Dracula, 1931
The epitome of classic chillers. The movie that started the Golden Age of horror created the definitive icon of the popular vampire...
...has a big piece of ripped up cardboard hanging off a lamp.
I've seen this movie close to, I don't know, 50 times maybe?
I've seen it in a theater twice projected in 35 millimeter up on a big screen,
and I never noticed that ugly piece of cardboard until I heard the DVD commentary by David Skal.
Once you see it, it's extremely obvious. The cardboard appears in front of Dracula!
How did I miss this?! I guess my eyes were always focused on Dracula, but look at this thing!
It's not just one shot!
It's several! Every scene in the bedroom has that stupid piece of cardboard, now that we know it's there,
what's it doing? The first thought is, it's a mistake. Just like David Skal points out
it's a simple error, the cardboard was for controlling light. On a movie set you have all types of gear rigged up for
defusing, reflecting, and blocking light. There's all kinds of junk laying around.
Clearly, this was an oversight and somehow it wound up in the shot.
In...several shots! You begin to wonder after a while, how did this glaring
blunder get repeated? With all the people on the set, how did not one
person point it out and say "Hey you want to move that thing?" There's another commentary by Steve Haberman, the screenwriter of
Dracula: Dead and loving it, who says the cardboard was
intentional. In the movie Mina after being bitten on the neck by Dracula, is being looked after by a nurse.
Supposedly, it was a common practice in those days for nurses to put a dimming arrangement on a lamp, to block the light from
disturbing the patient while they're sleeping. That brings up the question "Why the hell not just turn the lamp off?"
Well, from what I understand, the nurses would typically sit in the bedroom, and read a book. The cardboard or whatever
they used would give the nurse light so they could read, and shade the patient so they could sleep.
I'm willing to accept that, but I have never seen a single photograph, or any piece of evidence to prove that it was a common practice
and that people who saw Dracula in 1931 would have known exactly what that was.
For those who remember or have grandparents or relatives that have told them of this practice, I'll just have to take their word.
Let's say this did in fact happen. It doesn't change
how sloppy it looks in the movie. If it was such a common practice,
why wouldn't there be a common device, some sort of contraption to attach to the light?
Maybe a one way lampshade or something, instead of "Here, rip up a piece of cardboard." Couldn't there be something more decorative?
Everything else in the room looks so proper and elegant, but then you have that shitty piece of cardboard.
There's a clamp holding it on, and it looks like the same type of clamp that would belong to the lighting department,
but then you stop and think, what effect on the lighting would that cardboard really have?
It's not doing much for the shot,
not to mention that lamp is just a prop, all the actual lights used to light the scene are hidden off-camera, I think!
There is one shot where it seems that lamp actually IS lighting the scene, so no matter what I say there's
contradictions. Was the cardboard used to help light a totally different shot, and they just forgot to remove it?
Maybe, but how does it keep appearing in so many other shots?
Why is it torn in different shapes? And it appears in different positions, but actually, no.
It's the same position, shot from a different angle. The camera is behind the bed.
But how'd they get the camera behind the bed? There's a wall.
They'd have to move the bed away from the wall, assuming it wasn't shot somewhere different,
but either way, if they went through the trouble to set up a reverse angle like that,
why didn't they notice the cardboard, and take it away? It's like it was added there on purpose.
So, it must belong there.
But how come it's not in the Spanish version? The Spanish version is better in many ways,
I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.
So, maybe they just didn't see the need to put anything so...tacky on there.
But in the Lugosi version, it seems now like the cardboard was intentional.
But there's still one more problem. The very first time Mina is preyed upon by Dracula,
before the nurse ever comes into the picture, the cardboard is already there!
And this is the most prominent shot it's featured in! This would confirm beyond any doubt, that it's a flub.
From cardboard on lampshades and Dracula, to cardboard tombstones in plan 9,
Lugosi was always surrounded by flawed filmmaking.
So it's a goof. Case closed, right?
Well, there's a wonderful site called The Classic Horror Film board, where lots of experts gather to discuss these films.
There is an 18-page thread, all about the infamous Dracula cardboard!
Some say it's intentional, some say it's not.
All raise good points though.
But the biggest piece of information that came out, is that the movie was apparently edited in the wrong order.
In the film, there's two scenes where Dracula comes into Mina's bedroom and bites her neck.
The first time was meant to happen off screen. In the next scene Mina explains what happened, so we didn't need to see it.
The second time Dracula preys on her, is when we ARE supposed to see it.
If you watch the second scene closely, you'll notice it seems to be missing a shot or two. Here's how it plays out:
Dracula's outside. He hypnotizes the nurse through the window.
He silently commands her to let him in. She opens the door wide open,
and steps to the side. In the next shot, Dracula is approaching Mina,
and the nurse is nowhere to be seen. We can assume she was just hiding off to the side...
But, earlier Van Helsing tells the nurse to put Wolfsbane on Mina's neck when she sleeps.
Right before Dracula comes in, you can see it on her neck.
But it's not that easy to notice because it kind of blends in with her hair, especially before the high-def restoration.
Anyway, she swats it away, but it's still laying there on her pillow.
The point is, Dracula can't go near Mina, unless that Wolfsbane is taken away.
Between these two shots, there must have been a sequence now lost,
where Dracula tells the nurse to take the Wolfsbane away, and she leaves the room.
In the blu-ray extras, there actually is a still image that shows the nurse in the shot.
It's the same angle,
but I assume it takes place right before she grabs the Wolfsbane, and exits the room.
While most of this ended up on the cutting room floor,
there was one shot, one moving piece of footage from this sequence, that survived.
Some secret film vault? No. In the hands of some collector? No.
It's in the film, in the wrong scene.
This is the major cardboard shot that appears in Mina's first encounter with Dracula.
If you look, VERY closely, you can see a faint shadow of somebody leaving the room. That must be the nurse.
Notice Dracula's eyes. He's not looking at Mina,
he's looking in the direction of the shadow, at the nurse.
And why else would Dracula be covering his face, other than to shield himself from the Wolfsbane? And once the nurse is gone,
His eyes focus on Mina, and he puts his cape down. The famous trope of Dracula covering his face with his cape,
is actually from a misplaced shot.
Also, in that first scene with Mina,
You can see the Wolfsbane on her neck, which is also not supposed to be there yet!
So, there were definitely editing mistakes going on.
The only thing that doesn't add up with this explanation, is that if you look at the door, the one that Dracula came in through,
you'll see that it's shut again.
So, maybe there's a lost shot where the nurse or Dracula shuts that door, or maybe it was just a continuity error.
And even with that, you could still believe the cardboard is a mistake so, maybe it's a mistake, on
top of a continuity mistake on top of an editing mistake!
Um, so you could still believe the cardboard's a mistake?
But, how do you explain this?
Oh man.
This still image from the blu-ray extras, clearly shows a huge chunk of cardboard. It's in between the actors,
it's in plain sight, it's clear as day. How could nobody have noticed such an epic piece of cardboard?
Why is the cardboard so different from the rest of the film?
Probably because these images weren't meant to be in the film, these were photo shoots for publicity purposes only.
And after all, we're talking about cardboard here!
Isn't this a strange conversation for men who, aren't crazy?
And if you still had any doubts that the cardboard was intentional, the original script said
*James reads script on-screen*
It was in the script. It doesn't say "Nurse leans over Mina with shitty piece of cardboard",
But it proves there was meant to be a dimming arrangement, of some kind.
If only this scene made it into the film,
and we could have actually seen the nurse looking for something to dim the light, and then saying "Ah fuck it
give me a piece of cardboard."
So, this is still open for debate, but I now believe the cardboard was intentional.
But they should have used something that looked less like garbage, so it's not a flub.
Just a bad choice.
If anything, it's proof that there's always something new to discover in these movies, and it blows my mind
that something that seemed so obvious to be a mistake, was likely done on purpose.
Now if someone could explain the cardboard tombstones falling over in plan 9, I'd be real impressed.