Count Dracula (Universal classics)

"Why you young people, making the most of life...while it lasts..."

- Count Dracula.

Count Dracula is the all-to-well-known Vampire Lord and the main antagonist of the 1931 Universal horror adaption of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula. He is also the father of  Countess Marya Zaleska from Dracula's Daughter (1936).

He is portrayed by the late Bela Lugosi in the first film (as well as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein), the late Carlos Villarías in the Spanish version, the late Lon Chaney Jr. in Son of Dracula (who also played the Wolfman), and the late John Carradine in the two sequels, House of Frankenstein and ''Hours of Dracula. ''

Dracula (1931)
Count Dracula resides in his castle of Transylvania where he installs fear amongst the villagers-who are aware that he is a vampire. At the start of the film, he meets with Reinfield in his castile to discuss a business matter involving the leasing of Carfax Abbey in London, where he intends to travel the next day. He first picks up Reinfield under the guise of a driver and flies back to his castle as a bat to meet him there. He prepared food for the man and barely resists the urge to drink some blood from a paper clip on his finger-only to be stopped by the cross around his neck given to him by the villagers. As Dracula goes upstairs, it’s revealed he drugged Reinfield’s wine. The man later passes out after witnessing Dracula as a bat. Dracula’s three brides attempt to drink from him, but are stopped by Dracula, who attacks him himself.

Driven insane by his encounter with Dracula, Reinfield takes Dracula’s coffin aboard the schooner Vesta with him to London. During a stormy night, the Count emerges form his coffin and murders the entire crew. Once the ship reaches London, Reinfield is found in the morning to be the only survivor, and is taken to a mental asylum. Dracula later meets with Seward, his daughter Mina, her fiancé John Harker, and their family friend, Lucy. Dracula immediately takes an interest in Lucy, and sneaks into her room to bite her that night in her sleep. Lucy dies the next day from several failed transfusions. Dracula proceeds to do the same with Mina the next night.

The next evening, Dracula  meets with Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing, who both discover he doesn’t have a reflection in the mirror of a jewelry box. Once Van Helsing shows this to Dracula, he smashes it. During that night, Dracula hypnotizes Mina into meeting him in the garden, where he attacks her. Lucy, now a vampire, lures children with candy under the Count’s influence and drains them of their blood. After reading about this in the news, Mina deduces that the woman killing these children is Lucy. Van Helsing later orders nurse Briggs to keep a necklace of wolfsbane around Mina’s neck during her sleep, and to not remove it. Dracula later arrives outside the asylum Reinfielf is being kept at, revealing through telepathy what he intends to do to Mina, much to Reinfield’s horror.

The next night, Dracula meets with Van Helsing in the Seward parlour, threatening him if he tries to interfere with his plans. He attempts to hypnotize the man, but his will proves to strong. Once he tries to attack him, Van Helsing holds a cross out, warring him off.

Once Mina has a talk with Harker, she begins exhibiting odd behavior before Dracula appears in the form of a bat-forcing Mina to nearly kill Harker before he is saved by Helsing and Seward. Mina breaks down and admits what Dracula has done to her, ending her relationship with Harker for his safety.

Later that night, Dracula hypnotizes Briggs into taking the necklace off of Mina’s neck and lures her to his castle. Once Harker and Helsing are on his trails, Dracula suspects Renfield of betraying him and strangles him to death in his castle. Once Harker and Helsing arrive, it is day time and Dracula goes to sleep in his coffin. Van Helsing uses a stake to hammer it through the Count’s heart, killing him, and returning Mina to normal.

Dracula's Daughter
Dracula's death would later be avenged by his daughter, Countess Marya.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Dracula once again returns with no explanation for his revival in the horror comedy film, Abbot and Costello Meet Frakenstein (though it can be safely assumed the film isn't canon with any of the previous films). He becomes head of the lab and the other doctors that obey him (like Professor Stevens) receive a lot of electrical equipment. They don't know why, but Dracula plans to use the necessary type to revive the monster. So, Dracula goes into his coffin which is headed for the McDongall's House of Horrors so that he can meet Frankenstein's monster there and then deliver both the monster and his coffin to the lab. The crates that he and the monster were recently shipped in were eventually delivered to the McDogall's House of Horrors by Wilbur and Chick, two baggage handlers.

When they put the crates in, not relishing or believing that the two bodies are real, Chick goes out to meet McDogall and when Wilbur takes a look in the Dracula coffin, Dracula hypnotizes Wilbur into staying frozen while he takes out the monster just as Chick comes in with McDogall and an insurance agent. When they see that there are no bodies, they stupidly acuse Wilbur and Chick of stealing them and throw them in jail. Soon enough, they are bailed out by an beautiful female insurance investigator named Joan Raymond, who the two boys mistaken the women to be Sandra Mornay. Sandra had also been ordered by Dracula to impose as Wilbur's girlfriend so that she can in the end use his brain to put it in Frankenstein's head so that Dracula will not repeat Dr. Frankenstein's mistake and revive a monster that will obey him with no will of his own.

Soon enough, Wilbur and Chick meet Talbot and he tells them of Dracula's plans and while Wilbur believes Talbot (but is also a little bit scared) Chick doesn't believe a word. The next day, the boys meet Joan Raymond and after learning that she was the real one who bailed them out, Wilbur decides to take her as another date to the masquerade ball (Wilbur invited Sandra too). Before the ball, the boys meet Dr. Lajos, but really it's Dracula in disguise. Sandra then makes up that she's developed a headache (only to make it up so that she could talk to Dracula about her doubts that the plan will work.

As Sandra privately tells Dracula about her doubts of the plan, Dracula then hypnotizes her and then bites her on the neck, making her his vampire slave so that she'll do anything he says and this time, without any of her doubts and questions about his evil plans.

During the ball, they encounter the fool, McDogall and Talbot. He tells them that he's the Wolfman and will soon turn into a werewolf, but they don't believe him, nor when he points out that Dr. Lajos is Dracula but as Dracula/Lajos points out it's only his costume (but really wearing his real original robes) Talbot still acknowledges that it's "the real thing". As Dracula takes Joan for a dance, he put her under a trance so that she won't interfere with his plans, as Sandra found out that she was an insurance investigator, and takes her to a boat with Sandra.

As Talbot, Chick and Wilbur look for her, Talbot changes into the wolfman and prowls off into the woods and Dracula hypnotizes Wilbur and Chick into a deep sleep and takes Wilbur, Sandra and Joan to the island. After Chick wakes up and meets a now-human Talbot in the morning, Chick now believes Wilbur and Talbot and the two take a boat to the island to rescue Wilbur and Joan before Sandra and Dracula can transfer Wilbur's brain into the body of Frankenstein.

They start the operation at nightfall and while Dracula and Sandra tranfer electricity into the monster, making him more stronger and more active, Chick and Talbot rescue Wilbur and Professor Stevens and leave Wilbur at the boat so he can get the boat started as they rush back in to find Joan. Dracula finds out that Wilbur has escaped and then hypnotizes him into coming back. Then him and Sandra strap him to a lab-bed to take out his brain.

But as Sandra prepares to cut open Wilbur's skull, Chick and Talbot arrive just in time and knock out Sandra and free Wilbur. But soon, the full moon rises and Talbot once again transforms into the wolfman and enters a werewolf and vampire battle with Count Dracula (just like in the 2004 film, Van Helsing). Meanwhile, the monster breaks his straps, kills Sandra and pursues Wilbur and Chick. Chick and Wilbur flee to the boat and escape while Professor Stevens sets fire to the prie and as the monster walks through to kill him, the monster burns to death as fire can kill him and dies as Wilbur and Chick escape. Meanwhile, the battle between Dracula and the wolfman takes place from all over the castle to a balcony at the top. Dracula attempts to escape and transforms into his vampire bat form, but Talbot grabs Dracula and claws him and then both fall over to their deaths into the rocky seas below as Joan then awakens from her trance, and also ending Dracula's reign and with him, his evil plans.