(Bela Lugosi as a regular dude -- as regular as a guy can be, with those eyes and that delicious voice!)
in 1931, the hungarian actor, Bela Lugosi, made history by starring in the official film adaptation of bram stoker's "Dracula" as, who else?, Count Dracula! (this story had been produced before, in the german expressionism film "Nosferatu", when Max Shreck played Count Dracula, under the publicized guise of "Count Orlock," because the film makers failed to get the rights to the actual story from mrs. stoker)
"listen to them... children of the night... what music they make!"
Bela Lugosi as Dracula set the standard of the vampire.
the accent above all: the first vampire to be caught on film with actual sound had a hungarian accent (ranked quite high on my list of desirable accents; just one below scottish), and this just became the way all vampires talked.
he also changed the way the world thought about the vampire: the creatures that had once been frightful, hiddeous, and undesirable were made charasmatic, romantic, with the dreadfully subtle maniacle madness that gives girls with a bad boy complex a sugar high, no matter what era they live in, and i speak from personal experience.
in fact, due to the new vampiric image, Bela Lugosi is the main reason we have all these vampire romances today. this pathetic "edward" creature would not be the "attractive", brooding piece of work he is today if all vampire films had gone the way of "Nosferatu" -- can you imagine some angsty teen tearing her heart out over a strange, bald, rat-man? other than me, i mean? there would be no "edward" creature, because there would not have been the charasmatic vampires of old! (on that note, the standard that had been set by Bela Lugosi is being walked all over by new standard, as set by the "edward" creature -- all sparkles and brooding love, none of the maniacal gothism of the golden age, as set forth by the true king of the vampires!)
anyhoozle, Bela Lugosi, although most famous for his revolutionary role as Count Dracula (a roll he loved so much, he requested to be burried in his costume when he died -- Vincent Price, in attendance, suggested ramming a stake into his heart... you know, just in case...), he played many other roles in his life, including that of Frankenstein's monster in "Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man" (after some dispute about whether he turned down the role in the first three movies, or simply got replaced by boris karloff), and the original Ygor in "Son of Frankenstein." he had been typecasted as a horror villain in countless B-movies, replaced as protagonists in multipal movies of all callibur, and starred in broadway shows (including the stage adaptation of the film adaptation of bram stoker's "Dracula" -- golly, i wish i could've lived back then and gotten tickets to that! so freakin' awesome, man!).
except for lord semaj, (of www.therealmofnerdum.blogspot.com , check it out, man), you, dear reader, may be wondering why i'm even talking about this guy. he wasn't even born in the same century as me, so what effect should he have on my (or your) life? and, above all, why bother talking Dracula when i'm such a werewolf fan?
here's the deal: just because i prefer werewolves, that doesn't mean i can't spot a quality vampire. i knew the great quality of Bela Lugosi's contribution to the porphyriacally-obsessed seven years ago, when i'd first seen the movie (and last seen, actually, untill last night's midnight viewing with lord semaj -- that's how i know he does not wonder what you wonder!) in fact, i recognised his genius even before i knew exactly what a werewolf was! my obsessions darted all over the place before seeing "Dracula" (more so than even today), and the image was so fantastic, i couldn't help but foccus all my energy for a whole month on everything that made a classic vampire. i did hours and hours of recreational research (learning more than any 12-year-old should about the supernatural), and dozens of drawings and designs, made two good costumes, and even got away with wearing one to school on halloween.
(funny story: i was just going to come as Dracula, but the people upstairs decided it would be better that kids come dressed up as celebrities, instead of cool stuff. ick. but, i guess i owe them, because if i hadn't done one last string of research as a loophole to the rule, i would never have know who Bela Lugosi even was; i finally found his name on the cast list in one of the books in the library, declaring cinema as a form of literature, -- loved that book -- and came to school dressed in my most elaborate Dracula costume and make up, haughtily answering countless brittaney spears' questions of who was i supposed to be, and wasn't i supposed to come as a real person, not a vampire. take that, conventionality!)
in the end, i owe my desire to be different, much more grand than my fellow peers, to Bela Lugosi's Dracula, as well as my sense of style (ergo, half my closet, several hats, dozens of stories, and the decorations around my room at this moment), and my jarring sense of multiphasic convention. i love dictionaries.
so, there you have it: Bela Lugosi, most famous for Dracula. setter of standards. speaker of accents. the man with the hypnotic stare. he practically changed my life, although he's been dead for years (or, perhapse, undead?). he is the man we'd go necropheliac for.
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