Dracula (1931)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Featurette-The Road To Dracula Audio Commentary-David J. Skal (Film Historian) Alternate Audio-New Music by Philip Glass performed by Kronos Quartet Gallery-Photo Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1931
Running Time	71:21
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:02)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tod Browning
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Bela Lugosi Helen Chandler David Manners Dwight Frye Edward Van Sloan Herbert Bunston Frances Dade
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	None Given

    This is the second disc this week that has left me wondering if there is a vendetta against the Australian DVD market. We get NTSC releases, wrong aspect ratios and missing extras. In this case, they have left an entire movie off this disc! The R1 release contains both the English version of this film and the Spanish version that was shot in parallel. They then rub this in on many occasions during film historian David Skal's audio commentary by constantly referring to the Spanish version as a comparison and telling you to look out for differences in the scenes. I d*** well wish I could. I'll tell you right at the top of this review to save you the trouble of scrolling down that the R1 wins hands down. With the other great extras on this disc it could have been a really fantastic release as opposed to a real heap of (insert suitably strong epithet)!

    Now that I've got that off my chest, let's look at what we do get. This is the 1931 version of Dracula, the one with the incomparable Bela Lugosi. Even to this day, many people put on 'that' accent when they say "I am Dracula". Many probably do not even know that they are copying Bela Lugosi's characterisation. This is a measure of the impact of this film, in that it has entered into the common vernacular and survived for so long that the original reference has almost been forgotten. It is fun to note that the film itself contains the very first instances of this when one of the characters copies Bela Lugosi's accent.

    I always try and research some interesting titbits to talk about in a review of a film, but in this case everything that could be said about this film is on the disc. In both the half-hour documentary and the commentary there is a wealth of information about the film, the history of the story, the actors, and some of this is in incredible detail.

    The storyline of this version of the film follows closely the stage play that was in circulation at the time, and as such is not particularly close to the original book. We start in Transylvania at the Count's castle where we meet Dracula's three wives, the count himself and Renfield, the poor unfortunate real estate agent that has arrived to organise the Count's trip to England. We also meet a couple of armadillos that even the commentary cannot explain. Taking with him three precious boxes of his native soil, Count Dracula travels to England and begins to prey on his neighbours - the women only, of course. Enter Professor Abraham Van Helsing, Dracula'a nemesis. He is a man that believes in the ancient legends of the living dead, and knows a thing or two about how to protect oneself from an involuntary blood donation.

    This is a fascinating film for many reasons, and it sits on the cusp between silent films and the talkies. At times it does play as a silent film, with long periods without dialogue. Music is used very sparingly, really only for the opening and closing credits and where there is a real source, such as the orchestra in the theatre. While I do love Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula, I believe the stand-out performance in this film is by Dwight Frye who plays the character of Renfield. The scene where he crawls across the floor towards the woman is very chilling indeed.

Video

    The transfer is presented at 1.33:1 (not 16x9 enhanced), which is essentially the same as the theatrical ratio of 1.37:1.

    The image is pretty soft. The medium shot at 11:38 shows the two character's faces as little more than indistinct blurs. Shadow detail is somewhat lacking but could have been far worse. There are a lot of dark scenes and dark suits and this could have been a real problem. Blacks are black and whites are not too bad, but as with any film from this era, the greys in between tend to be washed out.

    Thankfully, there are no signs of any false colours or tint in the transfer.

    There are no MPEG artefacts visible, nor any aliasing. There is some wobble in some scenes, but I am sure this is in the source material. Film artefacts abound. There is a constant stream of white flecks, dirt and grain throughout, although surprisingly few scratches. There are reel change marks at 17:20, 35:20 and 65:30. Two of these repeat a few seconds later.

    There are subtitles for both the main feature and the audio commentary as well as subtitles for the documentary. The English subtitles include audio cues where appropriate and are accurate and easy to read.

    This is a dual layered disc with the layer change at 57:02. It is just on a scene change and as the film contains many long searching looks at characters, is not particularly disturbing.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are several audio tracks on this disc including one I found a little strange. They have taken the original soundtrack added an entire musical score, written by Philip Glass and performed by the Kronos Quartet. While the original film does not have a music soundtrack, to me this is all part of the atmosphere of the film and I found the addition of music detracted from the experience. This is of course only my personal opinion and some undoubtedly will hold a different opinion.

    I listened to the original Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and to a fair proportion of the 'new' Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The original soundtrack is a little distorted with some hiss and one particularly bad piece of distortion at 0:30, but is perfectly serviceable. On the new soundtrack the original material (mostly voices) is in the centre channel and I found it quite muffled. There is still hiss in the new soundtrack. There is also a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack containing the commentary.

    Dialogue quality in the original soundtrack is a little distorted and sometimes a little harsh, but other than one scene where there is a conversation in the background, there were no problems understanding what was being said. In the new soundtrack, the muffling obscured a few words. The volume of the two tracks is quite different with the 5.1 track being substantially quieter.

    I did not notice any problems with the audio sync.

    In the original soundtrack, there is almost no music other than that mentioned before. In the new, the music is set at a quite low level and is a creepy version of a string quartet.

    There is no surround activity in the original soundtrack and the new track places the music in the front mains and the surrounds.

    There is no subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    A static menu with a sepia toned collage as the background. There is no audio.

Featurette: The Road To Dracula (35:03)

    A fascinating look at the film, the history of the story of Dracula and the characters and actors. It is presented by an array of people that include Bela Lugosi's son, the young lady in the carriage that is first to speak in the film and many others. I thoroughly enjoyed this look at the film and its history. They again talk about the Spanish version of the film and have also reproduced the speech that was traditionally given by the actor playing Professor Abraham Van Helsing after the curtains had closed and the actors were taking their bows. Presented at 1.33:1 (not 16x9 enhanced) and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Commentary: Film Historian David Skal

    A full length commentary with almost no gaps. David Skal talks at a fair pace and manages to impart an incredible amount of information. We learn about the film, the director, the private lives of the actors and many other interesting things. The commentary is not always related to the action on-screen but is always interesting. The problem arises when you sit there seething in frustration unable to make the comparisons to the Spanish version that he mentions many times.

Alternate Soundtrack

    Written by Philip Glass and performed by the Kronos Quartet, an interesting experiment but not one that I think was successful. This is a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

Production Photographs (9:12)

    The stills are played automatically with musical accompaniment. We start with an amazing array of posters from the film, mostly in colour - the poster at 1:36 is interesting. I would have thought that this artistic drawing would have been far too risqué for 1931 and really doesn't give a true representation of the film. All necklines in the English version are quite high - there is not even a glimpse of cleavage, unlike the Spanish version. From here we move on to a series of production stills from the film. Some are static and some zoom in or out. The last few include some stills off-set, in the dressing room or against plain backgrounds. Presented at 1.33:1 (not 16x9 enhanced) and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. This is my favourite way of seeing stills and saves a lot of strain on your remote finger.

Theatrical Trailer (1:51)

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Various extra subtitles in a variety of languages.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• Production Notes
• Cast and Filmmakers Bios
• Universal Web Links
• 104 minutes Spanish version + interview/intro with Lupita Tovar Kohner: she plays Eva, this version's Mina.

    There can be NO sane reason for this omission. As one R1 review puts it: "The 1931 Spanish version of Dracula has got to be one of the coolest extras ever put on a special edition DVD". I am thoroughly disgusted and recommend that you purchase the R1 version.

    The next time someone quotes the famous line "I am Dracula" with that distinctive accent you will instantly be transported back to England in 1931 and Dracula himself will be standing there. It is hard to say much more about this disc as it had so much promise only to disappoint in the end. What we did get, though, is very good.

    The video is good for its age.

    The audio is how it should be.

    The extras, well enough said on that score.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall