The movie Ed Wood has Martin Landau playing an old Bela Lugosi toward the end of his life. A great portrayal that garnered Landau an Oscar for his performance. It's a great watch, especially for anyone that might be interested in seeing an old Lugosi after all the fame and fortune had deserted him.
I think Bela Lugosi was a real sport about this character. True, it did kind of limit his future roles, but he did use it to please his fans. He even took on the role again in an Abbot and Castello comedy movie, and he even requested to be buried in the same Dracula cape and coat he wore in the movie.
Sadly, he got screwed over a lot because of his lack of business skills and the fact he was an immigrant. A lot of parts went to many other folks who were American by birth. Plus, he was very poorly managed and tossed away. He took the Abbott and Costello role only because he was broke and losing everything. He eventually begged to do more Dracula work, but by the time more films were made, he was passed over for a younger generation. His full biography is quite sad.
According to one documentary that talks about classic horror, the subject of Bela and his role as Dracula came. He continued to play Dracula in live theatre productions and one of his costars of the theatre who was still alive at the time of the recording said that she remembers Lugosi lamenting over his career and said to her that “Dracula is like Hamlet to me.” That’s really sad but also very true.
As a kid growing up in the 70's the TV stations played those old movies saturday afternoon. Watched them all 100 times, B. Lugosi, L. Chaney, Abbot and Costello, Creature From the Black Lagoon, you name it. Loved the werewolf, it really conveyed personal tragedy.
Same here except for I was a 80s kid. Also on Saturday nights we had a local channel here in Richmond VA that had a " Mad Scientist" and his hatchback helper host classic horror and sci-fi movies. I loved those movies and still watch them when I can to this day.
@@ronniespain18 Nice, it's cool when they had the novelty theme hosts like yours, El Vira, etc. Thinking back, I pine for the days of bat puppets on wires in those old dracula flicks.
I am really looking forward to the Universal Monsters theme park at Epic Universe in Florida (even though it will be years before I can afford to visit from Australia).
I agree with the first 2 actors but in wich movie did Frank Langella played dracula if i may ask. I do know he playes skeletor in the movie Heman masters of the universe from 1987
Thanks Minty for bringing to life these old horror movies. These movies made a real impact on me, giving me a thrill and the chills as I covered my eyes watching these movies. Nothing like old-fashioned technology transforming Bela to a bat, turning a man into a werewolf and watching a man unwrap himself to become the Invisible Man. Oh, what a time. Hope you can bring to life all those other great movies to include my favorites, 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein' and 'The Bride of Frankenstein."
Lugosi was always worried about being typecast after he was Dracula, but when he knew he was about to die, he made plans to be buried in his Dracula cape...and so he was
I love Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Everyone in the cast including Van Helsing and Renfield were spot-on. However, the Spanish version had better camera techniques and he better Style.
@@DonMachado I felt fortunate enough to have had the pleasure of watching the Spanish version when Universal rerelease Dracula for DVD. One Side had the Bela Lugosi version and the other side had the Spanish version. Upon watching the Spanish version, I was blown away! It became my favorite version of the movie even to this day. Well worth it if you can find it.
LMAO!!! My friends and I have used that exact same statement about several movies, “OMG, they’ve Lucased this movie” It’s ruined!! Love that someone as movie savvy as you is also using that. Long time fan!!
Dracula with Bela Lugosi is my favorite horror movie I also loved the Rest of the Universial Monster movies. they were well done and proved you didn't need Blood , Guts and nudity to make a good horror movie.
Ed wood might be one of if not my favorite Depp movie. Even though it's not 100% historically accurate it gives you more respective on how much this role made and destroyed Legosi. Love it
the fact that Wood used old footage of Lugosi as Dracula before his death and used it in Plan 9 from Outer Space and then used an actor that covered his face with his cape and was a foot taller to finish the film says a lot about him :)
I have to agree with Minty about the actor portraying Renfield: that had to be most unhinged, truly amazing performance in the entire movie. Even now, when I recall Renfield's insane giggling, it gives me shivers!
Bela Lugosi was Dracula. Nobody else compares with him. Bela also could’ve been Frankenstein in 1931 but he couldn’t understand how he could shine as an actor underneath all of that make up that Frankenstein character had to wear. So Boris Karloff got the part. The rest is history. Bela Lugosi would end up playing the Frankenstein monster in the 1943 movie Frankenstein versus the Wolfman.
Renfield, laughing as he stood in the stairway from the hold the scariest bit in the movie. Like his mind was completely gone and pure evil took over. Max Schreck's vampire was even scarier than Bela Lugosi's vampire because the Schreck vampire looked like a reanimated corpse devoid of emotion. BTW - I wonder why there were armadillos at Dracula's castle. Anyone noticed that?
Modern day horror movies do nothing for me, however I can watch the classics over and over again, especially the Hammer Films movies. Would love to see you do a video on Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Fun fact: The classic silent Dracula adaptation: "Nosferatu" got a remake in 1979 from Werner Herzog called *"Nosferatu The Vampyre"* and stars Klaus Kinski as Dracula (who originally played Reinfield in Jesús Franco's adaptation of "Dracula" starring Hammer's Dracula: Sir Christopher Lee). And in 2000, "Nosferatu" got a meta period comedy horror film called *"Shadow of The Vampire"* produced by Nicholas Cage's Saturn Films with Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck who IS a real vampire and John Malkovich as a cold-hearted version of German director F. W. Murnau.
This film isn’t the most faithful adaptation of the novel but it’s still one of my favorite Dracula films and the restoration looks incredible for its age.
Many years ago, I had a happy summer night watching Dracula with The Philip Glass Quartet playing live accomplishment. It was at Wolftrap's outdoor stage and I swear I saw a bat 😁
Gavin Rose, .....Mark was right at the time the movie came out people did find Dracula Frightening. I understand horror fans of today would find it hard to believe but it was true and you have to remember the time period it came out was different then today's world. the movie was well done and proved you didn't need Blood , Guts, and nudity to make a good horror movie.
10-15 years ago I was digging through the bargain bin at Walmart....found nos feratu....but with the band type o-negative playing the soundtrack. (It had been cut up a bit to fit the pacing. But it was frickin beautiful how well it worked. Definitely the best 5 dollar bin score ever
the 1931 movie inspired 2 songs ... "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus and "The Ballad of Dwight Fry" by Alice Cooper. when Bela died in 1956, he was buried in a Dracula costume.
Your videos are excellent, Mark! I never miss an episode. I particularly enjoyed this one. Dracula is nearly a century old now, and it is still a timeless classic. Keep up the excellent work!
Technically the original person was Prince Vlad III, Dracula was more or less a title that means Dragon. Tepes, pronounced Tepesh, just means Impaler, not his actual surname. Otherwise, yet another perfect video.
Do you think that Spanish Dracula looked a little like Nicolas Cage? Anyway, when you think about it, 40 plus years later, The Exorcist was getting similar responses.
Great Video Minty! One caveat though, Vlad's last name was Tepis. Dracula was an inherited title of knighthood from his father, who's title was Dracul.
05:11 coincidently, Schreck is also the german word for "fear" or "shock". Tim Burton also named the Villain of "Batman Returns" after the german actor Max Schreck. I guess you can translate his name as maximum shock!🤣
Definitely a Cult Film, Bela Lugosi pulled this off!! This Film also inspired future dracula films to come later!! Great job Mr. Minty!! Keep it comimg.
I never realized that Coppola got the idea for Dracula starting out as an old man and getting younger as he fed from the original concept for the 1931 production. Being the student of cinema he is, I'm sure that's where he got it from.
Love this! It's great hearing about the old classics, and I hope you continue this theme! Where were you filming from? Thought it was just some blue screen magic until I saw a few of your props scattered around.
I wished you would have also mentioned some more actors who played the Count in later films. Plus, parodies like, Love at First Bite with George Hamilton, Dead and Loving it with Leslie Nielson, and Hotel Transylvania. Lastly, the American children's television show, Sesame Street's muppet, The Count. Ahh Ahh. This shows the versatility of this story. You never mentioned that Bela Lugosi only spoke Hungarian and had to learn English phonically by learning and saying the lines of the script during the play. By the time the film was getting made, his English was still very limited. When I saw the still cast photos, it made me think of that fact. There is a movie talkie biography short about him learning new American words, and slang, to a lady fan.
You should have included somewhere here the revelation James Rolfe made that the #1 most iconic image of Dracula, that of him walking forward with his cape held out, was actually the result of editing and completely confused the context. It looks like Dracula just walks around with his cape over his face to be sneaky and mysterious. In reality he had the cape over his face to protect himself from wolfsbane that was making him reel. That scene being cut, that context is lost, and it birthed a nearly century old meme.
Minty I have to say you must spend days on your wonderful research. Your vids are charming and informative to say the least. I love them all even if I don't know the movie which is rare since I am a true moviephile. This is true classic and a personal favorite. You do this film justice my friend, thank you. Keep up the wonderful work and I will continue to enjoy and share with my movie loving friends. Cheers
I don't know if all the classic universal monster movies are in the public domain (I'm pretty sure they are) but if I have to make a list of all modern 21st century retellings we've had of these monsters it's as follows: Hallow Man (2000 - Invisible Man) Dracula Untold (2014 - Dracula) I, Frankenstein (2014 - Frankenstein) The Shape of Water (2017 - Creature from the Black Lagoon) The Mummy (2017 - Mummy) In the past few decades, Universal and other studios have tried to do modern retellings of these iconic movie characters but ironically, the very superheroes that were inspired from these ancient creatures took over in the Hollywood landscape during this time. The last I've heard of Universal wanting to go back to make more movies after the fallout of the 2017 Mummy was by having Blummhouse do remakes of these movies but in the style of recent slasher psychological films. Where monsters like Dracula (Sebastian Stan), Frankenstein (Javier Barden), and the Wolf man (Ryan Gosling) would be actual serious horror films of the modern era.
This reminds me, assuming you haven't already made one about Frankenstein, if you do you should explore how it is we all came to know the hunchback assistant as Igor, when his name was Fritz. That name seems to have come up in subsequent remakes and spoofs. There was an Igor in Bride of Frankenstein, but that was a completely different character.
This movie is legendary classic, but my favorite is Hammer's Dracula with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. PS: @MintyComedicArts Can you do video about Dracula 1958.
Some other truly great DRACULA movies (with excellent actors as the title villain giving excellent performances): Horror Of Dracula (Christopher Lee as Dracula) Dracula '79 (Frank Langella) Bram Stokers Dracula (Gary Oldman)😃
13:10 - This was the early days of SOUND cinema. The movie industry was well-established long before 1931. As for soundtracks, westerns were the first "talkies" to use music scores that were not, themselves, musicals. Good job as usual.
Have the DVD,VHS,and recorded on my DVR.....Greatest horror movie ever.I have all the old ones,Wolf Man,Invisible man.....And the Universal Book....My favorites........................Ralph Onofrio
Fun fact: Bela Lugosi never wore fangs as Dracula or any other vampire role. The only time he wore fangs was in his role of Ygor in Son of Frankenstein and Ghost of Frankenstein. Carlos Villarias didn't wear fangs either. The sad thing about Dracula is we have gone from Bela Lugosi's iconic horror performance that terrified audiences for generations ... to sparkling eternal teenagers who couldn't scare a fly. Yeeesh....
To me, this is still the BEST Dracula movie! There is SO MUCH to say about this masterpiece! To the score, the performances, the atmosphere, EVERYTHING was handled so well! Dwight Frye as Renfield is insane! The man really sold his performance here and I don't think much people give him enough praise. He was PERFECT! And speaking of perfect, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, OMG! When I think of Dracula or just mentioning his name Dracula, Lugosi always pops into my head first! ALWAYS! NO ONE could play Dracula as he could! The man IS Dracula! It's like how fans agree that Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones and Arnold Schwarzenegger IS The Terminator! Same can be said about Bela Lugosi, HE IS DRACULA! In fact, when Lugosi passed away, they buried him in a cape! Signifying that Lugosi is and will forever be THE Dracula! Also, here's another fact, whenever someone imitates Dracula, they ALWAYS use that Hungarian accent! Hmm...I wonder who they're imitating lol THAT'S how much of an infect Lugosi left as Dracula, baby! The film has aged of course, but I still love it and I still recommend if you haven't seen it! It might not be everyone's favorite Dracula movie (besides me). But it is indeed, ONE OF THE BEST!!!!!
Love ALL things vampire, Bela and Dwight were fantastic in their roles, then in 1992 cam Bram Stokers Dracula with Gary Oldman…I felt remorse and anger with people wanting to hurt Dracula, loved him with Mena (Winona Ryder)
