Dracula & Dracula’s Daughter introduced by David J Skal

Introduction by David J. Skal, who will sign his book, Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula, in the lobby at 6:30 PM.

DRACULA (1931)
1931, Universal, 75 min, USA, Dir: Tod Browning
Director Tod Browning (FREAKS) and actor Bela Lugosi established the Transylvanian count as one of the archetypal movie vampires and a monster icon for Universal Studios’ golden era of classic horror films. This adaptation of Hamilton Deane’s then-popular stage play of Bram Stoker’s novel is quite different from Murnau’s silent NOSFERATU, and from later works coming from Hammer Studios from the 1950s through 1970s and Francis Ford Coppola in 1990. Real estate agent Renfield (played by everyone’s favorite madman, Dwight Frye) goes insane after visiting Dracula (Bela Lugosi) at his Transylvania castle and is thereafter confined to a London asylum, though he does the count’s bidding as a hypnotized slave when Dracula comes to Britain and moves into deserted Carfax Abbey. David Manners is Jonathan Harker and Helen Chandler is his lady love, whom Dracula wants to make his bride. Edward Van Sloan, a fixture in early Universal horrors, is Professor Van Helsing.

35 mm!
DRACULA’S DAUGHTER
1936, Universal, 71 min, USA, Dir: Lambert Hillyer
Dracula’s tormented daughter, Countess Marya (Gloria Holden), longs to escape the bloodsucking curse visited on her by her father in this haunting sequel to the Bela Lugosi original. But her efforts to do so prove futile as she stalks young women and attempts to seduce Dr. Van Helsing’s colleague, Dr. Garth (Otto Kruger), away from the realm of the living. A surprisingly effective little chiller with a good cast that also includes Edward Van Sloan, Marguerite Churchill and Irving Pichel.

Screening format: DCP (DRACULA), 35mm (DRACULA’S DAUGHTER)