1931—Tod Browning, director—starring Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners
A stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula was first seen in Britain in 1924, and then in an American revision on Broadway in 1927. It was these productions which established Count Dracula’s “look”—formal evening attire plus a long black cape—which was carried forward into Universal Pictures’ 1931 film, Dracula. The movie made a star of Hungarian-born Bela Lugosi (who had played the Count in the play’s Broadway run); and its success prompted Universal to turn right around and produce Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), and a whole series of “monster movies”—many of which featured Lugosi—through the Thirties and Forties.