[5]

Whenever Bela Lugosi isn’t onscreen, you can’t wait for him to return in this cornerstone of on-screen horror. His iconic portrayal is the best thing this movie has going for itself. I also liked some of the sets and Dwight Frye’s crazy performance as Renfeld. The rest of the cast are not particularly good, and I would like the Dracula/Mina relationship to have been developed (it’s really nonexistent in this version).

My biggest gripe is with the ending. The finale feels very rushed and anticlimactic. Dracula doesn’t even get killed onscreen — it’s only in distant voice-over that you hear him dying. In the pantheon of classic Universal Monsters, Dracula may have been first, but he’s not my favorite. I much prefer James Whales’ work on Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and Invisible Man. For Dracula director Tod Browning, Freaks is definitely a more compelling movie.

PS:  If you have the chance, I’d recommend seeing this movie with the Philip Glass score.  Otherwise, the original soundtrack features only some Tchaikovsky playing over the opening credits.  (This movie came out before full musical scores became the norm.)