In 1897, Bram Stoker published in London "Dracula" c. novel. Since then, it's also the most famous vampire novel. The könyből - without paying any royalties FW Murnau . 1922 titled "Nosferatu" critically acclaimed film directed by the first Dracula adaptation hold globally  However, we'll review the contemporary records, notice that the Hungarian Lajthay Charles 1921 " Dracula's death , " the title Paul Askenas starring in an adaptation has been made. This information was the American John L. Flynn is confirmed Cinamatic Vampires c. book: "... the Hungarian-made Dracula (1922) a year Murnau's Nosferatu before it was ready ... " According to sources Lajthay probably in 1920, he wrote the Dracula's death scenario. It is also not entirely sure that Bram Stoker 's novel. It is Pánczél Louis - contemporary film critic and journalist - Dracula's death , he wrote a " fantastic film novel "is. This is 1924, which was also published in Timisoara. . The movie probably from the Scriptures, and possibly Stoker's novel has exhausted the topic of díszletről by the Theatre and Cinema : "Huge room, which is all around marble in the middle of a dark corridor, seemingly endless length here and Dracula, and are experiencing a mysterious life.. Eve. All kinds of animals giggle, thrashing sounds and then the door is there in the middle open, beautiful women come forward and dream-like attire, they were Dracula's wives ever. But now awaits Dracula new his girl, the most beautiful, the most desirable, for whom heaven and earth pulled, and who welcome rain of flowers ... " The story is an alpine village in the Vienna mental hospital and the fictional Dracula's castle játszódik.A Actress Mary's Island, a poor orphan girl sewing. Her father was a madhouse closed because they can not accept his wife's death. Mary meets Dracula here - the music teacher, who keeps himself to be immortal. Two mad at the doctor wants to operate on her eyes, so tied down on the operating table. Fortunately Tillner Doctor rescues the girl with the nurses. The tired girl spends the night in the hospital and going through a terrible nightmare: Dracula by force and bring the castle wedding dresses dress. In the novel, Mary cross on his neck shows the blood-sucking Count, who flinch from: . "... Dracula leaned on intoxicated persons to Mary, the daughter accrues to kiss her lips ... wild lust shaking her mouth and held up his arms to embrace this moment, Mary, who sensed the evil Dracula pushed him away, cross necklace hanging jéhez reached him and showed courage, lightning view ... - Cross ... Cross - shouted Dracula, and startled the girl backed away. A unexpected fright came over the scene in front of the whole room together ... Dracula is terrified of evil spirits fled ... Mary stood before the open road ... And the girl, using this excellent opportunity, ran ran out of the gate and the open left on snowy night. " (Part of The Death of Dracula. Fantastic film novel.) She escapes and runs away from the castle. The mountains frostbitten Mary take care of those people who find. A doctor called to him, but Dracula appears, who had been persecuted. "Dracula's sparkling eyes practically hypnotized the company," but the doctor will save her. Finally, turning every good work, a crazy shoot the mental hospital Dracula, Mary married a right-forestry. But all along remains uncertain whether this is indeed dreamed the whole story, it really happened or ??? the 1921-22's film trade press - some exceptions - not find a reference to the film. (He is the former sheets can be found in the Hungarian Film Institute library's archive ...) After the initial demonstration in Hungary only 1923.áprilisában presented at the Dracula's death was. A film Tuchten Eugene rental company bought it and hit as proclaimed in contemporary newspapers ... the movie likely to be lost forever in the Second World War.       The film is known for the technical details: DEATH OF DRACULA 1921 Hungarian film drama in five acts, 1448 meters (about 50-60perc.?) Corvin Film Factory (35mm spherical 1: 1:33) Black and White Director: Charles Lajthay Screenplay: Charles Lajthay (B.Stoker: Dracula and Pánczél Following Louis's novel The Death of Dracula), Mihály Kertész [Michael Curtiz]. Cinematography: Eduard Hoesch Cast: Paul Askenas (Dracula); Charlene MYL (Mary Land); Lux Margaret; Zoltan Dezso, Thury elemer (doctor), Hatvani Charles Perczel Oscar Réthey Louis Ihász Alpha, Szalkay Louis ... Rotation: Corvin Film Factory (Budapest) operate restaurants, the outer ones: in addition to Vienna (Wachau, Steinhof and Melk), but the 1942 Berlin Film Encyclopedia mentions. premiere: 1921.február, Vienna (Wien) in Budapest, Tivoli Cinema presented. (1923.április 14th) Sources: - Ability to World Cinema 1921.január. 16.száma (page 21) - Can 1921.február World Cinema. Number 20 (page 11) - Theatre and Cinema 1921 January (26-27.oldal) - Movie and Film 1923.április 1.száma - Film Encyclopedia (1942) - 324.old (Lajthay) - Galaxy 1992/6. (141.szám) - (Szilagyi G.Gábor c Article Dracula English; 69-70.oldal..) - John L.Flynn: Cinematic Vampires (McFarland, USA, 1992, ISBN 0-89950-659-3, 21 page) - Movie World 1997 / 12.száma - (Eugene Wolf: The Hungarian Dracula c thereof; 34-37.oldal). - Color RTV 2002.október 12th Angol summary: Death of Dracula (1921), translated as "The Death of Dracula" was the very first film adaptation of the famous novel by Bram Stoker called Dracula (1897) INSTEAD OF FW Murnau 's classic Nosferatu (1922). This film directed by Charles Lajthay ; produced by Corvin Film Factory [Corvin Film Company], and the title role played by Paul Askenas and Charlene MYL . This film was premiered in Febr.1921. (Wien). This film Presumed Lost ... - Angol language essay:   - Death of Dracula (1921): The Cinema's First Dracula, Horror Studies 1 ( Rhodes, GD, 2010 .; .PDF 800k)   - Internet Movie Database ( IMDb ) And the final question: ? Lugosi have seen this movie If you have any information of this film, please send me a letter: mrger@freemail.hu Peter (c) 2001 Szentes Gerzson writing articles and my web: - www.hitchcock.hu - updated: 2014.jan.30.

I know this reads terrible. That is because it was in Hungarian and I used Google translater to get it in English. I did a google search and only found one brief mention of the movie so if it already has a thread, me sorry. This is a lost film like practically all early Hungarian silents. It is also the first Dracula movie predating Nosferatu. It has even less to do with the Stoker novel than the German version, but elements are still there and it sounds interesting. It also appears to have been influenced by a previous German film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Lots on that one here and elsewhere, will. (Paging Ted Newsom!)

Oh, well.

Hey, no gap - "a good thread deserves repeating"!

.

Yes, will, this was discussed in excruciating and contentious detail a couple years ago, in terms so insanely paranoid. robustly defensive and academically outraged by certain parties that taraco closed the thread and stuffed it safely away in the archives, nice and unavailable.

The contentiousness was not so much about the film itself but the cover illustration on the promotional pamphlet, novelization, what have you, and whether the similarity is in fact a coincidence.  There were 15 or 20 film-books issued by the same publisher during the years 1921-23, Drakula Halala being-- presumably -- one of them. There are a dozen or so extant titles in the Hungarian archive, this being one of them.  The one copy is presumably the only copy anywhere.

Much better link than what I came up with. So the star of Dracula's Death played Conrad Veidt's butler in The Hands of Orlac? Lugosi played Veidt's butler in the lost The Head of Janus.

I looked at the PDF with the article and the prose version of the movie. Pretty crazy stuff. One of the promos for the movie says it was based on the Dracula novel by H.G. Wells! Apparently, the Dracula in the movie only thinks he is a vampire. He announces a bullet can't kill him, but it does. But you have the brides, the castle, the coach ride, so despite all the changes it seems to be based loosely on the Stoker novel.

Yes. But so is BILLY THE KID VS. DRACULA.

There's no doubt that the exteriors for this movie were shot in Austria during late 1920 and early 1921, and that the interiors were shot at the Corvin Studios in Budapest in early 1921. Thus its production clearly predates that of NOSFERATU.

However, the attribution of a 1921 release date to the film is problematic... although DRAKULA HALÁLA was still shooting in Budapest in January 1921, there was supposedly a trade-screening in Vienna in February... which is the entire basis for this being described as a 1921 release. But the movie doesn't show up in lists of Viennese trade screenings for the period; the Austrian trade journal Neue Kino-Rundschau in particular gives detailed listings of trade-screenings for every day of the week at this time... and there's no mention of this production under its original title or any German-language release title.

To quote Gary Rhodes' 2010 article: "Drakula halála allegedly premiered in Vienna in February 1921, though no data has yet surfaced in Austrian trade publications or Vienna newspapers. (...) More primary research in Austria will be critical (...)." As of 2014, I've seen every German-language and Hungarian-language journal and newspaper for 1921 and 1922 held by the Austrian National Library, and nowhere is there any mention of a movie that could conceivably be DRAKULA HALÁLA. I suspect the claimed February 1921 trade-screening is spurious; hence the vagueness surrounding the claim in the first place.

Why does this matter? Because it means that DRAKULA HALÁLA is really a 1923 release, first seen in Hungary in March 1923 (the April screenings in Budapest mentioned as the premiere in these various sources above were actually prefigured by the movie's release in other cities, including Esztgerom). Only those in the cinema trade who read the trade journals would have known that the movie was shot in 1920/21... to audiences standing in line at the theatre, this was a new 1923 release that they hadn't heard about previously.

This becomes significant when one factors in the Hungarian release of NOSFERATU... under the title DRAKULA, and openly credited to Bram Stoker in advertising... which had taken place in November and December 1922. There's no doubt from the amount of press coverage and the length of playdates that Murnau's movie was a hit in Hungary, as it was in so many other European nations at the time. But it also means that DRAKULA HALÁLA had become the second recent 'Dracula' movie by the time it was first seen in Spring 1923. The delay between production and release meant that it had been 'pipped to the post' by the release of NOSFERATU.

Even if evidence were to eventually turn up of that unlikely February 1921 trade-screening; a single trade-screening doesn't make for a full-blown release, or for public awareness of a picture. Thus, while DRAKULA HALÁLA was unquestionably the first 'Dracula movie' produced, it was equally unquestionably the second 'Dracula movie' released.

(left) NOSFERATU reaches Hungarian cinemas as DRAKULA (by Bram Stoker) in November 1922
(right) DRAKULA HALÁLA first released in the city of Esztgerom, 65 miles north of Budapest, on March 21st, 1923

 

Well, no knock on Murnau (the man made SUNRISE!) - but for me, these folk do get credit for being the first ones to pick up the gauntlet (old Vlad's, of course!)

Doc-- you realize of course that your research will make you the source of all evil in the galaxy to every Hungarian film scholar and theatrical historian, not to mention a number of English-speaking academics?

It would be rather unusual back then to keep a movie in the can for two years after it was completed, so I wonder what that was about. Couldn't find a distributor?

That was a not unheard of problem, even then. This guy had trouble, too:

In the case of Austria and Hungary in particular, there had been considerable overproduction following World War I, with many more features being shot than could immediately be taken up in the release schedule... and by early 1921, this problem was really quite pronounced, so that a two-year delay between production and release is quite plausible, even in the case of well-reviewed and well-received movies.To take just three genre examples from Austria:

DER TANZENDE TOD ('The Dancing Death') was already in the can prior to May 1919, but couldn't find a release slot until April 1920.

DIE WÜRGHAND ('The Strangling Hand') --- an extant feature which received exceptional contemporary reviews --- was shot during February/March 1920, verifiably had a press-screening in April 1920, but wouldn't be released until September 1922.

PAREMA, DAS WESEN AUS DER STERNENWELT ('Parema, the Astrological Being') was completed prior to January 1921, but wouldn't be seen in theatres until July 1922.

So, I don't think that the delayed release is necessarily indicative of a poor movie, of a movie that ran into censorship troubles, or of a movie than couldn't find a distributor; rather, it seems to be pretty much par-for-the-course in that particular time and place.

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