Editing Tod Browning (section)

=== ''Dracula'' (1931): The first talkie horror picture ===
{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk | fontsize=100%|salign=center | quote="I am Dracula." – Bela Lugosi's iconic introduction as the vampire Count Dracula<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 154</ref>}}

Browning's ''[[Dracula (1931 English-language film)|Dracula]]'' initiated the modern horror genre, and it remains his only "one true horror film."<ref>Sobchack, 2006 p. 29: "Browning made only one true horror film, Dracula (1931)."</ref> Today the picture stands as the first of Browning's two sound era masterpieces, rivaled only by his [[Freaks (1932 film)|''Freaks'']] (1932).<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 158<br />Conterio, 2018: "Dracula (1931) and Freaks (1932) – his two most famous and enduring titles..."<br />Nixon, 2003 TCM "Dracula became Browning's most successful and lasting film, matched in film history only by what many consider his masterpiece, the unique and astonishing Freaks (1932)."<br />Morris, 1998: "Hugely popular and vastly influential, this is the ''magna carta'' of vampire movies and the first of the great cycle of Universal horror films."<br />Thomson, 2010: "The year 1931 was a turning moment in film horror history..."</ref> The picture set in motion Universal Studios' highly lucrative production of vampire and monster movies during the 1930s.<ref>Barson, 2021: "Dracula was an enormous success and was the first of the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s and '40s."</ref> Browning approached Universal's [[Carl Laemmle Jr.]] in 1930 to organize a film version of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''[[Dracula]]'', previously adapted to film by director [[F. W. Murnau]] in 1922.<ref>Thomson, 2010: "Browning had already approached Universal with the idea of doing Dracula at the studio, with Lon Chaney. The Bram Stoker novel had become a sensation on the New York stage in 1927 ..."<br />Eaker, 2016: "Tod Browning's Dracula is often unfairly compared to Murnau's unauthorized [[Nosferatu]], and it is an unfair comparison because the two are very different films, which merely happen to share the same literary inspiration."</ref>

In an effort to avoid copyright infringement lawsuits, Universal opted to base the film on [[Hamilton Deane]]'s and [[Louis Bromfield]]'s melodramatic stage version ''[[Dracula (1924 play)|Dracula]]'' (1924), rather than Stoker's novel.<ref name=":8">Bronfen, 2006 p. 158</ref><ref>Thomson, 2010: "The Bram Stoker novel had become a sensation on the New York stage in 1927..."</ref>

Actor Lon Chaney, then completing his first sound film with director [[Jack Conway (filmmaker)|Jack Conway]] in a remake of Browning's silent ''[[The Unholy Three (1925 film)|The Unholy Three]]'' (1925), was tapped for the role of Count Dracula.<ref>Sobchack, 2006 p. 29: Dracula (1931) "originally slated for Lon Chaney..."</ref> Terminally ill from lung cancer, Chaney entered negotiations for the project. The actor died a few short weeks before shooting was set to commence on ''Dracula'' — a significant personal and professional loss to long-time collaborator Browning.<ref>Sobchack, 2006 p. 36: "Chaney's connection with Browning was, at the very least, catalytic."<br />Baxter, 1970 p. 100: "Browning had hoped to use Chaney in Dracula, but the actor died in August 1930, just after completing work on his first sound film, a remake by Jack Conway of his 1925 success The Unholy Three..."<br />Harvey, 2009: Chaney's "complications from pneumonia and lung cancer ...spiraled out of control. He'd been originally cast as the star..."<br />Nixon, 2003 TCM: "Universal first intended to make the picture with Lon Chaney, under the guidance of Chaney's frequent director, Tod Browning."</ref> Hungarian expatriate and actor Bela Ferenc Deszo Blasco, appearing under the stage name [[Bela Lugosi]], had successfully performed the role of Count Dracula in the American productions of the play for three years.<ref>Bronfen, 2006 pp. 158, 159</ref> According to film historian David Thomson, "when Chaney died, it was taken for granted that Lugosi would have the role in the film."<ref>Thomson, 2010<br />Baxter, 1970 p. 100: Due to Chaney's terminal illness "Browning had to use the Hungarian Bela Lugosi, who had played the role on Broadway."<br />Harvey, 2009: "With Chaney gone, the role went to its stage interpreter, Hungarian thespian Bela Lugosi..." <br />Barson, 2021: "Lugosi had already played the part [of Dracula] onstage for three years, and that version was the primary basis for the film."<br />Brogan, year: "Browning originally wanted Chaney for Dracula and was reportedly unhappy with Bela Lugosi's portrayal."</ref>

{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk | fontsize=100%|salign=center | quote= The most awesome powers of control belong to the vampires, and Browning's attitude toward these undead poses a particularly intriguing problem. The vampires depend, for support, upon the infirm and innocent elements of society the Browning scorns. They sustain themselves through the blood of the weak...but they are vulnerable to those with the determination to resist them. – Stuart Rosenthal in ''Tod Browning: The Hollywood Professionals, Volume 4'' (1975)<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 pp. 16–17</ref>}}

Lugosi's portrayal of Count Dracula is inextricably linked to the vampire genre established by Browning. As film critic Elizabeth Bronfen observes, "the notoriety of Browning's Dracula within film history resides above all else in the uncanny identification between Bela Lugosi and his role."<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 160<br />Barson, 2021: "Lugosi's " unctuous line readings that made him inseparable from the character of the elegant vampire.<br />Eaker, 2016: "Lugosi himself discussed how intensely Browning directed his acting in the film, stating that the direction was very different than the way he had played the part on Broadway."</ref> Browning quickly establishes what would become Dracula's— and Bela Lugosi's—''sine qua non'': "The camera repeatedly focuses on Dracula's hypnotic gaze, which, along with his idiosyncratic articulation, was to become his cinematic trademark."<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 153</ref> Film historian Alec Charles observes that "The first time we see Bela Lugosi in Tod Browning's Dracula...he looks almost directly into the camera...Browning affords the audience the first of those famously intense and direct into-the-camera Lugosi looks, a style of gaze that would be duplicated time and again by the likes of [[Christopher Lee]] and Lugosi's lesser imitators..."<ref>Charles, 2006 p. 81</ref> Lugosi embraced his screen persona as the preeminent "aristocratic Eastern European vampire" and welcomed his typecasting, assuring his "artistic legacy".<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 160: Bronfen provides a sympathetic sketch of Lugosi's post-Dracula career.<br />Eaker, 2016: "...Browning did have a rewarding collaborative partnership with...Lugosi, even if he did not find it as satisfying" as his association with Lon Chaney.</ref>

Film critic Elizabeth Bronfen reports that Browning's cinematic interpretation of the script has been widely criticized by film scholars. Browning is cited for failing to provide adequate "montage or shot/reverse shots", the "incoherence of the narrative" and his putative poor handling of the "implausible dialogue" reminiscent of "filmed theatre." Bronfen further notes critic's complaints that Browning failed to visually record the iconic vampiric catalog: puncture wounds on a victims necks, the imbibing of fresh blood, a stake penetrating the heart of Count Dracula. Moreover, no "transformation scenes" are visualized in which the undead or vampires morph into wolves or bats.<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 157: "Critics have repeatedly faulted Browning for not having adequately used the filmic means available to him, by letting not only the vampires fatal bites but also his own death occur off screen..." And pp. 158–159: Bronfen includes David Skal and James Ursine among Browning critics on these matters. And p. 163: "Browning does not show the actual consummation of the Count's lust."</ref>

Film critics have attributed these "alleged faults" to Browning's lack of enthusiasm for the project. Actor [[Helen Chandler]], who plays Dracula's mistress, Mina Seward, commented that Browning seemed disengaged during shooting, and left the direction to cinematographer Karl Freund.<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 159: "This shift in attitude is often attributed to Browning ...had wanted Lon Chaney for the part of the Count" but had Chaney had declined the role "because of the progressive stage of his throat cancer... [and died] during the shooting." And: See Chandler's observations on Browning.<br />Nixon, 2003 TCM: "According to David Manners, the production was "extremely disorganized." Asked about the experience of working with Tod Browning, Manners said, "It's funny you should ask. Someone asked me who directed [Dracula] and I had to say, I hadn't the faintest idea!...the only directing I saw was done by Karl Freund, the cinematographer."<br />Towlson, 2012: "...Karl Freund (who himself had ambitions to direct, took advantage of Browning's problems with Universal on Dracula to direct The Mummy)."</ref>

Bronfen emphasizes the "financial constraints" imposed by Universal executives, strictly limiting authorization for special effects or complex technical shots, and favoring a static camera requiring Browning to "shoot in sequence" in order to improve efficiency.<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 158: Universal "categorically opposed any hefty additional production costs...forced to shoot the film in sequence [and a] frugal use of special effects" enforced by studio management.</ref> Bronfen suggests that Browning's own thematic concerns may have prompted him—in this, 'the first talkie horror picture'—to privilege the spoken word over visual tricks.":

{{blockquote|Browning's concern was always with the bizarre desires of those on the social and cultural margins. It is enough for him to render their fantasies as scenic fragments, which require neither a coherent, nor a sensational story line... the theatricality of his filmic rendition emphasizes both the power of suggestion emanating from Count Dracula's hypnotic gaze and Professor Van Helsing's will power, as well as the seduction transmitted by foregrounding the voices of the marginal and monstrous... even the choice of a static camera seems logical, once one sees it as an attempt to savour the newly discovered possibilities of sound as a medium of seductive film horror.<ref>Bronfen, 2006 pp. 159–160</ref>}}

The scenario follows the vampire Count Dracula to England where he preys upon members of the British upper-middle class, but is confronted by nemesis Professor Van Helsing, ([[Edward Van Sloan]]) who possesses sufficient will power and knowledge of vampirism to defeat Count Dracula.<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 pp. 16–17: Van Helsing's "will is strong."<br />Eaker, 2016: "The Dracula of Browning and Lugosi is an outsider...who comes to nourish on the aristocratic London Society, who he, paradoxically, yearns to join."</ref> Film historian Stuart Rosenthal remarks that "the Browning version of Dracula retains the Victorian formality of the original source in the relationships among the normal characters. In this atmosphere the seething, unstoppable evil personified by the Count is a materialization of Victorian morality's greatest dread."<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 35</ref>

A number of sequences in ''Dracula'' have earned special mention, despite criticism concerning the "static and stagy quality of the film."<ref>Sobchack, 2006 p. 29: "Much has been written by various critics about the static and stagy quality of the film...Nonetheless, every critic who emphasizes the film's 'uncinematic' qualities goes on to describe those 'few' scenes that ''are'' cinematic. Indeed, there is quite a list."<br />Eaker, 2016: "The much maligned second half of the film shifts perspective, but still does not resemble a real world at all and casts an aquatic spell over the receptive viewer."</ref> The dramatic and sinister opening sequence in which the young solicitor Renfield ([[Dwight Frye]]) is conveyed in a coach to Count Dracula's Transylvanian castle is one of the most discussed and praised of the picture. [[Karl Freund]]'s [[German Expressionism (cinema)|Expressionistic]] technique is largely credited with its success.<ref>Nixon, 2003 TCM: "The opening sequence of Dracula, with its Transylvania setting, is among the finest work Browning ever did on screen, and it owes much to cameraman Karl Fruend."<br />Bronfen, 2006 p. 152: "Most critics have praised the opening sequences of Dracula for its convincing cinematic dramaturgy, attributing it primarily to [cameraman] Karl Freund..."<br />Eaker, 2016: "The introduction to the inhabitants of Castle Dracula is among the most discussed in the annals of Universal Horror...The static silence is punctuated with genuine dread, surreal humor, and the unnerving whimpers of an opossum. Karl Freund's camera pans over a decidedly unreal set..."<br />Sobchack, 2006 p. 29: "...the artistry of Renfield's (Dwight Frye) carriage ride to Castle Dracula" [Sobchack quoting critic Roy Huss]</ref>

Browning employs "a favorite device" with an animal montage early in the film to establish a metaphoric equivalence between the emergence of the vampires from their crypts and the small parasitic vermin that infest the castle: spiders, wasps and rats.<ref>Rosenthal, 1975 p. 54: "In Dracula, Browning clarifies some of the early action by means of one of his favorite devices, an animal montage in which a particularly sinister event is intercut with shots of small creatures. As each of Dracula's wives emerges from her tomb a rooting rat disappears behind a ledge or a wasp pulls itself from a tiny coffin-shaped compartment. The metaphor defines the nature of the vampire and conveys the impression of a reawakening of evil and parasitic search for sustenance."</ref> Unlike Browning's previous films, ''Dracula'' is not a "long series of [illusionist] tricks, performed and explained"<ref name=":9" /> but rather an application of cinematic effects "presenting vampirism as scientifically verified 'reality'."<ref>Solomon, 2006 p. 58: "Unlike Browning's Dracula (1931), which uses largely cinematic effects to ultimately present vampirism as scientifically verified 'reality', London After Midnight presents apparently supernatural phenomena as the work of stage magic."<br />Bronfen, 2006 pp. 167–168: "The danger of Browning's vampire consists precisely in the fact that it isn't corporeal but spectral." [Count Dracula's figure produces no reflection in a mirror.] The illusionist legerdemain is not explained to the movie audience.</ref>

Despite Universal executives editing out portions of Browning's film, Dracula was enormously successful.<ref>Conterio, 2018: "Dracula (1931)...[was] altered by Universal to avoid offending the public and religious groups...Dracula was recut for its 1936 rerelease, shorn of roughly 10 minutes and tweaks made to the soundtrack (the muting of Dracula's death sigh, for example)."<br />Eaker, 2016: In his original edit, Dracula was ten minutes longer and was even more deliberately paced, with Lugosi's count almost entirely invisible during the second half...But, Universal spoiled that by cutting several scenes and adding close-up shots of the vampire grimacing, much to Browning's permanent dismay (he refused to ever watch the film again)."</ref> Opening at New York City's [[Roxy Theatre (New York City)|Roxy Theatre]], ''Dracula'' earned $50,000 in 48 hours, and was Universal's most lucrative film of the [[Great Depression|Depression Era]].<ref>Bronfen, 2006 p. 158: "After its opening night on February 13, 1931, at the Roxy Theatre in New York City, it sold over 50,000 tickets within the first two days, bringing in a profit of $700,000 in the first year. As the most commercially successful film for Universal during the Depression."</ref> Five years after its release, it had grossed over one million dollars worldwide.<ref name=":8" /> Film critic Dennis Harvey writes: "Dracula's enormous popularity fast-tracked Browning's return to MGM, under highly favorable financial terms and the protection of longtime ally, production chief [[Irving Thalberg]]."<ref>Harvey, 2009</ref><ref>Barson, 2021: "The success of Dracula enabled Browning to flourish throughout the early 1930s."</ref>