Tod Browning's 1931 DRACULA is certainly a film classic. Bela Legosi might be the oft parodied Dracula with his creepy hand gestures and thick Hungarian accent, but he's also the Dracula that has been indelibly imprinted on the world's psyche when it comes to the most famous of vampires.
On the flip side, there's also much to make fun of in this film. Jump ahead in the video clip to about 1:40 to get a gander at some of Dracula's Transylvanian pets...it's okay, I'll wait for ya...
...Are you going what the f*ck, too? Armadillos???? In Transylvania???? And in Dracula's castle??? Seriously Tod Browning? Did you really think the movie-going public would mistake them for giant rats? You'd have been better off hiring a possum wrangler for that scene. At least the Virginia opossum looks like a giant rat. Armadillos look sorta like a mutant rat/kangaroo wearing armor.
Maybe the possum people were on strike when this movie was filmed. Maybe Tod Browing told his props people to get him giant Norway rats and someone misread his scribble for Texas armadillo. I mean the words rat and armadillo look so much alike. Who the heck knows? It's one of those movie-making mysteries for will forever plague me.
Happy Day of the Dead!
An hour later: okay, a writer friend of mine just told me that Universal Studios used armadillos in this scene because they thoughts rats would be too creepy.
Huh?
As if a movie about a dead guy who sucks the blood of the living isn't creepy? And what about vampire bats (which are obviously fake)? I mean, why stop with substituting armadillos for rats? Why not pigeons for bats? Maybe poodles for wolves? And maybe reindeer to pull Dracula's coach? Hey, why not just scrap the whole horror movie idea altogether. Lordy, lordy, lordy.
On the flip side, there's also much to make fun of in this film. Jump ahead in the video clip to about 1:40 to get a gander at some of Dracula's Transylvanian pets...it's okay, I'll wait for ya...
...Are you going what the f*ck, too? Armadillos???? In Transylvania???? And in Dracula's castle??? Seriously Tod Browning? Did you really think the movie-going public would mistake them for giant rats? You'd have been better off hiring a possum wrangler for that scene. At least the Virginia opossum looks like a giant rat. Armadillos look sorta like a mutant rat/kangaroo wearing armor.
Maybe the possum people were on strike when this movie was filmed. Maybe Tod Browing told his props people to get him giant Norway rats and someone misread his scribble for Texas armadillo. I mean the words rat and armadillo look so much alike. Who the heck knows? It's one of those movie-making mysteries for will forever plague me.
Happy Day of the Dead!
An hour later: okay, a writer friend of mine just told me that Universal Studios used armadillos in this scene because they thoughts rats would be too creepy.
Huh?
As if a movie about a dead guy who sucks the blood of the living isn't creepy? And what about vampire bats (which are obviously fake)? I mean, why stop with substituting armadillos for rats? Why not pigeons for bats? Maybe poodles for wolves? And maybe reindeer to pull Dracula's coach? Hey, why not just scrap the whole horror movie idea altogether. Lordy, lordy, lordy.
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