Dracula Reviews
TIME Magazine
Top CriticAn exciting melodrama, not as good as it ought to be but a cut above the ordinary trapdoor-and-winding-sheet type of mystery film.
A sublimated ghost story related with all surface seriousness and above all with a remarkably effective background of creepy atmosphere.
The opening scenes, set in Dracula's castle, are magnificent -- grave, stately, and severe. But the film becomes unbearably static once the action moves to England.
Not by any means the masterpiece of fond memory or reputation, although the first twenty minutes are astonishingly fluid and brilliantly shot by Karl Freund.
With Mr. Browning's imaginative direction and Mr. Lugosi's makeup and weird gestures, this picture succeeds to some extent in its grand guignol intentions.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Dracula deserves its status as a classic, although one might be tempted to append the word 'lesser' to that label.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Certainly it is Lugosi's performance, and the cinematography of Karl Freund, that make Tod Browning's film such an influential Hollywood picture.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
