Detail View: Movie Posters: Dracula

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Dracula

Fantasy

Decade 1930

1931

Universal

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021814

Bela Lugosi,�Helen Chandler,�David Manners

Tod Browning

Dracula (Universal, 1931). One Sheet (27 X 41) Style F. , In 1897, Irish author Bram Stoker wrote Dracula, the story of a mysterious Transylvanian Count who was also a centuries-old vampire. Although not an immediate popular success, the book received considerable critical praise, and spawned several stage adaptations, most notably a version by actor Hamilton Deane and playwright John Balderston that toured England for several years beginning in 1924. When the play came to Broadway in 1927, the lead role of Dracula was assigned to an unknown Hungarian actor named Bela Lugosi, for which he received overwhelming acclaim from the days theater critics. , Nevertheless, when Universal Pictures new studio head Carl Laemmle Jr. announced his intentions to bring a version of the popular play to the silver screen - over the vehement objections of his father, studio founder Carl Laemmle Sr. - Lugosi was far from his first choice to portray the lead role. Other, more bankable actors such as Ian Keith, Paul Muni, Conrad Veidt, Joseph Schildkraut, and Chester Morris, were all deemed more desirable for the part. It was only after the studio determined that Lugosi was desperate enough for the role to work cheaply that they awarded him the plum assignment. In the end, Lugosi received a mere $500 a week for seven weeks work, far from the $2,000 per week received by David Manners, who played Jonathan Harker in a bland and forgettable role. The result was a screen blockbuster, selling more than 50,000 tickets in its first 48 hours of release at New Yorks Roxy Theater alone, and grossing nearly $700,000 in its first domestic release against a budget of $355,000. In its wake, Dracula would not only make a star of leading man Bela Lugosi, but would usher in Universals immensely popular - and profitable - franchise of gothic horror films. It is, by any definition, a landmark film, and original paper promoting it is in high demand by collectors worldwide. This lovely Style F stone litho

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