Film of the Day: 15

Dracula (1931)

It's hard to imagine reading 'Dracula' without even having the slightest idea about Dracula.  It has been so overdone in every form, he's even in Sesame Street (or should I say The Count).  But when it was first published by Bram Stoker in 1897 today in the Republic of Ireland, it was whole different story and was not an immediate bestseller, however great reviews started to pile up.

It was then released two years later in the US and went from bestseller to legendary to icon once the film version by Tod Browning was released in 1931 (even though the German masterpiece Nosferatu was made in 1922 in which Stoker's widow did not give the rights to the film, hence the different names of title and characters).

Despite Dracula being the most famous of all vampire stories, it is not the first.  In 1872 an author named Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu wrote 'Carmilla' which was about a lesbian vampire that preys on a lonely young woman and probably the first story about a vampire is 'The Vampyre' by John William Polidori in 1819.

Dracula - First Edition

There have been quite a few film versions such as the 1992 version by Francis Ford Coppola and the Hammer version from 1958 'Horror of Dracula' which apart from Nosferatu is the best Dracula adaptation to date.  Also if you think they're done with Dracula, think again as they have announced an interest in making another film version of Dracula.

Tod Browning's film may not be the best film based on Dracula but it is the most faithful film to the novel and Bela Lugosi (who at the time could barely speak any English) gives a timeless portrayal as Dracula, which may seem camp nowadays, yet still we cannot deny its tremendous impact on the character or the horror genre itself.