"Children of the night, what music they make"

In 1897 Bram Stoker popularized the legend of the vampire. His character, Count Dracula, immediately captivated the minds of Victorian England. The novel, Dracula, itself is a typical piece of Victorian literature. It is written in the form of journal entries and is full of all that violence and sex that was frowned upon by society.

The modestly successful book wouldn’t spawn a huge culture until the story was brought to the stage and the screen. In Germany, F.W. Murnau made the first, and some consider the best, vampire movie based on Stoker’s book, Nosferatu (1922). The movie was a tremendous example of German Expressionist filmmaking and told the familiar tale of how Dracula comes to England to pray on the blood of young women.

In America, the stage play based on Dracula was successful as well. Needing money, the B-studio Universal bought the rights to the stage play and quickly began production. They thought there was a niche for monster movies that the major studios weren't filling.

One of the actors who they wanted from the play was Edward Van Sloan to play the role of Dr. Van Helsing. It wasn’t until later that the powers of the studio realized that an unknown Hungarian stage actor who spoke little English would be the perfect choice to reprise the role of Count Dracula for the screen. He didn’t know it at the time, but Bela Lugosi would continue to be the face of Dracula over 75 years after he played the role. If anyone doubts that point just wait until the Halloween advertisements come out. All vampire costumes are modeled after those of Lugosi. Any actor who plays the part of Dracula will be compared to him. He is intertwined with the part just like Humphrey Bogart with Sam Spade. They were one and the same. This would hurt Lugosi later in his career as he became typecast as the villain.

Another person of note in this production process was Tod Browning. The director of the movie had tremendous experience in silent features. This would be his first attempt at sound. He made a successful rookie effort. The movie has a lot of silent parts, but they add to the eerie atmosphere. Today that is all the movie has really. It isn’t scary for today’s audiences. It is eerie though and Browning was a master at this. Most notably his skills of the weird would be on display in Freaks (1932), a controversial, yet good movie. Browning also had previous experience working in the horror genre with a tremendous actor. He directed some of the best films Lon Chaney made, at least from those that survive. In fact, Chaney was Universal's first choice for the count, but cancer killed him before he got the chance to play a role many though he would be successful at.