Dracula – Lugosi, Freund and a new score

Estate summary

Roger Ebert reassesses Tod Browning’s Dracula through Bela Lugosi’s performance, Karl Freund’s photography and the arrival of a new musical score by Philip Glass. He argues that Lugosi’s measured speech and stylised presence helped make the Count a recognisably human and socially unsettling figure, influencing many later screen portrayals. The Transylvanian settings and sea voyage are praised for their visual impact, while the drawing-room scenes reveal the more static theatrical origins of the adaptation. Ebert had seen Glass and the Kronos Quartet accompany a restored version at Telluride, and considers how the music changes the experience without erasing the earlier film. His judgement is that the picture remains compelling chiefly through its performances, design and photographic invention, with moments that still bring the underlying horror into focus. This is a 1999 essay about the 1931 film and its later presentation, not a contemporary notice of its first release.

Saved archive record

The title, date, source details and any Estate summary above are saved on this website, so this record remains available if the publisher’s page changes.

A full copy of this article is not currently held here. Original scans and full texts will be added where available and permitted.