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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"Dracula" (1931) is the film
version of that Transylvanian count (Bela Lugosi)
that must suck the blood of innocents in order to
survive. He sleeps by day, terrorizes by night and
keeps a crew of virgin wives as his slaves in the
darkened recesses of his haunted castle. Of
course, it's up to Professor Van Helsing (Edward
Van Sloan) to put an end to all the bloodletting
and bandages.
The subsequent films in this collection are a
mixed bag of B-pictures; the best probably being
"Dracula's Daughter" because of Gloria Holden's
compelling performance as Countess Marya. At least
she attempts to pick up where the original
nightmare left off. The last two films ("Son" and
"House of") are truly laughable. But the real
revelation in this collection is the Spanish
version of the original film, "Dracula." Produced
simultaneously with the original film and on the
same sets, it is an improvement on the Lugosi
version in both its camera techniques and visual
special effects. One pines for such originality
elsewhere in this collection.
The transfers are a mixed bag at best. No attempt
has been made to clean up the age-related
artifacts that riddle the print of the 1931
original horror classic. It is so extensively
marred by every conceivable anomaly (scratches,
excessive film grain, tears in the original camera
negative, fading) that it is a painful viewing
experience. Contrast and black levels are so
unbalanced that fine detail is not even an issue
-- personally, I'd be happy to see any detail at
all. There's also a considerable amount of digital
anomalies that only add to the frustration of
watching film history being destroyed before your
very eyes. The audio of the original film is
muffled, often inaudible, and suffers greatly from
background hiss, pops and a strident
characteristic. The subsequent films in this
collection are spared such massive deterioration,
presumably because they did not get as much
playtime over the years and as a result have been
better preserved.
As with the "Frankenstein" box set, extras include
two succinctly produced featurettes, theatrical
trailers, audio commentaries and a shameless
promotion for "Van Helsing" the disastrous
contemporary retelling of these characters,
starring Hugh Jackman.
I cannot in good faith recommend this box set,
even to die hard "Dracula" fans, because the
original film -- the only one in which Lugosi
appears -- has been rendered in such poor
condition on DVD. A genuine disappointment! |
