Gorgeous, matte-painting backdrops and gloomy, Gothic sets almost upstage one of cinema’s most notorious villains in this Universal Pictures horror installment. Almost, because in this Dracula, the Count is played by Bela Lugosi. Director Tod Browning (Freaks) may overdo the close-ups of Lugosi, whose left eye seems to be trying to intimidate his right, but the horror legend is still an undeniably entrancing presence. In most scenes, he underplays the part; his Count is gentlemanly, softly floating across scenes with a delicate gait. Yet as the bodies pile up—mostly young women, who either disappear into the darkness of his cape or are menacingly lowered offscreen—a picture of a ghastly predator emerges. (Notice how, after being challenged by Edward Van Sloan’s Van Helsing, he lets his anger momentarily get the best of him before sliding back into the silkiness of an aristocrat.) In terms of its staging and narrative, Dracula isn’t quite up to the level of Lugosi. Too much time is given to its stultifying love story, as well as Dwight Frye’s Renfield. And given how good Lugosi is, the movie’s final moments are an enormous letdown, in which the Count himself is hastily, unceremoniously dispatched.
(1/28/2022)
