"The Student Of Prague" and German Expressionist Horror 1913-1926

THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE;
Today German cinema of the silent era is known for it's iconic works of Expressionist Horror such as "Nosferatu", "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari", "Metropolis" and "Der Golem". In fact the Germans were rather late in producing film works of any note. The early decades of film from the 1890's to just before World War One belonged to the Americans, French, Italians, Danes, Swedes and to lesser extent the Russians while German films were mostly non-nondescript comedies, ribald burlesques and crime stories including several adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. German audiences were also quite happy to devour foreign films like the westerns of Bronco Billy, William S Hart and Tom Mix and the French comedies of Max Linder rather than demand any particularly distinctive homegrown product unlike the Italians and Russians who produced "Art Films" based on historical epics or the Danes and Swedes who produced films based on Nordic folklore and literary themes. These last films came to fascinate many German writers, stage directors and actors who felt a common Nordic kinship known as Expressionism.
Expressionism was a post-impressionist art movement influenced by the Dutch artist Van Gogh and more especially the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and the playwrite Ibsen which would inspire Germans who strongly identified with their themes of deep emotional turmoil constrained by bourgeois convention, a strong connection with nature and a shared Nordic heritage. They would make these themes their own with a passionate intensity and thoroughness adding to them philosophical strains from Goethe, Schiller, Nietzche and Freud and a willingness to experiment quite lacking in previous German film-makers. This ambitious vision came from stage directors and playwrites like Max Reinhardt and Frank Wedekind who produced ground-breaking plays which attacked bourgeois values as well as challenging conventional stage designs with minimalist sets influenced by constructionist and cubist art, impressionist lighting and dramatic and physical acting styles influenced by modern dance. Previously the Expressionist theatre world had not taken film very seriously as a medium thinking it fit only for low-brow entertainment but the Scandinavian films (which were quite popular in Germany, especially those of actress Asta Nielsen) convinced them of the artistic possibilities.
Max Reinhardt's theatre troupe contained many figures who would become crucial figures in Expressionist films including actors Conrad Veidt, Werner Krause, Emil Jannings, Paul Wegener, Max Shreck, John Gottowt, Lil Dagover ("Caligari"), Greta Schroder ("Nosferatu") and Lyda Salmonova ("Der Golem") along with directors Ernest Lubitsch and Paul Leni and set designer Ernest Stern. Reinhardt's own attempts at film direction starting with "Sumuran" in 1910 were failures. Reinhardt simply did not understand the new medium and merely shot his films with static cameras as if they were simply plays. This sort of approach had already gone out of style in America and France by this time and audiences in Germany, who were by then used to foreign films were bored by such a dull, out-of-touch approach. However some of his younger actors and directors learned these lessons and soldiered on.
The first to successfully make his mark was Paul Wegener with his 1913 film "The Student Of Prague". Wegener was one of Reinhardt's stage actors who had been considering the possibilities of film as dramatic medium capable of portrayal of fantasy after seeing an exhibition of trick photographs featuring a man fencing and playing cards with himself. Clearly the stage would not be up to such effects but film-makers such as George Melies and Segundo De Chomon had already shown how film could be used to create an unreal fantasy world. Melies and other fantasy film-makers were content to engage in childlike magic, however Wegener's aim was to use fantasy to explore expressionist themes of psychological horror. Working with a script written by Hanns Heinz Ewers, a novelist of Gothic horror already known for the novel "Alarune", they came up with a story about a young man selling his soul and revealing his inner demon. The story was based on the iconic (especially in Germany) story of Faust and the Devil along with Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde", Oscar Wilde's "Dorian Gray", Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson", Joseph Conrad's "Secret Sharer" Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Double" and a touch of Bram Stoker's "Dracula". Two other novels now forgotten but popular in Victorian times and thus possibly known to the writers might have been the trashy English Gothic potboilers "The Monk" by Mathew Lewis and "Memoth The Wanderer" by the Irish writer Charles Robert Maturin about characters selling their souls.



Wegener brought in director Stellan Rye and one of Germany's best cameramen Guido Seeber along with some other Reinhardt actors including John Gottowt and Lyda Salmonova, who would also be one of Wegener's many wives. The resulting film caused a sensation not only in Germany but also internationally becoming the first German film to do so aside from 1912 "Night And Ice", a well done but conventional docudrama about the Titanic sinking. With it's dark themes of obsession, guilt, greed, lust, betrayal and death the film exposed the hidden tormented soul behind the sober, conformist, respectable German bourgeois in the false dawn before the nightmare of The Great War and became the catalyst for the growth of German Expressionist film after the war.

"THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE" ~ 1913;


CAST;
Paul Wegener ~ Balduin, The Student
John Gottowt ~ Prof. Scapinelli, The Magician
Grete Berger ~ Countess Margit Von Schwarzenberg
Lyda Salmonova ~ Lyduschka, The Servant Girl
Lothar Korner ~ Count Von Schwarzenberg
Fritz Weidermann ~ Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg
Directed by Stellan Rye
PLOT SYNOPSIS (SPOILER ALERT!);
In 1821 Prague Balduin is a young university student of limited means. He is socially ambitious but rather decadent, preferring to drink, dance and gamble. He is also a champion fencer. Lyduschka is a pretty and flirtatious servant girl at the pub he frequents. She longs for Balduin but he is hoping to find a rich wife. Scapinelli is a magician who makes a deal to find Balduin a likely target. Countess Margit is a wealthy heiress who is already engaged to her cousin Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg as per her father's wishes although she does not love him. As the Countess and the Baron go off on fox hunt she rides off on her own and falls into a lake where she is rescued by Balduin who has been walking by with Scapinelli. Balduin returns to his small apartment to change and practice fencing where he is met by Lyduschka who gives him a bunch of flowers and flirts with him only to have him ignore her and take the flowers to give to the Countess whose estate he visits. She is there with her father the Count. She is happy to see Balduin but then Baron Waldis shows up with a much larger bouquet of flowers. The Baron is rude to Balduin and the Count quickly ushers him out. A dejected Balduin sheepishly returns home, still with his pathetic bunch of flowers. Scapinelli visits him and makes a proposal; he will pay Balduin one-hundred thousand pieces of gold in exchange for which Scapinelli may take any one item he wants from the room. As Balduin has nothing of value he readily agrees and signs a contract. Scapinelli gestures to a large full-length mirror Balduin uses for fencing practice and states that he will purchase Balduin's reflection. Balduin is dismissive until much to his shock his reflection does indeed step out of the mirror and walk slowly and silently towards the door before simply vanishing. Scapinelli laughs before exiting as well. Balduin is even more shocked to discover that he no longer has a refection in the mirror, although at the time he is inclined to laugh it off and enjoy his new found wealth.
The newly respectable Balduin is invited to a fancy ball where he pursues Countess Margit. He passes her a note asking her to meet him later even though she is to be married. Baron Waldis shows up and angrily pulls her away. Lyduschka has been spying on Balduin and witnesses this. As Balduin leaves he runs into his Doppelganger who mocks him before once again vanishing. Balduin is frightened at first but assumes he has been having a hallucination and laughs it off. Lyduschka has followed Countess Margit home and found the note Balduin gave Margit, she steals it and runs off. Balduin and Margit are having their tryst in a cemetery when the Doppelganger shows up and scares her away before disappearing. Balduin is now frightened.
Lyduschka goes to Baron Waldris' house and gives him the tryst note from Balduin to Margit. Waldris is outraged. He dismissively offers to pay her for the note but she indignantly refuses any money and gives him the note anyway before marching out. Baron Waldris calls on Balduin and challenges him to a duel which Balduin accepts. Count Von Schwarzenberg begs Waldris to call off the duel since Balduin is the finest fencer in Prague but Waldris arrogantly refuses. The Count then calls on Balduin and begs him to spare Waldris as he is the superior fencer and Waldris is both his proposed son-in-law and heir. Reluctantly Balduin agrees. Passing through a forest on his way to the duel Balduin is met by his Doppelganger who tells him he has already fought the duel and killed Waldris. The horrified Balduin runs to the spot of the duel where a crowd is gathering around the body of Waldris. He then rides to speak to the Count who refuses to see him. Balduin tries to forget his troubles by going to a fancy party and drinking alone. Lyduschka is at the party and flirts with him but he rejects her and leaves. Balduin attends a high-stakes card game where he wins until the other players quit and he is left alone. The Doppelganger then enters and sits down and invites Balduin to play him. The terrified Balduin runs away and tries to visit Margit, climbing over the fence of her estate. He climbs a latter into her room where he begs her forgiveness, crying in her lap. She is at first resistant but then relents. They kiss but when they parade together in front of a full length mirror and she discovers he has no reflection she is frightened. Before the distraught Balduin can explain the Doppelganger appears and Margit faints. The terrified Balduin flees out the window.
Balduin attempts to run away but at every turn he finds the Doppelganger impassively waiting for him. Eventually he flags down a coach and flees the city. When he exits the coach he discovers the coachman is in fact the Doppelganger. Balduin runs home, bars the door and arms himself with a dueling pistol. In his room Balduin sits at his desk to write a note (or confession?) when the Doppelganger appears. Balduin shoots him only to have the Doppelganger vanish. Balduin searches the room and finding no sign of his tormentor decides he is dead, especially when he grabs a mirror and discovers his reflection has returned to where it belongs. Balduin is overjoyed until he feels a pain in his chest. Checking it he discovers a bullet hole and crumples to the floor dead. Scapinelli enters the room and seeing Balduin's body takes the contract he had signed from his pocket and laughingly tears it up. Then he gives an elaborate bow before vanishing. Finis.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Gothic literary references in this clever story are obvious but ingenious. The "Faust" influence is overt, especially to a German audience, as when Balduin sold his reflection he was actually selling his soul and Scapinelli is obviously the Devil or at least one of his minions. The "Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde" influence is shown as the Doppelganger also reflects (so to speak) Balduin's dark side. The issue of a doppelganger had also been raised in Poes' "William Wilson", Dostoyevsky's "The Double" and Conrad's "Secret Sharer". As the reflection is destroyed Balduin also dies as had Dorian Gray with his portrait. That the soulless Balduin has no reflection is a convention taken from "Dracula". There is a notable difference though in that when Balduin makes his deal with the Devil he does not know who he is dealing with nor does he know he is selling his soul. By comparison Faust, Dr Jekyll, Dorian Gray and even Dracula knew exactly what deals they were making and made them anyway thinking they could handle the consequences. Balduin does not understand what he has sold until it is far too late. This changes the moral dynamic of the fable. Those characters had free-will and chose unwisely because of pride and ambition (Faust), intellectual arrogance (Jekyll), vanity (Dorian Gray) or the promise of immortality and power (Dracula). Balduin is certainly a selfish social climber but since he did not make even a somewhat informed choice he was in effect denied free will which makes him more of a victim than the others. There is no way of knowing if the film-makers Wegener and Ewers considered the ramifications of this change or not when they wrote the script. Were they dismissing or making a mockery of the very idea of free will as Sophocles had done in "Oedipus Rex"? Or did they not notice this at all?



A common theme that would later run through Expressionist film as identified by such influential critics as Fredrich Krakauer (in his landmark book "From Caligari To Hitler") and Lotte Eisner (the equally important "The Haunted Screen") is seen here in the manipulative figures who lead characters astray or control their minds. Characters such as Scapinelli, Dr Caligari, Dr Mabuse, Nosferatu, Lulu ("Pandora's Box"), Lola Lola ("Blue Angel") the mad scientists and magicians in "Der Golem", "Metropolis", "Aralune", "Homonculus", "Genuine" and "Warning Shadows" not to mention the film versions of "Faust" and "The Pied Piper" all show this was a real trend. Krackuer and Eisner saw this as a reflection of the innate German need to follow a strong leader that would later lead to Hitler. It's worth pointing out here that Hanns Heinz Ewers, who wrote the main script (as well as the novel "Alarune" which featured a beautiful, artificially created young (Briget Helm) was also made into a movie twice), would later become an enthusiastic Nazi including writing scripts for Nazi propaganda films and plays including one glorifying the notorious Storm Trooper Horst Wessel.
In fact the film is notable for it's time in having no really sympathetic characters at all. Let alone a hero. Balduin may be a victim but he is also a decadent wastrel, an utterly shameless social climber who makes it clear that he is after the Countess for her money and social position even though the Countess is not even especially attractive compared to the younger, prettier and more flirtatious Lyduschka. The servant girl actually really does love him although it's hard to see why since he consistently ignores her. She is not even motivated by money since when Waldris offers to pay her she indignantly refuses. That's not to forget that Lyduschka is still sneaky, possessive and vengeful as she spies on him and squeals to Waldris which she had to know would end in a duel. Waldris is an arrogant snob who is also marrying Margit for money and status even though she has openly told him she does not love him and is going through with the arranged marriage due to family loyalty which Waldris obviously has no problems with. Neither does her father who is marrying her off to a cousin she does not love to keep the title in the family. Accordingly Margit is more of a victim but she is still cheating on her fiance and quickly forgives Balduin for killing him, although under the circumstances we can probably give her a pass on some of that. Balduin is not a villain as he is not without conscience since he does agree to call off the duel (or at least not kill Waldris) and feels some guilt over his death. Or is that just fear? We don't really know. And Scapinelli is of course the Devil. So that leaves us with no heroes, a strange position for a film of the time but one German intellectuals at least found revelatory. Or liberating.

BALDUIN CONFRONTED BY HIS DOUBLE;


As for the actual film-making, it is pretty conventional and shows little of the innovative camera work or set design that would become the trademarks of Expressionist film after 1919. The direction is perfectly competent and efficient and moves at a quick pace, however there are even some archaic touches such when characters gesture towards the camera as if on stage, by 1913 the Scandinavians and American directors like DW Griffith were discouraging this sort of thing, although it was still common in French films. The rather clunky need to formally introduce each character was also on it's way out although still common in Italian and Russian films. There are some Expressionist touches in the filming however such as in the gambling scene which is shown surrounded by darkness, and the placing of Balduin in settings were he is dwarfed by architecture as the story progresses in contrast with the beginning where he is shown in sunshine and in settings where he seems more imposing. One later trademark of Expressionist film was it's use of elaborately constructed indoor sets which allowed film-makers to control every aspect of design and lighting as well to the extent of sometimes creating fantasy worlds as in "Caligari" and "Metropolis". Wegener would later pioneer this approach with his second version of "Der Golem" (1920) but in 1913 he was still working with natural settings as the Scandinavians had done. Wegener had in fact chosen Prague as a setting for both films because he felt the city's old quarter would be have suitable atmosphere, especially for a scene in a Jewish graveyard with some large primal looking tombstones. While Wegener was giving some thought to setting a proper atmosphere he was not yet taking control of his environments yet to set the mood. Ironically the Rabbis denied permission to film in the graveyard so he had to build a fake one. By the time he was making the second version of "Der Golem" he was building an entire town as a set. The double exposures where Balduin is confronted by the Doppelganger were not really a new process but they are well done and must have impressed audiences at the time. Such trick shots would also become a standard feature in German films.
Wegener would normally be an odd choice for the role of the student, he is a stocky, even bulky man, with heavy features and although he is actually more physically gracefull than he appears as when he fences, scurries up and down ladders and scampers over a high fence with evident ease, he is still clearly too old to be a student. One suspects that if he had not been in charge of the project he would not have been cast in the lead role. Still he was a thoughtful actor who had given much consideration to the new medium (he would also give lectures on the subject of film acting) and he is a confident presence who can display some subtlety. This is important since he is able to convey the two distinct but identical characters successfully even though he would have actually be acting to a blank wall at the time. His skill compares well to the actress playing the Countess who is still bound by the conventions of the stage. By contrast Lyda Salmonova as Lyduschka, is pretty, lively and flirtatious and comfortable on film. The most impressive performance is John Gottowt as Scapinelli, he gets the best costume; dressed in a frock coat, top hat, drape pants and spats with a bald vulture head. He minces with birdlike movements and perches on Balduin's desk like a vulture. If he were more chubby he could be the model for the Batman villain The Penguin. His appearance and style would be shown again in the 1919 film "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" (although the actor himself was not) as both Werner Krause's title character as well as the sneering clerk perched on his impossibly high desk. Gottowt would become an excellent character actor and would play another similar looking devious old man in "Genuine" as well as the Renfield character in "Nosferatu" and yet another creepy old clerk in "Waxworks".

BALDUIN MEETS SCAPINELLI;


Paul Wegener would become one of the founders of Expressionist Horror following up the next year with the influential "Der Golem" (now unfortunately lost aside from the last few scenes) which he would remake (as both actor and director) in 1920 as one of the most important horror films of all time. He would also fire off a critically acclaimed version of "The Pied Piper Of Hamlin" which has also been lost, and a version of Hanns Ewers mad scientist novel "Alarune" in 1928 among many other film credits. He would cast his then wife Lyda Salmonova as the female lead in both versions of "Der Golem" and "The Pied Piper" although they would later divorce and he would marry six times, once to Greta Schroder from "Nosferatu". He had a short career in Hollywood playing mad scientists before returning home when sound films came in. After that the rather rotund actor's days as a leading man were clearly over but he continued to act as a supporting player into the sound era even after the Nazi's took over. Unlike many other Expressionist artists and film-makers he did not flee Germany and continued to work including in some notorious propaganda films, including "Kolberg", generally seen as one of the most expensive disasters in film history. Unlike Hanns Ewers, Wegener was no Nazi though, (he had of course already used a Jewish story and characters with respect in "Der Golem") he reportedly gave money and some assistance to the underground although how much is impossible to know. He managed to avoid being swept up by the Gestapo purges after 1944 so they obviously did not see him as a real threat although his celebrity may have given him some protection. At any rate the post war West German government had no problems with him and he continued to play an elder statesman role in German film and stage including reviving a Jewish play in Berlin and doing charitable work until his death after having a heart attack on stage while acting in a play. He died two months later in 1948 aged 78.
Besides the movies Lyda Salmonova, a former stage actress and dancer originally from Czechoslovakia, made with Wegener she also appeared in a now lost if minor FW Murnau horror movie "The Hunchback & The Lady" with Werner Krause (of "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" and the 1926 "Student Of Prague" remake) and John Gottowt. She also appeared in some big budget historical epics like Lucrezia Borgia (1922) (starring Wegener and Conrad Veidt) and "The Loves Of The Pharaoh" (directed by Ernst Lubicsh and starring Emil Jannings)as well as in "The Pied Piper Og Hamlin" with Wegener. However she and Wegener divorced in 1924 and she retired to become an acting teacher. After the war she returned to Czechoslovakia and died in 1968.
John Gottowt's fate was considerably darker. He did appear in a few other important films horror including as the Renfield character in FW Murnau's iconic "Nosferatu" along with Robert Weine's "Genuine" and Paul Leni's "Waxworks" as well as Murnau's "The Hunchback & The Lady". However the rise of the Nazis led to his fleeing Germany as he was Jewish. He fled first to Denmark but then to Warsaw (which had a thriving Yiddish theatre and film community) which turned out to provide little shelter after the Nazi tanks rolled in. He was murdered in 1942 by the Nazis.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE 1926 REMAKE;



In the aftermath of World War One German film developed (to coin a phrase) with surprising speed, taking up the themes explored by Wegener's early films. He had followed up "The Student Of Prague" with other supernatural stories "The Pied Piper Of Hamlin", "The Yogi" and "The Golem" (1917). Unfortunately none of these films survive aside from a few stills and the last few minutes of "The Golem" which surfaced a few years ago. These films would inspire even darker films with more imaginative direction, lighting, and set design starting with Robert Wiene's "Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" in 1919 and his followups "Genuine" and "Rashkoliov" (AKA "Crime And Punishment"), FW Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1920) and Wegener's own remake of "The Golem" in 1920. These films would establish the Expressionist template; harsh contrasts in lighting and jagged editing to set a world of dreams and nightmares, elaborate and often fantastic sets, deeply emotional and sometimes stylized acting and story-lines that probed the darkness of the human psyche with themes of alienation, fear and guilt. It was inevitable that the film that effectively started the genre would be remade using proper expressionist techniques although it's a little surprising that Wegener himself didn't do it. Perhaps by 1926 the now 52 year old no longer had the clout to helm his own projects, he was certainly too old to play Balduin.
The film would be directed by Henrik Galeen who had previously worked with Wegener on as writer on "The Golem" and with Murnau on "Nosferatu". In the cast would be two iconic figures of Expressionist Horror, Conrad Veidt as Balduin and Werner Krause as Scapinelli. Veidt had played Cesare the Sleepwalker in "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" as well as Orlock in "The Hands Of Orlock", Ivan The Terrible in "Waxworks" and numerous other films. Krause had also been in "Caligari", as the title role and later in "Waxworks" as Jack The Ripper. The film would show that they had fully absorbed the lessons of expressionism in full flower.

"THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE" (1926);


CAST;
Conrad Veidt ~ Balduin
Werner Krause ~ Scapinelli
Elizza La Porta ~ Lyduschka, A Flower Girl
Agnes Esterhazy ~ Countess Margit Von Schwarzenberg
Fritz Alberti ~ Count Von Schwarzenberg
Ferdinand Von Alten ~ Baron Waldis
Leni Reiefenstahl ~ Unknown
Host Wessel ~ Unknown

Directed By Henrik Galeen

PLOT SYNOPSIS (SPOILER ALERT!);
The basic story in the changes little from the first film however the later film is twice as long as the first which gives Galeen more time to flesh out the story and characters. The story opens with foreboding with a shot of a tombstone in a Jewish cemetery with the epitaph "Here lies Balduin; He challenged the devil and lost. Since the German audience was already quite familiar with the story from the first film this would not have seen as a spoiler. There is a longer sequence introducing Balduin as student, drinking and fencing with his happy-go-lucky mates at a pub. Balduin himself is a dour, somber loner worried about his poor prospects. Lyduschka is once again carrying a torch for Balduin. After he rudely snubs her she publicly responds him with a song mocking his lack of money. Scapinelli is at the same pub and witnesses this. He offers Balduin a loan by Balduin brushes him of saying he needs a wealthy heiress to wed. Scapinelli vows to find him one. Balduin fences with a fellow student who had been laughing at him and wins
Meanwhile Countess Margit is shown at a fancy party and heading off with Baron Waldis on a fox hunt. As they ride Scapinelli watches from a hill top. He appears to command the fox to lead the riders through obstacles which cause Margit to fall from her horse in front of Balduin who runs to her rescue. She is smitten by him and gives him her cross pendant which had been knocked off. Baron Waldis rides up and fetches her. Balduin returns home a practices his fencing before storming out just Lyduschka has come to visit giving him a flower. He takes them and walks off. She sneaks into his room and begins cleaning up and polishing his boots. Balduin has gone to visit Countess Margit and her father the count. She is happy to see him and he is about to give her his solitary flower when Waldis shows up with a large bouquet to be welcomed by the Count. Balduin sheepishly shoves his own flower in his pocket and leaves. He arrives home in a bad mood to find Lyduschka still there. She tries to comfort him but he rebuffs her. She leaves dejected after she finds the flower he gave her tossed in the gutter. Scapinelli enters and makes the offer of 600,000 florins in exchange for anything he wishes from the room. Balduin laughingly agrees and signs the contract. When Balduin demands the money Scapinelli produces a small purse from which a seemingly endless rain of coins falls on the table. Balduin is shocked but accepts the money. Scapinelli then gestures to the full length mirror and invites Balduin's reflection to step out of the mirror which it slowly does.
A now wealthy Balduin is hosting a party at his lavish new house. While dressing he discovers he has no reflection in the mirror. He orders a massive bouquet of flowers and sends it to Countess Margit with and invite to his party which she accepts. Balduin enters the party while Margit is playing the piano, he gives her a flower. Baron Waldis is also in attendance, he angrily grabs the flower from Margit and crumples it. She storms off. Standing on a balcony she discovers a note from Balduin asking her to meet him and she agrees. Lyduschka sneaks into the party and witnesses this. Scapinelli also creeps in, in shadow form, and seizes the note without Balduin or Margit noticing and tosses it to Lyduschka who runs off. After Margit returns to the party and Balduin is left alone he is confronted with his Doppelganger who slowly stalks off with out speaking to the horrified Balduin. Margit and Balduin have a clandestine meeting in a cemetery during which he begs her not to marry Waldis and pledges his love. While they are embracing the Doppelganger arrives frightening Balduin but not Margit who does not see him. Lyduschka confronts Waldis and gives him the note from Baldin to Margit. Waldis angrily rides off to find Balduin and strikes him his sword. Balduin challenges him to a duel which Waldis accepts. Count Von Schwarzenberg implores Waldis to cancel the duel as Balduin is the finest fencer in Prague. Waldis refuses but allows Count Von Schwarzenberg to intercede with Balduin who he begs to spare Waldis. Balduin reluctantly agrees. Margit finds out about the deal but is assured Balduin will spare Waldis. At the duel site Balduin is late because his carriage has lost a wheel in a ditch so he sets off on foot. He meets his Doppelganger who informs him that the duel has taken place and Waldis is dead. Balduin is terrified and runs to the scene to find a crowd around Waldis' dead body. A depressed Balduin returns to see the Count and Countess but they refuse to see him. Balduin goes to a pub and drinks heavily while Lyduschka watches. He grabs and kisses her and becomes more rowdy throwing items around the pub and encouraging the other patrons to further debauchery finally trashing the pub. As the revels get out of hand Balduin becomes upset and leaves. The next day he is expelled from university. Balduin is winning money gambling with is friends when the news of his expulsion arrives and they all walk out. A dejected Balduin returns to his home and climbs into bed. Lyduschka enters and climbs into bed with him. At first he allows her to embrace him but when she asks him for Margit's cross pendant which he is still wearing he throws her out. Balduin leaves and wanders out in a stormy night to visit Margit. He tells her about his Doppelganger and shows her his lack of reflection. She is horrified and faints. The Doppelganger appears and confronts Balduin who runs away. The Doppelganger follows as Balduin first attempts to kill him with a club the Doppelganger simply vanishes. Balduin runs home through the storm but at every turn the Doppelganger is waiting for him. When Balduin gets home he locks himself in and arms himself with a dueling pistol. The Doppelganger appears and dares Balduin to shoot him which he does. The Doppelganger disappears while a full length mirror he had been standing in front of shatters. Balduin looks in the remaining shards of the mirror and discovers his reflection has returned. He is overjoyed but then feels a pain in his chest and finds a bullet hole. He collapses and dies. The film cuts to the opening shot of Balduin's tombstone again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time of the remake's filming in 1926 Expressionism was an established style with a visual language of it's own some which is used here to good effect. The entire final section where Balduin staggers and later flees through a raging storm past barren trees is almost perfectly Expressionist. Likewise the scene of Balduin crouching to see and finally caressing the reflection in the broken mirror and the final appearance of the Doppelganger in front of a now broken window pane with billowing curtains. There is also the scene where Scapinelli takes control of the fox hunt. He is shown on a hill-top silhouetted against a stormy sky with a twisted tree stump wearing a frock coat and top hat and umbrella looking distinctly demonic. In fact this version makes Scapinelli's demonic nature more explicit in this scene where he appears to have power over the fox and hounds as well as the elements. In the first film Margit simply falls off her horse into a pond but it is not made clear that any magic was involved. Similarly when Scapinelli dumps his endless shower of coins from his purse it should be obvious that this is magic since no small purse could possibly hold so many coins. Balduin seems to notice this but is overcome by greed as his only comment is; "Is that all for me?". On the other hand Galeen passes up two obvious chances for supernatural horror from the first film. One is when the Doppelganger steps out of the mirror for the first time. In the Wegener film the double strides around the room before the shocked Balduin before disappearing while in the second the scene simply ends as soon as he steps out. A bigger omission is the scene in the first film where the Doppelganger appears at the poker game to challenge Balduin to a game. Since a similar scene had also turned up in Fritz Lang's "Dr Mabuse, The Gambler" Galeen may have decided the audience would see it as derivative but it's still a glaring loss.

SCAPINELLI STALKS THE HUNT;


Notwithstanding any such minor reservations Galeen does a good job here and there are some good Expressionist effects using a moving camera following Balduin as he flees down the desolate road (that shot should have really gone on longer), a spinning camera during Balduin's drunken revels at the pub to show his disorientation and a later brilliant shot directly after where a shot of wildly sawing blade is superimposed over his head. The film also makes use of another expressionist standard, the symbolism of inanimate objects, Scapinelli's umbrella is a stand-in for a magic wand, the flowers which are given, refused and finally discarded, and of course Balduin's sword which allows for a clearly sensual subtext when Lyduschka caresses it lovingly while cleaning his room. The art direction was by Hermann Warm who had worked on the iconic Expressionist film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", Fritz Lang's 1921 film "Destiny" and later the 1931 Danish horror classic "Vampyr".

SCAPINELLI'S SHADOW STALKS BALDUIN;


The biggest change from the first film is really the acting however. Paul Wegener was solid enough but by 1926 Conrad Veidt was one of the finest actors in Germany if not the world. His sensitive portrayals of tortured souls like Cesare (from "Dr Caligari"), Orlock ("Orlack's Hands"), Ivan The Terrible ("Waxworks") and numerous others helped set the standard for the doomed expressionist hero. He wears his emotions on his sleeve; guilt, terror, dejection, frightened relief, desperation all come off him in waves. His face, with his oddly high domed forehead, wild shock of hair, enormous eyes and nervous shark-like grin is is highly expressive and the opposite of Wegener's impassive glower. He also has great physical grace as he had already displayed in his earlier films. When he is terrified or dejected it seems to rock or drag down his entire body. Such emotional physicality had become a standard motif of Expressionist film as seen in scenes where Balduin kneels in front of Margit begging forgiveness and placing his head in her lap while she caresses his hair, a common image in German film of the era. Veidt's wonderfully expressive face is shown to full effect (as for that matter are Werner Krause, Elizza La Porta and Grete Berger) by the films use of closeups, something lacking in the first film.

CONRAD VEIDT;


Werner Krauss as Scapinelli was the other well known star here having appeared as Dr Caligari as well as Jack The Ripper in "Waxworks". He is suitably menacing here but does not have the hunched, crab-like posture of Dr Caligari. He is actually more naturalistic than the lesser known John Gottowt from the earlier film both in his manner and his wardrobe. Eliza La Porta as Lyduschka actually looks like Lyda Salmonova from the first film and behaves in much the same flirtatious way although she is more given more to do here and her obsession with Balduin is made more explicit. Similarly Agnes Esterhazy is given slightly more to do than Grete Berger as Margit. She is also younger and more attractive although I'm not sure that is an improvement since Balduin's attraction to her as opposed to the prettier Lyduschka is clearly due to her having money and social status.

A note that two other actors reportedly appear in minor roles, perhaps little more than extras, who would later go on to greater fame or infamy. Leni Reiefenstahl, later the documentary director of Nazi propaganda films "The Triumph Of The Will" and "Olympia" was at this point an ambitious and strikingly attractive up-and-coming actress who had already appeared as little more than a model of physical perfection in one other movie documentary, with her first starring role later that year, she is presumably one of the women at one of the parties. Horst Wessel was at this point a university student and member of various far-right groups, while he was not an actor he was an amateur musician and poet who was also a member of fencing and boxing clubs and could be one of the group of rowdy students or musicians. In another year he would join the Nazi party's Brownshirts and take part in their street brawls until 1930 when he would be murdered in one of them. A song he wrote for the Brownshirts would then become their anthem as "The Horst Wessel Song".

BALDUIN MEETS HIS DOUBLE;


An additional note here is that while both films have clearly Jewish characters they are in no way anti-Semitic. In fact it's worth pointing out that while Balduin, and presumably the other main characters, are not only Jews but respectable members of the lower aristocracy and no different than any proper German junkers. Lest this be seen today as odd coming from a German film of the era it should be noted as well that Wegener also dealt with even more explicitly Jewish characters and settings in "Der Golem" (where the Imperial Austrians are the actually the villains) and Veidt would do the same in the 1936 British version of "Jud Suss" (as opposed to the hateful 1940 Nazi version) and he would also play sympathetic gay characters in a few films. Veidt's wife was also Jewish as was one of Wegener's six wives wives That Weimar culture could allow for such openness while Hollywood was still trading in racist stereotypes of all sorts is worth remembering.
Conrad Veidt would continue to make successful films in Germany until he was lured away by German director Paul Leni when he moved to Hollywood. Leni cast Veidt in the Gothic horror film "The Man Who Laughs" in 1928 and when Leni was given the job of bringing Dracula to the screen he immediately saw Veidt in the title role. Unfortunately Leni died suddenly in 1929 and with his patron and fellow countryman dead, Veidt, speaking little English and worried about typecasting dropped out and returned to Germany. After much searching the role of course went to Bela Lugosi leaving us to wonder what kind of brooding intensity Veidt might have brought to the role. In Germany he continued his career until the Nazis took power in 1933 and Veidt, whose wife was Jewish, fled back to Hollywood. He learned English and returned to the screen in films like "Jud Suss" and "Under The Robe" (as Cardinal Richelieu) before scoring the most famous sound roles as evil Nazis including the major in "Casablanca". His career seemed assured when he suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack while playing golf in 1943. He was only 50 years old.
Director Henrik Galeen would finally work with Paul Wegener in "Aralune" (1928) another horror film about a mad scientist creating artificial life also starring Brigitte Helm of "Metropolis" fame. However he as also a Jew and like Gottowt had to flee Germany after the Nazi takeover. He fled first to Sweden, then Britain before finally landing in Hollywood but did nothing of note before dying in 1949.
Werner Krauss would have very different career, and one far less honorable. Unlike Veidt and other German film-makers and actors such as Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Lang, Paul Weine, Douglas Sirk, Briggitte Helm, Asta Neilson and Hans Richter, he stayed in Germany after Hitler came to power. Also unlike some who also stayed, like Paul Wegener, Krauss became an avowed Nazi. Thus he had no problem finding work during the Hitler years. In fact he was named as Reichskulturkammer theatre department and a "Cultural Ambassador" for Nazi Germany. However none of the many movies the Nazis made were of much note and it mostly as the iconic Dr Caligari he is remembered today. After the war he spent some years in disgrace due to his Nazi past but was eventually considered rehabilitated enough to rejoin the German film community, more as a respected figure of the past than as a real creative force. He died in 1959.

BALDUIN TRIES TO FLEE THROUGH A TYPICAL EXPRESSIONIST URBAN SET;


"The Student Of Prague" would get a German sound remake in 1935 directed by Arthur Robison and starring Anton Walbrook.

The Men Who Would Be Dracula

So iconic has become the image of Bela Lugosi, so definitive to the role of the greatest vampire that it comes as a surprise to hear that he was actually not the first choice for the role. He was not the second choice either, or third or fourth. There was in fact a long list of possible Draculas that the film makers went though before settling on Bela Lugosi.

BELA LUGOSI;


Bela was a veteran Hungarian actor with the tongue twisting name of Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó who started out in Hungarian and German films with supporting roles in several silent movies and who had actually been playing the role of Dracula in a very successful Broadway version for a few years after coming to America. However he was little known outside Broadway and Universal Studios was probably concerned that his stagey acting style would translate badly to the screen as well as about his shaky grasp on the English language.

CONRAD VEIDT;

The original choice for director was Paul Leni, a German who had directed the 1924 German horror film "Waxworks" with Conrad Veidt. Moving to Hollywood he made the Horror/Comedy "The Cat & The Canary" (1927) and the Gothic Horror "The Man Who Laughs" (1928) again with Veidt. Accordingly he planned to cast Veidt in the title role. Veidt had a long career in Germany where he had starred in some of the most iconic horror films of the era. He played Cesare, the ghostly sleepwalker in "The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari", as well the title role in "The Hands Of Orlock" (both directed by Robert Wiene) in which he played a concert pianist whose hands are amputated and replaced by those of a killer, who begins to take over Orlack's mind. In "Waxworks" he played a homocidal statue of Ivan The Terrible that awakes and in "The Student Of Prague" he played the double role of the young student who sells his soul to Satan and his evil twin who is in fact the dark side of his soul come to life. By 1928 he had come to Hollywood at the urging of Leni who cast him in "The Man Who Laughs" in which he played a nobleman who is disfigured by having a permanent smile carved into his face. This character and the makeup used for it was the inspiration for the Joker character in Batman. In many ways Veidt was the German version of Chaney in that he also played his characters as tragic loners rather than monsters. Veidt was, like Chaney, a superb actor with a deeply emotional style and great physical grace which no doubt caught Browning's eye. Veidt would have no doubt played Dracula as Chaney would have, as a tragic loner. This is probably what original director Paul Leni had in mind before he died in 1929 as well given their previous collaboration. Unfortunately Leni died suddenly in 1929 of in infected tooth aged only 44 and the project was assigned to American director Tod Browning. Veidt spoke little English and all his previous triumphs had been on the silent screen. Even though the character was European and would have an accent, Veidt did not feel comfortable taking on leading role with his limited, heavily accented English and he worried about typecasting. He may have also been leery of working with the alcoholic American Browning. He turned down the role and returned to Germany. However with the coming to power of the Nazi's in 1933 he reconsidered his prospects. Veidt was married to a Jewish woman and like many other actors and artists they fled Germany for America. He returned to Hollywood where he learned English and resumed his acting career taking the role as the villainous Nazi commander in "Casablanca" this triumph seemed to re-establish him but he died suddenly of a heart attack while playing golf in 1943.

CONRAD VEIDT IN "THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI";


Browning was probably not sorry to see Veidt go as he had ideas of his own. Browning was a veteran of the silent screen who was known as a moody and erratic man with a serious drinking problem, but he also had a taste for the weird and Gothic as shown by his later classic film "Freaks". He had also made several silent films with the greatest character actor of the silent film; Lon Chaney. Not surprisingly Chaney was Browning's first choice to play the great vampire lord.

LON CHANEY;
Lon Chaney had carved out a name for himself in the classic silent horror films "The Phantom Of The Opera" and "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame". He had even played a vampire character in "London After Midnight". World famous as The Man Of A Thousand Faces for his uncanny skill at devising elaborate disguises in playing such believable characters as an Chinese coolie in "Outside The Law", an armless gypsy knife thrower in "The Unknown", the legless gangster in "The Penalty" or the crippled grifter in "The Miracle Man". However Chaney was more than just a master of disguise, he was also a superb actor whose emotionally complex and strikingly modern acting style still stand out today compared to many of his peers who can seem stagey to today's viewers. He was also a very physical actor, tall and imposing with great strength and the dexterity of a dancer. He specialized in tortured villains who are racked by guilt and loneliness, that audiences sympathized with as well as fearing. Characters like Eric in "Phantom Of The Opera", the Hunchback, the legless mobster in "The Penalty", the armless gypsy in "The Unknown", the crippled vice lord in "Road To Mandalay" or the terrorist in "Ace Of Hearts" were not just killers but tragic and even tormented figures. Chaney was reportedly enthusiastic about the role and happy to work with Tod Browning as the two had made several excellent movies including "The Unholy Three" which they had just remade as a sound film. There can be little doubt that Chaney would have played Dracula as one of his many tormented demons, doomed to a literal eternity of loneliness in search of his long lost love. Later actors such as Gary Oldman and Klaus Kinski (in the remake of "Nosferatu") would indeed play him that way. Unfortunately by 1930 Chaney (who was a chain smoker) was dying of throat cancer and the Chaney/Browning remake of "The Unholy Three" would be his first and last sound film. In fact by the end of filming he was no longer able to speak above a whisper and the ending had to be re-shot to enable him to wave goodbye as his train pulled away since he could no longer speak the lines. He died that year.

LON CHANEY IN "LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT;


PAUL MUNI;

Browning now turned to another respected European character actor, albeit this time one who had been living in America for years and spoke perfect English. Born in Liviv in 1895 in the Austrian controlled Ukraine from a family of Jewish actors (Edward G Robinson was a cousin), his full name was Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund and his family moved to Chicago when he was seven. He took up acting in the local Yiddish theatre and changed his name to the more manageable Paul Muni. Graduating to Broadway he became known for playing a variety of exotic characters and his skill at makeup which earned him the title of "The Yiddish Lon Chaney" so it's not surprising that Browning was interested in him in spite of the fact that he was not exactly a household name in spite of his rave reviews. Muni was an early exponent of what would later be called "method acting" carefully researching his roles and immersing himself completely. Even though Muni would never be known to horror fans he would no doubt have made an interesting and complex Dracula. Muni was also known for being highly choosy in his roles, this was unusual in an era when most actors, including big names like Edward G Robinson, Jimmy Cagney and Humphrey Bogart had to play whatever their studio said and it is a measure of his toughness and his renown that he was always able to insist on his choice of roles. He once turned down an incredible $800,000 contract, a huge sum in those days, because he wouldn't have creative control. Whatever his reasons for turning down Dracula, it probably wasn't money. He probably didn't look back either. In 1932 he became a huge star with title roles in "Scarface" and "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" for which he was nominated for his first Oscar. Muni would go on to a glittering career playing detailed historical roles, and winning an Oscar in for "The Story Of Louis Pasteur" in 1935 and getting nominations five more times. Dissatisfied with Hollywood he turned down a contract renewal and returned to the stage in the early 1940's winning a Tony Award for the stage version of "Inherit The Wind" in 1955 although he did return to the screen for a few more films before retiring for good in 1959 due to his deteriorating eyesight. He died in 1967 aged 71.

PAUL MUNI AS "SCARFACE" (trailer);


WILLIAM POWELL;

Best known for his roles as coolly ruthless detectives Philo Vance and Nick Charles (AKA The Thin Man) in a series of movies from 1929 to the 1940's, Powell already had a long career as a leading man dating back for years. He appeared in supporting roles in silent films starting with 1922's version of "Sherlock Holmes" (with John Barrymore) and the original versions of "Beau Geste", "The Great Gatsby" and "The Four Feathers" before graduating to leading man roles. The coming of sound did not hurt his career as he had a urbane dry wit. He was also known for his slicked back hair, pencil mustache and dark eyes so casting him as Dracula was not a bad idea. It's not know whether he turned down the role or the casting was reconsidered. His career did not suffer as he continued on for over a decade with a successful career that would include three Oscar nominations.

WILLIAM POWELL;


ARTHUR EDMUND CAREWE;

Best known today, if at all, for appearing opposite Lon Chaney in his classic "Phantom Of The Opera" as the menacing Ledoux. Carewe was originally from Armenia and named Hovsep Hovsepian (that certainly explains the name change) although he had been living in America since he was about eight. With his exotic looks; tall and dark with a piercing stare and a shock of dramatic hair, he was a natural screen villain in the silent age. Besides his role in "Phantom Of The Opera" he got rave reviews as the Svengali character in "Trilby", in Leni's haunted house caper "The Cat And The Canary" and in "Uncle Tom's Cabin". He had also played a number of Rudolph Valentino Latin or eastern lovers. Carewe was therefore an obvious choice for Dracula and he probably would have played him as a brooding dark eyed predator. It's not clear why he turned the role down, although he was not the most stable of people having once tried to kill himself over an affair with an actress. Money may have an issue at this point since Universal Studios had cut the budget for the seemingly cursed project. Carewe was also having health issues so perhaps he decided it wasn't worth the trouble. He would later go on to a few more screen villains in films like "Doctor X", "Mystery Of The Wax Museum" and "Charlie Chan's Secret". In 1936 Carewe suffered a serious stroke and depressed over his prospects he shot himself for real this time. He was only 52.

ARTHUR EDMUND CAREWE:


JOSEPH SCHILDKRAUT;

Another European ex-patriot character actor, Schildkraut was son of a Jewish Austrian acting family who had immigrated to America when he was a small child. He became a stage actor and appeared on Broadway appearing in such notable plays as "Peer Gynt" and an early version of "Carousel". He moved to the silent screen playing villains in major projects like D.W. Griffith's "Orphans Of The Storm" and Cecil DeMille's "The Kings Of Kings" where he played Judas Iscariot. He did not exactly endear himself to his co-stars and crew who regarded him as an arrogant, preening prima-donna. It seams that with his background in the legitimate theatre Schildkraut considered himself above mere movie people. He was also exceedingly vain about his appearance. He probably thought that Dracula was beneath him. It's hard to see how he would have been a better choice than Lugosi anyway. His career did not suffer however, he would go on win an Oscar for best supporting role in "The Life Of Emile Zola" starring with Paul Muni who also received a nomination. He would go on to play more aristocratic villains in costume dramas "Marie Antoinette", "The Man In The Iron Mask", "The Three Musketeers", "The Tell Tale Heart", "Flame Of The Barbary Coast" as well as in "Mr. Moto Takes A Vacation". In later years he would host a TV show on the DuMont Network and guest star in a Twilight Zone episode as a NAZI death camp commander.

JOSEPH SCHILDKRAUT;


CHESTER MORRIS;

So far our list of European character actors, plus Lon Chaney, are perfectly sensible, even obvious choices, but affable, boyish, unpretentious American leading man Chester Morris as Dracula? Morris had made his film debut as early as 1917 billing himself as "Hollywood's Youngest Leading Man". He had been nominated for an Oscar in 1929 for "Alibi" directed by Roland West and would also appear in West films like "The Bat Whispers" and "Corsair" as well as prison film "The Big House" so he had made a name for himself but his easy going American persona was wrong for Dracula and it's just as well that he either turned it down or Browning changed his mind. It's doubtful Morris lost much sleep over his lost opportunity once he scored the role that would define his career as the smooth talking private eye Boston Blackie in a popular series of fourteen movies starting in 1941, along with a radio series. In the 1950's he appeared mostly in television and B Sci-Fi movies like "The She Creature". In 1970 he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and he committed suicide with a drug overdose. He was 69.

CHESTER MORRIS IN THE BAT WHISPERS;


JOHN WRAY;

Little known today, Wray (no relation to Canadian actress Fay Wray of "King Kong" fame) was a New York stage actor-turned screen actor who had had made a name playing villains in "The Czar Of Broadway" and the Oscar winning "All Quiet On The Western Front" as the sadistic drill sergeant. So his name was perfectly reasonable at the time as a possibility. However he pales beside Lugosi as Dracula. He would later go on to play the role of the grifter-contortionist in the 1932 remake of "The Miracle Man" a role ironically originally played by Lon Chaney. Even more ironically this film would also star the afore mentioned Chester Morris and Boris Karloff. He died in 1940.

JOHN WRAY IN "ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT";


WILLIAM COURTENAY;

Although long forgotten today Courtenay was a well known and respected figure of the early screen era both in films and on the Broadway stage. Born in 1875 he was at least a decade older than any other name on the list and had made his first film as early as 1894 but was better known for his stage work where he was a friendly rival to John Barrymore. Most of his films were silents and few survive making it hard to judge his talents but he reportedly had a typically imposing stage persona and powerful voice. His age of 55 may have been a deciding factor in his not getting the role and his health may have also been an issue since he would die just two years later.

WILLIAM COURTENAY;


VICTOR JORY;

Unlike some of the other names on the list Victor Jory is well known, or at least he would become so long after he took on the Dracula role briefly in a traveling stage version in 1930. Born in 1902 in Canada's Yukon, the rugged Jory was a former boxing and wrestling champion in the U.S. Coast guard who therefore a powerfully built man with a booming voice and a long villainous face. He was no doubt well suited to a stage version but not quite right for the more suave version envisaged for the film. Nonetheless he would go on to a long and successful film and TV career often playing villains as well as a version of The Shadow. His last TV role was in 1980 and he died in 1982.

VICTOR JORY;


IAN KEITH;

A journeyman character actor of stage and screen since the 1920's Ian Keith had been in a number of movies most notably DW Griffith's "Abraham Lincoln" as John Wilkes Booth. Aside from that notable screen villain he had appeared in a variety of mostly b-movies from westerns to crime dramas as well as the 1931 major studio crime drama "The Phantom Of Paris" (taken from a novel by "Phantom Of The Opera" writer Gaston Leroux) which was one of cursed silent star John Gilbert's last vehicles. and he had always played in supporting roles and he seems out of place in this company. His inclusion here was mostly due to his tall, dark and handsome looks and his stage trained bass voice than due to any particular charisma. He would go on to a long career which would include supporting roles in big budget epics "Queen Christiana" (1933, with Greta Grabo), "Cleopatra" (1934, with Claudette Colbert), "The Three Musketeers" (1935, with Paul Lukas), "The Crusades" (1935, where he played Saladin, probably his biggest role) and "Mary Of Scotland (1936 with Katherine Hepburn) before settling back into B-movies like "Valley Of The Zombies" and a recurring role in the "Dick Tracy" series and in Ray Harryhausen's 1955 sci-fi epic "It Came From Beneath The Sea". Later he would move into TV with shots in "The Inner Sanctum", "Suspense", "I Spy" and "Dragnet". In 1932 he would marry German actress Fern Andra who had starred in Robert Wiene's 1920 expressionist horror film "Genuine". In fact he would have to marry her again in 1934 since their first marriage was declared not legal. After all that they would divorce in 1938. He died in 1960.

IAN KEITH;


RAYMOND HUNTLEY;

A British stage actor Huntley had appeared in the original 1927 London production of the stage version of Dracula written by a British actor/director/writer Hamilton Deane, who also starred as Van Helsing. The London version was disdained by critics but was a box office smash and it quickly inspired an American version on Broadway starring Bela Lugosi which was also a hit. Lugosi was not even the first choice to play Dracula on the stage in America with Huntley being invited from England to reprise his role. However he wanted too much money and was therefore replaced. In spite of his high asking price Huntley was a British stage actor with no film experience at the time and Browning probably never gave him a second thought. As it would happen Huntley would end up having the longest career of any of the potential Draculas, acting in film and television both in Britain and America almost until his death at age 86 in 1990. His credits were mostly in supporting roles but would include the popular BBC TV series "Upstairs Downstairs".

RAYMUND HUNTLEY;


Hamilton Deane;

An Irish born actor born in 1880, it was Deane who took Bram Stoker's original, unwieldy four hour play and edited and revised it to a functional length and then staged it successfully in 1927. Deane was friends with Bram Stoker and both served in the Shakespearean troupe of Sir Henry Irving (Stoker was stage manager) for several years. Stoker had made a unsuccessful attempt to bring his novel to the stage in 1897 and after Stoker's death in 1912 and Irving's in 1905 Deane would try again. Rewriting Stoker's play in a month and staged it for the first time in 1924 at Derby. It was Deane who had the idea to make Dracula younger and suave, wearing a tuxedo and cape instead of the older, more decrepit Dracula that Stoker had intended. Stoker's Dracula would probably bear a closer resemblance to Max Shreck in Nosferatu, however unlike German director FW Murnau, who had neglected to get the rights to the story and thus got sued, Deane had no problem getting permission from Stoker's widow before starting. Deane acted in the play himself for years taking the role of Van Helsing. After going through several other actors he would take over the role himself in 1939, by which time he was fifty years old. In spite of his stage success he had only five film roles to his credit, all of them bit parts, when he died in 1958. Meanwhile his adaptation of Dracula would go on to spawn a number of stage shows for years to come.

HAMILTON DEANE;


EDMUND BLAKE;

Ray Huntley is often listed as the first stage Dracula but this is in fact not true. Hamilton Deane's first run of the play took place not in London but as a trial run in Derby in 1924. The actor billed as Dracula was one Edmund Blake. Unfortunately little is known about him. He appeared at the Regent Theatre in London through the twenties in various melodramas including another version of Dracula and a version of "Maria Marten; or The Red Barn Murders", a popular true crime melodrama of the Victorian Age (it was made into a Tod Slaughter movie in 1935) in which he presumably played the role of the murderer William Corder. The Adelphi Theatre Project Data Base, which stage lists actors from the Victorian era, does not list him at all, but that list only applies to actors who actually played the Adelphi Theatre, and it ends in 1901. An Edmund Blake is listed on IMDB as director and probably actor in a 1921 British silent version of "Flotsam", based on a story by Erich Maria Remarque, best known as the author of "All Quiet On The Western Front". It's probably safe to assume they are the same person but after that he disappears from the records as mysteriously as he came. I can find no photos of Blake but here's a playbill from one of the "Maria Marten" plays of the Victorian Era by way of consolation.

"MARIA MARTEN" PLAYBILL;


KEITH PYOTT;

After Ray Huntley went to America Pyott took over the role. A London born actor, was born in 1902 and would go on to a career in film and TV with credits including "Village of the Damned" (1960), "The Phantom of the Opera" (1962) and British TV series "The Avengers", "Doctor Who", "The Saint" and "The Prisoner". He died in 1968.

1927 STAGE BILL WITH PYOTT;


FREDERICK KEENE;

Another obscure British stage actor who took over the role briefly in 1928. Keen has only one film role to his credit, a supporting role in a British suspense film called "The Body Vanished" in 1939. Thereafter there is another bit part on a British TV show in 1959. After that he disappears from the records.


W.E. HALLOWELL;

An Australian stage actor who took over the role in 1928, Hallowell was an older man, born in 1884, with salt and pepper hair and mustache. Fine for the theatre but not right for what Browning and Leamele had in mind for the screen. He also had no film experience at the time. He would later go on to act on screen and TV until his death in 1952. I have seen a photo of Hallowell in Dracula makeup on a Dracula documentary but I can't find it on the web.

IVAN BUTLER;

Ivan Butler was a young (born 1909) stage actor in Hamilton Deene's troupe who had played other roles in the Dracula play for years before finally taking over the role when Deene moved to America. He would later go on to a long history on the stage and occasionally on TV but would be best known for writing several books about horror movies in general and Dracula in particular. He would continue giving interviews on the subject up to the his death in 1998.

IVAN BUTLER;


BIG BILL TILDEN;



Wait; Big Bill Tilden the tennis champ? Yes that Big Bill Tilden. Tilden was the man who not only dominated the sport in the 1920's but took it to the mainstream through his celebrity. A florid and flashy, larger-than-life figure who loved publicity, Tilden took to the theatre naturally. This was not unusual in that era; such sports figures as Paul Robeson, Jim Thorpe, Johnny Weismuller, Johnny Mack Brown, Buster Crabbe, Esther Williams, Sonja Heine and Gene Tunney had fairly successful acting careers. Even Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey tried their hands at acting. The success of the London production made an American attempt inevitable. Accordingly in 1928 John Balderston revised the Deane play yet again for American audiences and made the odd casting of Tilden as Dracula, a role that is usually assumed to have gone to Bela Lugosi. Tall, dark and charismatic Tilden (who billed himself somewhat pretentiously as William Tiden 2nd) played the role of Dracula to fairly friendly reviews for a year before turning to the new and far more lucrative pro tennis tour where he continue to play until 1946 when he retired although he would make a few other appearances on the stage as well as making a series of short films about tennis. In 1953 he was attempting a comeback on the seniors tour when he dropped dead of a stroke while training.

BIG BILL TILDEN;



FREDERICK PYMM;

An obscure stage actor who took over the role after Tilden returned to the tennis courts in 1929, he did get some good reviews in 1930 but would be replaced when Lugosi would take over the stage role later that year. Pymm would go on to play other smaller roles in the play when Lugosi took over but did not appear in the movie, or apparently any other films. He is also not listed in the Internet Broadway Data Base, although that just means he appeared in off-Broadway and touring productions. He is listed in the The North American Theatre Online data base as playing in the "Morosco Stock Company" from 1926 to 1928 and in the "Edward Everett Horton Players" in 1929 with such names as Lloyd Nolan and Duncan Renaldo. Note that he is listed in a newspaper review and photo as "Frederick Plymm" but this is obviously a typo.

FREDERICK PYMM;


OTHER AMERICAN STAGE DRACULAS;

A series of little known stage actors would play the role for brief times in 1929 to 1930 including George Hasley, Howard Sinclair, Edgar Mason, and Courtney White. These were all obscure figures with no apparent film credits. A search of the Internet Broadway Data Base shows Sinclair appearing in a play in 1916 and again in 1924, Mason in six plays from 1932 to 1941, Courtney White in ten other plays from 1918 to 1935 and nothing at all for Hasley. This means the bulk of their work was probably in smaller touring companies.

GEORGE HASELY;


ASHTON JARRY;
After successful runs in Britain and America the play made it's way to Australia where it had another hit with the role going to Ashton Jarry, who was actually billed third behind the actors playing Renfeild. Jarry was a British born stage actor with a long career but only one film to his credit, as a mounted policeman in "Uncivilized" in 1937.

ASHTON JARRY




BELA LUGOSI;

Lugosi was well aware that there was a Dracula film in the works, and he was also aware that he was not being considered for the role. He desperately wanted the part though, knowing that it would establish his name and feeling it was his by right, and the proud prima-donna was prepared to beg for it. He lobbied hard for the role and auditioned in his costume and cape. He also agreed to take a drastic pay cut of a mere $500 per week for a brief seven week shooting schedule and he would supply his own costume. That probably settled matters and Lugosi was in. As we know the movie was an immediate smash and made Lugosi a star. As we also know it stereotyped him forever as the Count. He tried to avoid this for a while by avoiding the sequels, where Dracula was ironically played by Lon Chaney jr. Lugosi would also turn down other iconic monster roles when he passed up the role of Frankenstein's monster since he did not want to appear in the heavy makeup, and when he turned down "The Invisible Man" as he did not want to spend the bulk of the film as a disembodied voice or in bandages. He would spend the rest of his career doing increasingly low-budget horror and sci-fi b and c-movies while developing a serious drug habit. As we all know he ended up appearing with Ed Wood. He died in 1956.

BELA LUGOSI;


CARLOS VILLARIAS;

When Universal filmed the Lugosi version in 1931 they also decided to simultaneously film a Spanish language version for the huge Latin American market. At the time Hollywood studios had often filmed versions of popular hits in various foreign languages such as Spanish, French, German and Italian, later they would decide that it would be cheaper and easier to use subtitles and/or dubbing. In the earlier silent age it was easy to create subtitles in any language they needed of course. The Spanish Dracula was directed by George Melford, an Anglo-American who spoke little Spanish and featured a largely Mexican cast with Dracula played by Carlos Villarías. The Spanish version was filmed at night after the Anglo cast and crew had finished for the day and this gave Melford and his cast the ability to come in hours early to study the work done by the Anglo crew. Although they had to work fast this gave them the chance to take notes and analyze to consider improvements rather than simply do a shot by shot remake. Most critics now consider the the Spanish version to be superior in many ways in having a more efficient pace and sexier female leads in Lupita Tovar and Carmen Guerrero. There is also a more evocative final shot. However there is one way in which the Anglo version is clearly better. Even though he basically copied his role and costume from from Lugosi (including the slicked back hair) Carlos Villarías is simply not as charismatic a figure as Bela Lugosi. Villarias was a stage actor from Spain with heavy features, popping eyes and an indifferent voice whose main expression is an exaggerated leer. Villarias would go on to a long film career in both English and Spanish movies until he retired in 1953, he died in 1976 at the age of 83. The Spanish Dracula was considered lost until the 1970's when a version surfaced, it now available on DVD, usually in a double bill with the Lugosi version.

CARLOS VILLARIAS:


MAX SCHRECK;

We should of course spare a mention of the first film Vampire, the iconic Max Schreck from the brilliant F.W.Murnau 1922 classic "Nosferatu". For decades after the film's withdrawal due to a legal dispute with Stoker's widow a myth grew up (at least in the English speaking world) that Max Schreck was a mysterious figure who came from parts unknown with a shadowy past. His truly creepy rat-like appearance and the fact that his last name actually means "fear" in German lent to his myth. In fact he was a respected stage actor in Germany born in 1879 with a long career starting in 1902 before he went into films. He even stared in Bertolt Brecht's first play as well as plays by Moliere. His long list of film credits is made up mostly of unknown and lost German films but he did star in the lesser known but well regarded Expressionist film "Die Strasse" ("The Street") in 1923 playing a blind man. He made some sound films as well before dying in Germany in 1936. The myth of Max Schreck was later taken to it's logical extremes in the 2000 film "Shadow Of The Vampire" where he was portrayed as an actual vampire by Willem Defoe. In 1992 Max became a fictional villain played by Christopher Walken in "Batman Returns". Not sure how the real Max would have felt but he was reportedly an eccentric loner with a morbid sense of humour so perhaps he would have enjoyed it.

MAX SCHRECK IN "NOSFERATU";


PAUL ASKONAS;


Actually "Nosferatu" is the first SURVIVING movie Dracula. There was a 1921 Hungarian film called "Dracula's Death" (or "Drakula Halála"), which has sadly been lost aside from a few stills. It starred one Paul Askonas (according to IMDB) who also appeared in "Orlack's Hands" (with Conrad Veidt), as well as playing Rasputin and Svengali so he was obviously an experienced villain. The two or three existing stills seem to show a Dracula closer to the grotesque old vampire of Max Shreck rather than the suave later Count. The story has little to do with the Stoker novel (thus avoiding the lawsuit that sank "Nosferatu") instead the story is reportedly a dream sequence set in an asylum, which shows an influence of 1919's "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari". Askonas spent his career in Germany, Austria and Hungary and died in 1935. Note that the Wikipedia entry for this film lists a different actor for this role, at least the English language entry does, the Hungarian entry lists Askonas. There are also rumours of a 1920 Russian film called "Drakula (Дракула)" about which there is no real information and may not actually exist, but if it did it would be the first Dracula film.

SLIDE SHOW OF "DRAKULA HALALA";


SIR HENRY IRVING AND MR. JONES:

Most histories list Ray Huntley as the first Dracula but as we've seen this is not true. But while Edmund Blake was the first actor to play Dracula in front of an audience he wasn't technically the original Dracula either. That honour goes to an anonymous stage actor known only as Mr. Jones. When Bram Stoker wrote the original novel he always intended to make the story into a play. Stoker was the stage manager for the theatrical troupe of Sir Henry Irving, the greatest Shakespearean actor of the age, and Stoker based the character partly on Irving. Tall, imposing and charismatic, Irving was a brilliant actor but he was also an arrogant martinet who terrorized subordinates and co-stars alike. Stoker both feared and idolized Irving and desperately hoped he would agree to play the role. Accordingly in 1897 Stoker wrote a theatrical version and staged a single run-through for Irving and a select group of potential backers at the Lyceum both to protect Stoker's copyright and to attract interest. Unfortunately Stoker's original version of the play ran over four interminable hours and midway through Irving stalked out loudly proclaiming the play to be "dreadful". A dejected Stoker never attempted another showing and Dracula would have to wait until after Stoker's death in 1912 before actor/director/playwright Hamilton Deane would revise and shorten the play. Luckily the cast list for Stoker's one night only showing of Dracula still exists and Dracula is listed as played by a "Mr. Jones". The rest of the cast are similarly listed as surnames only. This does not necessarily mean they were amateurs however. It was not unusual in those days for performers to be listed by surnames unless they were established names like Irving. Our Mr. Jones and the rest of the cast were probably members of Irving's troupe and a careful search of Irving's records, which probably still exist somewhere, might tell us who he was. It might then be able to find out what else he did and what became of him, including whether he was still working when the film age began about fifteen years later. The Adelphi Project's list of actors of the Victorian age lists a possible Mr.Jones in a "G.H. Jones" appearing in plays at the Adelphi Theatre in 1875 and 1880 which fits the basic time frame assuming he started in his early twenties and played Dracula in his late forties which makes sense. Of course there is no way of knowing if that's our guy or even if G.H. Jones is male or female, although I'm guessing the first name is probably George or Gerald, since those would have been the most common names starting with "G". Similarly the "H" is probably Henry or Harold. A female actor would most likely be specifically named as "Miss" or "Mrs. Jones". As it stands the only thing we know about the mysterious Mr. Jones is that he goes down as the first Dracula. As for Sir Henry Irving, the man Stoker had written the role for in the first place, he would remain as one of Britain's greatest actors, starring in plays by Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Lord Tennyson, Oliver Goldsmith, Conan Doyle, and Goethe. He was not known to have made any films although he did make a few Edison Cylinder recordings. His son would go on to a film career under the name George Henry Irving. Henry Irving suffered a stroke while on stage playing the title role of Thomas A' Beckett and died in 1905 aged 67.

SIR HENRY IRVING READS FROM "HENRY VIII" IN 1890's;


SIR HENRY IRVING;


PROGRAM FOR THE 1897 PRODUCTION;