Does the 1931 silent DRACULA exist? in Silent Horror Forum

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Does the 1931 silent DRACULA exist?

Author	Comment
Wich2		#21	[-]
Mar 5 12 3:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I was thinking that too, Rick.
doctor kiss		#22	[-]
Mar 5 12 3:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yep, the first thing that anyone preparing a silent version would do... would surely be to trim all the scenes which featured nothing more than lip movement once the sound was removed; even after the insertion of intertitles, it's unlikely that the running time would be as long as the talkie version, especially in as talk-filled a movie as DRACULA. (Just try watching the second half with the sound switched off! --- or, as one deaf commentator observed: with the shift from silents to talkies, the movies had for the most part become 'focussed on endlessly flapping lips'). Through to 1932, the BBFC consistently added the term "(Synchronised)" to a movie's title to refer specifically to a talkie version, even when there was no silent version: thus FRANKENSTEIN, for example, was in fact passed as FRANKENSTEIN (SYNCHRONISED) [link]. DRACULA (SYNCHRONISED) was definitely the talkie version, which was reviewed in Kinematograph Weekly on February 26th, 1931, following its first London screening. The BBFC length may possibly include 'associated materials' (such as a trailer), as was commonly the case. The linking of Universal's subsequent UK releases of DRACULA to the DRACULA entry, rather than to the DRACULA (SYNCHRONISED) entry, is surely nothing more than an (easy-to-make) mistake in the BBFC's online catalogue. Last Edited By: doctor kiss Mar 5 12 3:36 PM. Edited 1 times.
cjh5801		#23	[-]
Mar 5 12 6:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	doctor kiss wrote: Yep, the first thing that anyone preparing a silent version would do... would surely be to trim all the scenes which featured nothing more than lip movement once the sound was removed... Makes sense. Thanks. - Clark hollowaypages.com
The Genii		#24	[-]
Mar 6 12 9:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I can liken my reaction to a version of the 1931 Dracula lacking Lugosi's voice to Pontecorvo's longer version of "Burn" (Queimada) which is in Italian and lacks Marlon Brando's voice in the English-language and shortened version. Ditto for Burt Lancaster in The Leopard. These actors' voices are far too imbedded in their personas and performances either not to hear any sound at all (in Lugosi's case), or to hear someone else's voice coming from their lips. In the case of "Burn," I'll have to lose that 20 minutes and take Brando's voice. There really is no choice.
MYST0		#25	[-]
Mar 12 12 12:37 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The point is that even without Lugosi's voice, finding the silent version would be exciting just to see how it played and how the title cards look, for example. No one wants the silent version to replace the sound version, we just want to see it.
todmichel		#26	[-]
Mar 12 12 8:30 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Quote: "These actors' voices are far too imbedded in their personas and performances either not to hear any sound at all (in Lugosi's case), or to hear someone else's voice coming from their lips. In the case of "Burn," I'll have to lose that 20 minutes and take Brando's voice. There really is no choice. " If the complete English soundtrack of "Burn" was never recorded (or was it just cut by the US distributors?) you could make a composite version. For the 20 minutes, just take, not an actor, but a (talented) imitator. After all, when Michel Simon (if someone in France ever had a distinctive voice, it was him) made the German film THE HEAD, he was unable, due to sudden illness that lasted for months, to make his own French dubbing. A talented imitator by the name of Jean Valton was recruited, and the result is simply incredible. Nobody unaware of this fact can only imagine that it's not Simon's voice. Even Denise Dax, the last star of the Grand-Guignol theatre in the 1950s, was bluffed in watching the movie. And she lived with Michel Simon several years! Last Edited By: todmichel Mar 12 12 8:33 AM. Edited 1 times.
Wich2		#27	[-]
Mar 12 12 10:57 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm honestly surprised to see you suggest such after-the-fact tampering with BURN, TM. But the Simon case you describe is much like Charles Gray's dubbing of Jack Hawkins in his last work, and (if I recall right), Rich Little's for David Niven.
PhantomXCI		#28	[-]
Mar 12 12 11:54 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wich2 wrote: But the Simon case you describe is much like Charles Gray's dubbing of Jack Hawkins in his last work, and (if I recall right), Rich Little's for David Niven. And Anthony Hopkins dubbing Laurence Olivier when the long-lost "oyster" scene from SPARTACUS was restored.
Wich2		#29	[-]
Mar 12 12 12:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yep. (And I'll bet there've been more little examples of such through the years, that we've never heard about...)
pulp novelties		#30	[-]
Mar 12 12 12:50 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It the silent version existed, wouldn't they have plundered it for having a better preserved image by now?
PhantomXCI		#31	[-]
Mar 12 12 1:38 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	pulp novelties wrote: It the silent version existed, wouldn't they have plundered it for having a better preserved image by now? You're assuming that the image would be better preserved. I'd assume that the opposite is true (forgotten, unpreserved nitrate, rotting in the vaults for 81 years). In any event, being a silent film, the movie was destroyed in the late '40s, when Universal-International destroyed all their silent films, outtakes, and screen tests.
pulp novelties		#32	[-]
Mar 12 12 2:35 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	PhantomXCI wrote: pulp novelties wrote: It the silent version existed, wouldn't they have plundered it for having a better preserved image by now? You're assuming that the image would be better preserved. I'd assume that the opposite is true (forgotten, unpreserved nitrate, rotting in the vaults for 81 years). In any event, being a silent film, the movie was destroyed in the late '40s, when Universal-International destroyed all their silent films, outtakes, and screen tests. Oh I assume it would at the very least be quite shrunken if not suffering from nitrate decomposition now. Even so, it's the thought-lost for generations Spanish DRACULA that now looks sharp and clean compared to the Lugosi version.
todmichel		#33	[-]
Mar 13 12 2:59 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Pulp novelties is right, neglected or forgotten movies are often found - when not suffering from nitrate composition - in far better condition than the well-known and multi-released titles. It was the case for THE GHOUL (1933), for instance. Almost all of the Tod Slaughter movies exist in excellent (British) prints, when so many of their contemporaries are lost or damaged.
todmichel		#34	[-]
Mar 19 12 2:34 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Quote: "I'm honestly surprised to see you suggest such after-the-fact tampering with BURN, TM." I was just suggesting to create a new soundtrack in English for some scenes when any original sound was lost (or never made). And this as an alternate way for people who don't stand to watch a subtitled version. Tampering, yes, but any dubbing is a tampering, as well... The best way (for me) is to play these scenes with the Italian soundtrack and English subs, as it was made many times for other movies originally shortened for their US release.
BijouBob8mm		#35	[-]
Apr 3 12 3:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	unless it's a very different cut, possibly even containing some different material. Van Helsing destroying Dracula with the stake is supposed to be slightly different, since the sound version cuts away and uses sound FX to indicate what Van Helsing is doing offscreen. I think David Skal said the silent version holds a bit longer as Van Helsing strikes the stake. I believe the silent version was used for less cosmopolitan areas where the theaters had yet to make the changeover to sound, so there were probably few reviews published for it to give us an idea of what it was like. Last Edited By: BijouBob8mm Apr 3 12 3:51 PM. Edited 1 times.

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Does the 1931 silent DRACULA exist?