Unofficial Book-To-Movie Review: 'Dracula's Death'

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

One reason I'm calling today's post an "Unofficial" Book-To-Movie (BTM) is because this review of a movie adaptation of a book is not resuming the BTM series of posts [link]. That monthly series is still on hiatus until I release "Bad Apps" which I still don’t have a specific date for but am getting towards the end of the revision process for the whole book. Another reason for titling this post the way I did is because it can’t really be called a review. That’s because I did not view the movie in question since it cannot be viewed. (You’ll find out why in a bit.) I recently found out that in my BTM of the 1922 silent film, "Nosferatu", I had gotten two things wrong: 1) I said that the movie was the first film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula"; and 2) that Universal's 1930s "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi was only the first legally made adaptation of the novel. (I’ll be revising that post soon.) There was a Dracula film that predated even "Nosferatu" by one year and was legally produced: the Austrian-Hungarian-made "Drakula Halala", AKA "Dracula's Death". 

A Film that Mysteriously Disappeared

"Dracula's Death" is a very little known film from the silent era. That’s because it’s a lost film. It’s existence was, presumably, discovered in the 1990s as the first Dracula movie since  Gary D. Rhodes cites  in his 2010 article, “Drakula Halala (1921): The Cinema’s First Dracula”, a 1997 source by a J. Farkas when he talks about film historians making the discovery. The film had mysteriously disappeared from its nations of origin and release, Austria and Hungary. Rhodes says, "For reasons unknown, the film quickly disappeared from theatre screens in Hungary and Austria. No evidence has yet surfaced that Drakula halála was ever re-released in either country, or that it was screened in any other. The film seems to have vanished after the spring of 1923. That disappearance includes film prints of Drakula halála, none of which survive." 

Main Cast and Crew

According to Rhodes, the only things left of the movie that film historians have relied on to learn about it are still photos of the production and a 1924 novelization of the film by Lajos Pánczél. “Dracula’s Death” was directed by Károly Lajthay and written by him along with Michael Curtiz.  The latter of these two men, Rhodes explains, had worked on films with Bela Lugosi and would later direct Hollywood movies such as “Dr. X” (1932), “Mystery of the Wax Museum” (1933), and the all-time classic “Casablanca” (1943). The main stars of "Dracula's Death" are Paul Askonas as Drakula, and Margit Lux as Mary. 

Actor Paul Askanos as Drakula from the 1921 silent film, "Drakula Halala". Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

  

The Plot

"Dracula's Death" was very loosely adapted from Bram Stoker's novel. According to an IMDB synopsis, Young Mary visits her father at an insane asylum where she meets a patient who claims to be Dracula and then has terrifying visions that she is not sure are real or a nightmare. Eventually, according to a ScreenRant article, she is kidnapped by Dracula and taken to his castle which she attempts to escape. Far from Stoker's novel in which real estate agent Jonathon Harker sells an English house to the vampire who, upon moving in, wreaks havoc on the locals. 

However, there are several scenes and elements in "Dracula's Death" that may be recognisable to those who have read Stoker's book. One scene is the asylum. There’s also an asylum in Stoker's novel, only the madman in that one is actually Dracula's servant, Renfield. Another scene is in Dracula's castle where, like Jonathon at the beginning of the novel, Mary encounters several of Dracula’s vampire wives while held prisoner and must try to escape. The movie also has a dream-like quality to it as many parts of the novel do. For one, Mary is not sure if her experiences with the vampire are real or dreams. Also, as Rhodes cites an article from the movie's time, "I Attended a Wedding", the vampire women are "'dressed in dreamlike costumes'".  

So, where does this lost Dracula film predating "Nosferatu" leave the latter? It leaves "Nosferatu" as the first direct film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, although it was one that wasn't official. Still, it seems to have been far more true to the original novel than "Dracula's Death" seems to have been. 

In Progress

I'm on the oral proofreading stage of two of my short stories for "Bad Apps". I'm almost done proofreading "Game Night", and will be starting an oral proofreading of "Virtual Voodoo" soon. You can find out more details about the latest progress on these two stories and "Bad Apps" as a whole, in the upcoming issue of my free author's newsletter, "Night Creatures' Call". I'm hoping to have that out in the next couple of weeks. If you're not subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so here. 

I’m still working on the new background for A Far Out Fantastic Site. I ran into a problem with one of Blogger’s tools and so may have to manually put in the background using HTML code. I’ll try to have that in by next week.

Do you think "Dracula's Death" can be said to be a true adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, or do you think it sounds too far from the original story? 

Until next time . . .