Younger people who never saw the original here but have seen Dracula movies sometime in the past 30 years will be very disappointed with this original version. I'm not young, and I was disappointed, too, not that it was all bad.
The film does have an eerie feel to it in a primitive way, so kudos for that. Bela Lugosi, the first and most famous Dracula of them all, has eyes that penetrate and are unforgettable. Unfortunately, that's about it as the only things unforgettable about this film.
I said what I said in the first paragraph because there is no blood, not even one scene of Dracula biting anyone. Come on - this is Dracula!! The ending wasn't very dramatic, either: a most disappointing finish.
I did enjoy watching this for the "historical" value, however, because having only known Dracula movies since the '50s I learned a few truths from this film. "Truths," meaning that (1) Dracula had to return to the soil when he went to sleep at night, not particularly in a coffin, and Renfield was institutionalized when he arrived in America and stayed there until Dracula killed him in the end. You don't see these things in latter-day Dracula movies or in Dracula spoofs.
The film does have an eerie feel to it in a primitive way, so kudos for that. Bela Lugosi, the first and most famous Dracula of them all, has eyes that penetrate and are unforgettable. Unfortunately, that's about it as the only things unforgettable about this film.
I said what I said in the first paragraph because there is no blood, not even one scene of Dracula biting anyone. Come on - this is Dracula!! The ending wasn't very dramatic, either: a most disappointing finish.
I did enjoy watching this for the "historical" value, however, because having only known Dracula movies since the '50s I learned a few truths from this film. "Truths," meaning that (1) Dracula had to return to the soil when he went to sleep at night, not particularly in a coffin, and Renfield was institutionalized when he arrived in America and stayed there until Dracula killed him in the end. You don't see these things in latter-day Dracula movies or in Dracula spoofs.