Rick wrote:
atkalu wrote:
To this day, I have watched around 15-20 1920s-1940s horror films on the big screen with modern audiences. The ONLY and I repeat ONLY time the audience didn't applaud at the ending was when I saw DRACULA - and this happened TWICE. I saw at the Film Forum in the 1990s. I saw it again about a decade later (can't remember the location) and the same response. I thought it was clearly because the second half just isn't very interesting or fun. DOCTOR X had people rolling with laughter ("Synthetic Flesh!"), THE BLACK CAT had people cheering at the battle of the titans (Karloff vs. Lugosi) and the Lewton films left people just flat-out impressed. It is not a stretch to say that that DRACULA lets people down.
I just have to say that I've had a much different experience in my big-screen viewings of DRACULA. I've seen it in theaters at least 4 times, maybe more. The two or three oldest viewings I don't remember that well. But the others I do.

I saw DRACULA at a small rep theater in Cincinnati on February 14, 1981 which, in those unenlightened days, was thought to be the 50th anniversary of the premiere.  There were some jokers in the audience who wanted to laugh, but they soon shut up. I wrote a little remembrance after the viewing in which I commented on how rapt the audience seemed to be by Lugosi. I don't remember if there was applause or not, but I do recall appreciative mutters from audience members as we exited.

Then on Halloween night 2012, I saw DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN at a theater in Toronto.  The place was full, mostly with younger sorts, teens and twenties, many of them in costume. I was astounded that the movie not only was treated with respect, but it played like gangbusters. The only unwanted laughs were on some of those extra-tight closeups of Lugosi. Dwight Frye's every scene played to stony silence, except for a kind of "brrrr" from one of the ladies in attendance. Astoundingly, even the "humor" of Martin the orderly got laughs exactly where intended. And, at the end, a huge burst of applause and even some whistling and cheering. I couldn't have been more pleased.

Hi Rick,

I'm glad you got to see that.  As a huge Lugosi fan I was tremendously disappointed and even felt a little embarrassed as it felt like the air was sucked out of the room at the end of both screenings I saw.  Of course, differences with audience reactions happens with any movie.  I've noticed when I see comedies on opening weekends that they seem to get more laughs than if I go to see them the 3rd or 4th week they are out.  Laughter is truly contagious.  

I saw it in NYC and that is a different crowd than most.  It's obviously more high brow.  But, again they enjoyed and laughed and cheered with THE OLD DARK HOUSE, THE BLACK CAT, DOCTOR X, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM and many more and DRACULA just seemed to fall flat.