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The Lost ‘Dracula’ Film Made Before “Nosferatu”
The 1921 Hungarian feature, “Dracula’s Death,” has been presumed lost for decades. It was filmed one year prior to “Nosferatu.”
Introduction
In February of 2021, Drakula halála opened in Vienna, Austria, and became the first film featuring the eponymous vampire.
Or, did it?
Drakula halála, later known by its English translations as alternately Dracula’s Death and The Death of Dracula, was a Hungarian silent movie that in fact was an original conception not based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula.
The film’s plot was bold for its time: A young woman experiences horrifying visions upon being admitted to an insane asylum. A fellow inmate claiming to be Count Drakula (Hungarian spelling) appears to the woman while she sleeps, but she cannot determine if Drakua is indeed a vision or a nightmare. When she escapes her confinement and later gets married, she continues to be haunted by his presence.
The movie, as with so many others from the silent era, is considered “lost.” In 1924, a prose adaptation of the film was published, which survived and has recently been translated into English by Laszlo Tamasfi. See here.
A Brief History of “Lost” Films
Our present cinematic heritage, sadly, paints an incomplete picture of the history of film. Imagine the equivalent of a calamity — or series of calamities, as the majority of historians qualify — that ultimately destroyed the Library of Alexandria, one of the world’s most significant collections of prose, poetry, and historical documents.
The calamities that destroyed so many early films included the widespread use of combustible nitrate film stock until the mid-20th century, and the disposal of many silent films, ultimately considered useless or of no further commercial value upon the industry’s transition into sound film, to clear storage space for new product.
Among the most renowned casualties was London After Midnight, the Lon Chaney, Sr. starrer that has become known as the most sought-after “lost” film of them all.
