Inside the Guide: Dracula Movie Posters

Universal Studios has produced some of the greatest and most iconic monster movies of all time. Beginning in the 1920s, “Universal Monsters” became a household name distinguishing the series of horror, suspense, and science fiction films produced through 1960.

Tod Browning’s version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula wasn’t the first adaptation for the king of vampires, but it is the archetypal version. He utilized the best parts of Stoker’s book, which itself used bits of historical folklore and legends, and the Broadway production, adapted from the novel by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, to tell the story.

Browning then cast Lugosi, the original Broadway stage actor to play the count, as the mysterious vampire onscreen. Using Broadway theatricality and his intimidating, hypnotic stare, Lugosi terrified audiences. Cameraman Karl Freund accentuated the vampire’s powers with expressionistic effects through the lighting, camera angles, and focus on how things moved in the shot.

The film combines stage and silent film style performances with the ominous tension created by Dracula and the wide-eyed, desperate lunacy portrayed by Dwight Frye as Renfield. Many Dracula films that have followed mimic elements and styles of the film collaboration between producer Carl Laemmle, Jr., Browning, Lugosi, and Freund, though few have caught lightning in a bottle the way they did.

The Dracula movie posters embraced the intensity of the film with images of Dracula as a predator descending on his victims or hypnotizing his prey. The hard to find original one-sheets can sell for above the $300,000 range, lobby and title cards go for $50,000 to $70,000, and inserts can realize over $30,000. Dracula was rereleased several times in the mid-20th century, and those posters of varying sizes can sell for a wide range of prices.

To learn more about Universal monster movie posters, order a copy of The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Movie Posters from gemstonepub.com.