Dracula (1931)
Although i'd seen this several times before i realized i'd never watched the 1988 version with the newly commissioned Philip Glass score with the Kronos Quartet conducted by Michael Reisman, Glass' usual conductor.
The original track of the film is often music free and thus sound effects lead the viewer rather than a soundtrack. Glass adds this soundtrack which gives the film a feel and sound more reminiscent of a silent film, the score playing as that, a score, or musical suite, rather than enhancing the action on screen for large parts. The strings adding emotion in my opinion rather than frights.
Flipping between the two versions occasionally it becomes clear that the new music although lovely to listen to distracts from the films foreboding atmospherics a little. For example Renfield's carriage journey to the castle which to my ears loses the haunting atmospherics because the gentle score washes over you rather than the sound of wolf howls and rickety carriage wheels on dangerous mountainous tracks.
Dracula is nowhere near my favourite Universal Monster film. (That honour goes to The Black Cat). No matter how many times you change the soundtrack you still can't change Lugosi's stilted performance and the frequent, dreadful zoom close ups of his face which show him seemingly having one eye larger than the other.
|