Universal's "Dracula" Series Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dwight Frye

"Dracula" was one of Frye's first films, after a great run as a Broadway player. Following his turn as Renfield, Frye would play the equally ostentatious role of the hunchbacked Fritz in Universal's "Frankenstein" later that year. From this start, however, his career degenerated into a number of stock roles, and "Dracula" remained the high point of his film career.

He passed away in 1943 from a heart attack.

Answer: Karl Freund

By all accounts, Freund was instrumental to the film's success. Supporting player David Manners, who had nearly as much screen time as Lugosi, claims to have never worked with putative director Tod Browning, who was already notorious for his battle with alcohol. That being said, Freund must also share the blame for what many critics view as the film's shortcomings, including long static camera shots with no movement and a particularly embarrassing piece of cardboard stuck over a set lamp that inexplicably makes its way into many scenes.

Answer: Bela Lugosi played the title role, learning his Spanish lines phonetically.

Dracula was played by Carlos Villarias. Though not usually regarded as a great actor, Villerias took advantage of the opportunity to watch the dailies of Bela Lugosi's work, and his performance incorporates some of the highlights from that timeless performance.

Most critics agree that the Spanish version of "Dracula is clearly superior to the English-language film, at least from a technical standpoint. The crew of the Spanish version was able to make great use of the setup work done by the English-language staff, down to using the same "marks" for blocking. The "night shift" was able to build on this foundation, constructing more elaborate shots and extrapolating more elaborate, evocative dialogue and more extensive stage direction. This elaboration added almost 30% more screen time to the Spanish version.

Answer: The heavily implied bisexuality of the title character, who hypnotizes and victimizes a young woman

The scene in question is especially resonant given the vogue in some circles for the "curing" of lesbians through therapy. In it, a psychiatrist tells the Countess that the best way to cure an alcoholic is to put him in a room with a bottle for hours and make him face his addiction and beat it through force of will.

The Countess tries this with her vampirism, summoning a model (played by a teenaged Nan Grey) to her studio and attempting to resist the temptation. In a remarkably erotic scene for the 1930s, she fails.

Answer: Count Alucard

"Alucard" = "Dracula" backwards. Though the convention of vampires going by a rearrangement of their names is ubiquitous in literature (the title character in "Carmilla" goes by "Mircalla", for example), the antagonists in Universal's Dracula films are not always bound by this rule. The Countess in "Dracula's Daughter" goes by "Maria Zeleska", for example, and Dracula himself goes by "Baron Latos" and "Doctor Lejos" in "House of Dracula" and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", respectively.

Also from "The Wolf Man" were Evelyn Ankers (relegated to a supporting role here) and story writer Curt Siodmak, brother of "Son of Dracula" director Robert Siodmak. Perhaps the real star of the film, however, is Louise Albritton, whose character, Kate Caldwell, seeks eternal life as the Count's vampire bride...but things are not all as they seem.

Answer: No one - this character does not appear

Though both of these films were billed as featuring all three monsters "together", Carradine doesn't really interact with Chaney or Strange. The films also feature a "hunchback" as a "monster", and J. Carroll Naish does portray a suitably homicidal character in "House of Frankenstein". In "House of Dracula", however, the "hunchback" character is played by the beautiful Jane Adams without a hint of malice.

As befitting the younger audience these films were shooting for, Dracula does not concentrate on blood-drinking in these films. Rather, he emphasizes his role as hypnotist and sorcerer, seducing women into joining his darkly magical world.

Answer: House of Frankenstein

Karloff played perhaps the archetypical mad scientist Dr. Niemann in "House of Frankenstein", imbuing his dialogue with a malevolence that only he was capable of - no small task when one considers that his best line of the film may have been: "Now...will you give me my...chalk?" For a time, Dr. Niemann assumes the identity of Professor Lampini, a traveling showman exhibiting the skeleton of Count Dracula. By withdrawing the stake from the skeleton's ribs, he resurrects the undead nobleman to take revenge against those who had acted against him in the past.

The performances of Karloff and Carradine (as Dracula) are entertaining, if not terribly convincing.

Answer: Bela Lugosi

Though Lugosi is the actor most closely identified with the role by most fans and critics, he only played the role on film twice - in the original "Dracula" and this spoof. That being said, he did play remarkably similar roles in less prestigious productions, including "Mark of the Vampire" (1935), "Return of the Vampire" (1943), and "Mother Riley Meets the Vampire" (1952).

Though Lugosi is past his prime in this film - his pancake makeup evokes a Jaycees Halloween event more than the terror of the undead - "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" has its defenders. Comedian Dana Carvey has called it his favorite film, and its reputation has benefited greatly with time after decades of being dismissed as the rock bottom film in the Universal horror canon.

Answer: "Dracula's Daughter" and "House of Dracula"

In "Dracula's Daughter", Gloria Holden plays the eponymous role of the reluctant heiress. Her first attempt to shed her vampirism is to ritually cremate the body of her father - played in this picture by a wax dummy who compares favorably to some performers who have assumed the role. When this fails (in no small part due to the persuasion of the Renfield-like Sandor, played by Irving Pichel), she appeals to young psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth, played by Otto Krueger. Unfortunately for the Countess, however, Garth is a close confident of Professor Van Helsing from the first film, and...well, I won't spoil the ending.

"House of Dracula" opens with the genteel Count waking brilliant physician Franz Edelman (played with great gravitas by Onslow Stevens) in an appeal to science for a "release from this curse of misery and horror." Edelman does his level best, giving Dracula transfusions and analyzing various unknown antibodies and parasites in the vampire's blood. However, Dracula's untoward overtures toward Edelman's assistant lead the good doctor to destroy the undead fiend - but not before...well, as I said, I won't spoil the movie for you.

Answer: Lupita Tovar in "Dracula" (Spanish Version)

Operating with a great deal less oversight than English-language helmsman Tod Browning, George Melford took a number of liberties with the 1931 Spanish version, especially with Tovar's character of Eva. In addition to showing Eva bite her fiancée Juan, Melford places the voluptuous Tovar in a form-fitting negligee with a plunging neckline. This contrasted with Browning's depiction of Helen Chandler's Mina, who wore a modest nightgown and performed, like most of the English-language cast, in the poised manner of a drawing room play, as opposed to the more fluid, expressive manner of the Spanish-language cast. Tovar would later marry Paul Kohner, the producer of the Spanish version, and she received increasing recognition as the years went by, speaking at conferences into the 1990s. Chandler, unfortunately, came to a worse end, pursued by the twin demons of substance abuse and mental illness. By 1935, her career was effectively over.

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