Fangs for the Memories

Right. So. Dracula.

Now, I could go on about the book and its gazillion incarnations for days (and I probably will corner you and force that conversation at some point because I'm bored), but today we are focusing on the Universal film Dracula and 1922's Nosferatu. Even if you have never seen the 1931 Dracula, you probably will recognize images from the film. On a cultural level, the "classic" Dracula people think of is Bela Lugosi.

That ain't Count Count creeping in the shadows.

A Copy That Is Better Than the Original

Enter Drácula (or, as it is sometimes known, "Spanish Dracula"). See, back in 1931 the technology hadn't been perfected yet when it came to dubbing movies but Universal wanted to distribute in Latin America. The simplest way to resolve the issue was to have an entirely different production performed in Spanish but with the same sets, scripts, etc. In this particular instance, the English team shot during the day and the Spanish team kept literal vampire hours. They would watch the dailies and find ways to improve upon what had been done in the earlier shoot. It is an interesting watch and a darling of many critics. Some go so far as to say that it is superior to the original. Here's a little more detailed info plus an interview with one of the stars, Lupita Tovar.

Pardon how 90's fabulous this is.

Surely Someone Else Copied the 1931 Dracula

Oddly enough, another production that paid extraordinary attention to the Lugosi Dracula was Mel Brooks' Dracula: Dead and Loving It. It certainly pales in comparison to Young Frankenstein and is not favored among critics; however, there are many intricate details from the "original" film present. So I guess this is a not-as-good-as-the-original copy. I'll let Cinemassacre take you through the deets.

Not entirely without merit.

WAIT! EMILY! It Also Had Nods to Nosferatu!

When you're right, you're right. Lets take a ride on the the copy of a copy train. A decade before the Universal film premiered, the narrative of Dracula appeared in the silent film Nosferatu.

So, Nosferatu is... not Dracula right? He's called Count Orlock instead... and the whole thing takes place in Bremen instead of Whitby... so maybe it's a different story. The Stoker estate called shenanigans. The first legal action they took was Stoker's widow refusal to grant the approval for the film to be made. In the second legal action Prana Films was sued for copyright infringement and all copies were destroyed. Save just one. That one is why we can see the film today and now shot of the shadow creeping up the wall appears everywhere!

Then this unofficial copy of Dracula inspired a film by the same name under the direction of Werner Herzog in 1979 (4/4 by Ebert). The Herzog Nosferatu is not a remake by any stretch of the imagination but in the world of simulation as we've discussed it in class, the through-line is unmistakable.

BUT THEN!

For even more copies which get us farther away from Bram Stoker's Dracula, the 1922 Nosferatu was given the Noises Off treatment in Shadow of the Vampire. It's a film about the making of Murnau's film... with the added complication that the actor portraying Count Orlcok actually is a vampire!

By the time we get to the Nosferatu-style character in What We Do in the Shadows, we are so far from the original Dracula to the point that it is, as Andrea so aptly put the concept, "a version almost unrecognizable from its “authentic” origins."

Obviously, I've watched all of these with gusto.

Today I Learned...

We all just aren't going eat Stu!