20 Dracula ( 1931 )

And  so  we  move  into  the  talkie  era . 1931  was  a  seminal  year  for  the  horror  genre  with  two films  that  defined  it  for  decades  afterwards  and  I  suspect  that  for  people  who  aren't  fans  of  the  genre  they  still  do.

The  first  of  these  alphabetically  was  Todd  Browning's  Dracula.  Bram  Stoker's  Gothic  novel   had  been  turned  into  a  successful  stage  play  in  1924  and  the  film  is  based  more  on  that than  the  original  book.  The  Hungarian  actor  Bela  Lugosi  had  been  playing  Dracula  on  stage  and  lobbied  hard  for  the  part  although  he  had  to  accept  a  niggardly  salary  to  secure  it.

The  film  was  an  enormous  success  and  for  many  Lugosi's  portrayal  remains  definitive. Viewed  today  it  all  seems  a  bit  creaky  , the  unrealistic  bats  , Lugosi's  hammy  delivery  with  its  awkward  pauses   ( he's  much  better  when  he's  not  speaking  )  and  numerous  plotholes  most  notably  the  wide  disparity  in  the  times  Dracula's  victims  take  to  die.  However  we  must  remember  that  we're  at  the  dawn  of  the  cinema  as  we  know  it  today  and  make  allowances.

I've  said  in  each  case  below  that  the  characters  don't  have  sex  but  of  course  the  whole  concept  of  the  vampire  bite  has  a  deep  sexual  subtext.

Helen  Chandler  (  as  Mina  Seward )  

Sex : No

Death :  Presumed  to  survive. It  appears  that  Van  Helsing's  destruction  of  Dracula  has  saved  Mina  from  succumbing  to  the  infection  of  his  bite  but  as  the  film  ends  rather  abruptly at  this  point  we  don't  really  know  that  for  sure.

Helen ,  whose  acting  in  this  is  pretty  awful  perhaps  because  she  didn't  want  to  do  the  film , was  from  Carolina  and  was  a  respected  stage  actress. Her  career  faltered  towards  the  end  of the  thirties  due  to  alcohol  abuse  and  was  ended  by  being  badly  burned  in  a  fire  caused  by falling  asleep  with  a  cigarette  in  1950. She  died  during  an  operation  for  a  stomach  ulcer  in 1965  aged  69.

Frances  Dade  ( as  Lucy )

Sex : No  but  she's  clearly  interested  in  Dracula  even  before   he's  taken  a  nibble  at  her

Death :  Killed  by  Dracula's  bite  and  becomes  a  vampire  herself  though  we  only  get  the briefest  glimpse  of  her  in  action. When  Van  Helsing  tells  Jonathan  Harker   and  Mina  to  go on  ahead  at  the  end  of  the  film  his  unfinished  business  may  be  finding  and  destroying  Lucy as  well.

Frances  was  from  Philadelphia  and  her  acting  career  was  brief. She  married  a  wealthy socialite  in  1932  but  later  moved  back  to  Philadelphia  and  became  a  nurse.

 Anita  Harder (  as  Flower  Girl )

Sex : No

Death : Casually  killed  in  the  street  by  Dracula  when  he  first  arrives  in  London

This  was  Anita's  only  film  appearance. She  died  in  her  home  state  of  California  in  1987  aged  81.