Dracula/Trivia

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Trivia for the Bram Stoker novel:

• Working Title: Originally The Dead Un-dead, which became just The Un-dead, then Count Wampyr, before Stoker happened upon a book of Wallachian history and fell in love with the name "Dracula."

Trivia for 1931 film:

• Foreign Remake: Spanish-language version Drácula was filmed on the same set at nights.
  • The Spanish-language version is considered by many film afficionados to be superior to the English version in most respects. Too bad its Dracula's acting is terrible...
• Missing Episode: Original version had an epilogue spoken by Edward Van Sloan. It was removed in 1936 and now it's considered to be lost.
• Prop Recycling: The sets for Castle Dracula and Carfax abbey were re-used many times by Universal on the following decade.
  • The Royal Albert Hall sequence was filmed on the set of silent Phantom of the Opera from 1925.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The film's opening music is from the second act of Swan Lake. The orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall is playing the overture to Richard Wagner's Meistersinger.
  • Justified in that the technique of scoring films was close to impossible in 1931, so composing an entire score was unreasonable at the time. While most would agree that the eerie silence is what gives the film its undeniable air of horror, Universal commissioned composer Philip Glass to compose a new score in 1998.
• Stock Footage: When Dracula and Renfield travel to London, the outdoor scenes of their ship are taken from the silent film The Storm Breaker from 1925.
• What Could Have Been: If he hadn't died, the role of Dracula would have gone to Lon Chaney.