Dracula (1931 English-language film)

Dracula is a 1931 American film about the ancient Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula, his voyage to England and his hunting by legendary monster hunter Abraham Van Helsing.

Directed by Tod Browning. Written by Garrett Fort, based on the novel by Bram Stoker and the play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston.
The story of the strangest passion the world has ever known! Taglines

Count Dracula

  • [after breaking a mirror] Doctor Seward. My humble apology. I dislike mirrors. Van Helsing will explain. For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man, Van Helsing.
  • And after you deliver the message, you will remember nothing, I now say...Obey.

Renfield

Dwight Frye as Renfield.
  • [opening the coffin on the ship] Master, the sun is gone!
  • You will keep your promise when we get to London, won't you Master? You will see that I get lives, not human lives but small ones, with blood in them? I'll be loyal to you Master. I'll be loyal.
  • Master, we're here. You can't hear what I'm saying but we're here. We're safe.
  • I'm warning you, Doctor Seward! If you don't send me away, you must answer for what will happen to Miss Mina.
  • No, no, Master! I wasn't going to say anything! I told them nothing! I'm loyal to you, Master!
  • You know too much to live, Van Helsing!
  • I didn't lead them here, Master! I didn't know, I swear!
  • I'm loyal to you Master, I 'm your slave, I didn't betray you! Oh no, don't! Don't kill me! Let me live, please! Punish me, torture me, but let me live! I can't die with all those lives on my conscience! All that blood on my hands!

Prof. Abraham Van Helsing

  • Seward, I want you to have Renfield closely watched by day and night. Especially by night.
  • Mr. Harker. I have devoted my lifetime to the study of many strange things, little-known facts which the world is perhaps better off for not knowing.
  • A moment ago, I stumbled on a most amazing phenomenon...something so incredible, I mistrust my own judgement.
  • A vampire casts no reflection in the glass. That is why Dracula smashed the mirror...The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him.
  • A vampire, Mr. Harker, is a being that lives after its death by drinking the blood of the living. It must have blood or it dies. Its power lasts only from sunset to sunrise. During the hours of the day, it must rest in the earth in which it was buried.

Mina Harker

  • And just as I was commencing to get drowsy, I heard dogs howling. And when the dream came, it seemed the whole room was filled with mist. It was so thick, I could just see the lamp by the bed, a tiny spark in the fog. And then I saw two red eyes staring at me, and a white livid face came down out of the mist. It came closer and closer. I felt its breath on my face, and then its lips, ohhh, [whimpering]...And then, in the morning, I felt so weak. It seemed as if all the life had been drained out of me.
  • Dracula, he...He came to me. He opened his veins in his arms and he made me drink.

Lucy Weston

  • Lofty timbers, the walls around are bare, echoing to our laughter as though the dead were there... Quaff a cup to the dead already, hooray for the next to die!

Dialogue

Renfield: Well, I'm sorry, but there's a carriage meeting me at Borgo Pass at midnight.
Innkeeper: Borgo Pass?
Renfield: Yes.
Innkeeper: Whose carriage?
Renfield: Count Dracula's.
Innkeeper: Count Dracula's?
Renfield: Yes.
[The inkeeper's wife superstitiously crosses herself.]
Innkeeper: [fearfully] Castle Dracula?
Renfield: Yes, that's where I'm going.
Innkeeper: To the castle?
Renfield: Yes.
Innkeeper: [tremulously] Nooo. You mustn't go there. We people of the mountains believe at the Castle there are vampires. Dracula and his wives - they take the form of wolves and bats. They leave their coffins at night and they feed on the blood of the living.
Renfield: But that's all superstition. Why I, I can't understand why...
Innkeeper: Come, we must go indoors.
Renfield: It's a matter of business with me. I've got to go. Really. Well, goodnight.
[As he climbs back into the coach, the innkeeper's peasant wife rushes over and places a crucifix around his neck]
Innkeeper's wife: Wait. Please. If you must go, wear this for your mother's sake. It will protect you.
Count Dracula: I am Dracula.
Renfield: Oh. It's really good to see you. I don't know what happened to the driver and my luggage, and... well, and with all this, I thought I was in the wrong place.
Count Dracula: I bid you welcome.
[Dracula goes up the stairs. Renfield starts to follow him. Suddenly, Dracula hears wolves howling.]
Count Dracula: Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.
[Dracula goes up the steps, and waits for Renfield, who without difficulty, cuts open a huge spider's web using his walking stick.]
Count Dracula: The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly. The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield.
Renfield: Why, er... yes.
Count Dracula: This is very old wine. I hope you will like it.
Renfield: Aren't you drinking?
Count Dracula: I never drink...wine.
Renfield: [in a tormented tone] No, Martin. Martin don't! Don't throw my spider away from me! [Martin disposes of the spider out the window] Oh Martin, no!
Martin: Ain't ya ashamed now! Ain't ya? Spiders now, is it? Flies ain't good enough.
Renfield: Flies! Flies! Poor puny things. Who wants to eat flies?
Martin: You do, you loony!
Renfield: Not when I can get nice fat spiders.
Martin: All right. Have it your own way.
Van Helsing: Gentlemen, we are dealing with the undead...Yes, Nosferatu, the undead, the vampire. The vampire attacks the throat. It leaves two little wounds, white with red centers. Dr. Seward, your patient Renfield whose blood I have just analyzed, is obsessed with the idea that he must devour living things in order to sustain his own life.
Dr. Seward: Well, Professor Van Helsing, modern medical science does not admit of such a creature. The vampire is a pure myth, superstition.
Van Helsing: I may be able to bring you proof, that the superstition of yesterday can become the scientific reality of today.
Maid: Oh, Mr. Harker! Oh, Mr. Harker, it's horrible! Oh, it's horrible! Dr. Seward! Miss Mina... Out there, dead!
Dr. Jack Seward: Out where?
Maid: Out there!
Van Helsing: You'll die in torment if you die with innocent blood on your soul.
Renfield: God will not damn a poor lunatic's soul. He knows that the powers of evil are too great for those with weak minds.
Count Dracula: To die, to be really dead, that must be glorious!
Mina: Why, Count Dracula!
Count Dracula: There are far worse things awaiting man than death.
Renfield: Oh, Dr. Seward! Send me away from this place! Send me far away!
Van Helsing: Why are you so anxious to get away?
Renfield: My cries at night, they might disturb miss Mina.
Van Helsing: Yes?
Renfield: They might give her bad dreams, Professor Van Helsing. Bad dreams!
[A wolf starts howling. Meanwhile, at Carfax Abbey, Count Dracula leaves his coffin.]
[Back at Dr. Seward's office]
Van Helsing: That sounded like a wolf.
Dr. Jack Seward: Yes, it did. But I hardly think there are wolves so near London.
Martin: He thinks they're wolves. Me, I've heard them howl at night before. He thinks they're talking to him! He howls and howls back at them. He's crazy!
Van Helsing: I might have known. I might have known.
Van Helsing: What have you to do with Dracula?
Renfield: Dracula? I've never even heard the name before.
Renfield: Isn't this a strange conversation, for men who aren't crazy?
Dr. Jack Seward: Renfield! You're compelling me to put you in a straitjacket!
Van Helsing: You forget, doctor, that madmen have great strength. Dracula has great strength. Eh, Renfield?
Renfield: Words, words, words!
Renfield: He came and stood below my window in the moonlight. And he promised me things, not in words, but by doing them.
Van Helsing: Doing them?
Renfield: By making them happen. A red mist spread over the lawn, coming on like a flame of fire! And then he parted it, and I could see that there were thousands of rats, with their eyes blazing red, like his, only smaller. Then he held up his hand, and they all stopped, and I thought he seemed to be saying: "Rats! Rats! Rats! Thousands! Millions of them! All red-blood! All these will I give you! If you will obey me!"
Van Helsing: What did he want you to do?
Renfield: That which has already been done! [giggles sinisterly]
Maid: He's crazy!
Martin: They're all crazy. They're all crazy except you and me. Sometimes I have my doubts about you.
Maid: Yes.
Count Dracula: Van Helsing.
[Van Helsing turns to face Dracula]
Count Dracula: Now that you have learned what you have learned, it would be well for you to return to your own country.
Van Helsing: I prefer to remain and protect those whom you would destroy.
Count Dracula: You are too late. My blood now flows through her veins. She will live through the centuries to come, as I have lived.
Van Helsing: Should you escape us, Dracula. We know how to save Miss Mina's soul if not her life.
Count Dracula: If she dies by day. But I shall see that she dies by night.
Van Helsing: And I will have Carfax Abbey torn down, stone by stone, excavated a mile around. I will find your earth-box and drive that stake through your heart.
Count Dracula: Come here.
[Dracula raises his hand to hypnotize Van Helsing.]
Count Dracula: Come here.
[Van Helsing takes three hypnotized steps towards Dracula but soon steps back, resisting Dracula's power over him.]
Count Dracula: Your will is strong, Van Helsing.
[Van Helsing reaches out for his crucifix as Dracula looms toward him.]
Count Dracula: More wolfbane?
Van Helsing: More effective than wolfbane, Count.
Count Dracula: Indeed?
[Dracula lunges towards Van Helsing. Van Helsing holds up the crucifix. Dracula snarls and turns away. Van Helsing, in triumph, puts away the crucifix.]

Taglines

  • The story of the strangest passion the world has ever known!
  • The vampire thriller

Cast

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