speak his lines phonetically. This is a bit of an urban legend. While it was true Lugosi did not speak English at the time of his first English-language play in 1919 and had learned his lines to that play in this manner, by the time of Dracula Lugosi spoke English as well as he ever would.
Moreover, the despondent Browning would simply tear out of the script pages that he felt were redundant; such was his seeming contempt for the screenplay. It is possible, however, given that Browning had originally intended Dracula as a collaboration between him and Lon Chaney, his apparent lack of interest on the set was due to losing his friend and original leading man, rather than any actual aversion to the subject matter.
===Cinematic process===
The film/negative format used in the creation of this film was 35 mm.  The aspect ratio is the 1930 standard of 0.800 in. by 0.600 in.  Original prints were tinted Verdante, a color film stock of the Sonochrome by Kodak.
DonIago (talk) 12:58, 19 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unsourced material 

message: The film/negative format used in the creation of this film was 35 mm.  The aspect ratio is the 1930 standard of 0.800 in. by 0.600 in.  Original prints were tinted Verdante, a color film stock of the Sonochrome by Kodak.</div>
|}DonIago (talk) 12:58, 19 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Cinematic process

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message: Just a heads-up to people, i'm slowly working on an entire re-write of this article in my draft page [[User:Andrzejbanas/sandbox|here]. Although I'd rather people not edit it until its ready, I figured i'd give anyone a heads up if they are planning to do some major edits to the article. Andrzejbanas (talk) 13:42, 22 July 2021 (UTC)
thread_title: Re-write

message: I have changed the image caption from "colorized stills" to "colorized lobby cards" (per the credit and description accompanying the images), lest anyone think they were from a "colorized" version of the film. (The images are cropped, but including that info in the caption would be too verbose.)
When I first saw these, I was aghast thinking that Wikipedia would stoop to including film stills from a "colorized" version; fortunately that was not the case.  BMJ-pdx (talk) 11:15, 10 June 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Colorized "stills". 

message: I tried to explain the characters in this movie and add facts about the characters they're playing, here they are, the facts from IMDB: 
* Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, Before he was cast as Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi acted as an unpaid intermediary for Universal Pictures in negotiating with the widow of author Bram Stoker in an attempt to persuade her to lower her asking price for the filming rights to the Dracula property. After two months of negotiations, Mrs. Stoker reportedly lowered her price from $200,000 to $60,000. This further demonstrated to Universal what an asset to them he was, and how eager Lugosi was to repeat his stage success as Count Dracula and secure the film role for himself.
* Helen Chandler as Mina Seward, Helen Chandler, who played Mina Seward, was convinced she was heading for superstardom after making "Dracula." She was described as suffering from delusions of grandeur and with "her head up in the clouds." By the time Chandler died in the 1960s, she had long been forgotten. Bette Davis (who had a contract at Universal at the time) was considered to play the part of Mina Harker. However, Universal head Carl Laemmle Jr. didn't think too highly of her sex appeal.
* David Manners as Jonathan Harker, Although he lived for 67 years after the film was released, David Manners (John Harker) claimed that he never watched it. 
* Dwight Frye as Renfield, After playing Renfield, Dwight Frye would find himself typecast. He found himself restricted to playing eccentric or jittery characters that had a manic edge to them - or criminal lunatic types.
* Edward Van Sloan as Professor Van Helsing
* Herbert Bunston as Dr. Seward 
* Frances Dade as Lucy Weston 
* Joan Standing as Nurse Briggs 
* Charles K. Gerrard as Martin 
* Michael Visaroff as Townsman 
* Barbara Bozoky as Townswoman 
* Cornelia Thaw, Dorothy Tree And Geraldine Dvorak as Dracula's Brides
94.201.206.212 (talk) 15:05, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: You haven't provided sources for your info. DonIago (talk) 15:50, 7 August 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: You have also included all manner of info not relevant to the film. Those items belong in the articles for the actors if it isn't already there. A simple cast list is best. MarnetteD|Talk 22:29, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

text: Exactly, IMDB is unreliable. PrisonerB (talk) 13:09, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cast 

message: Why use a digitally colored lobby card when the original file was black and white? Somebody felt artistic? 2A02:AA1:1646:F9C8:716C:C9FF:C998:1262 (talk) 01:27, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Perhaps black and white versions of them aren't available for display here? DonIago (talk) 18:16, 26 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Faked lobby card