White Zombie v. Dracula
I am of course refering to the 1931 Dracula starring Lugosi?
Which do you like better? I think like White Zombie better.
Nothing bothers some people...not even flying saucers
Dracula is more polished, but Browning couldn't pace that movie to save his life. It's too beholden to the stage play version and suffers from it.
I'm very much partial to White Zombie. All it really lacks, in my opinion, is a finale that appropriately raises the stakes. As it stands, it's a great film with a great hook -- Bela's demise is just a little anti-climactic -- but it's really beautifully done, with atmosphere to spare, and Lugosi is even better as Murder than he is as the Count.
The entire thing is delightfully bizarre from start to finish, with some "zombie" sequences that still impress (the zombie that falls into the mill, for instance, or when they carry off the howling butler, or do the lemming thing) and an opulent scope that transcends it's meager budget. And actually, the low-rent production values really add to the vibe. I think that something as simple as shooting on the Universal lot at night gives it an otherworldly air not present in other contemporaneous releases. It's kind of down and dirty, and expressionistic, with great glass matte shots, giant sets, striking set pieces (the carving and melting of the wax woman, the funeral, then the funeral-in-reverse) and it's got a dark fairy tale quality that cuts deep with the genre style. The score is great, the ambient sound design is creepy, and the shots of Lugosi's eyes superimposed over the action are even more evocative than their counterpart scenes in Dracula. It's just a hell of a movie.
These are two films that might have been better served as silents, but I think Victor Halperin had (blasphemy) a better handle on the material than Browning did at that point, even if he was imitating some aspects. Both films are gap-bridgers from silent horror to the more refined sound era horror, but ultimately White Zombie - while never as iconic as Dracula - proves to be a much more interesting viewing experience today and a perfect example of 30s horror.
Both films are classics & highly regarded & a visual treat for the eyes but Dracula is a flawed masterpiece. It starts out excellent & strikingly atmospheric for the first 25 minutes. But when the story shifts from Transylvania to London, England it never really recovers & becomes too stagey & too contrived & too much of the film focuses on Renfield (Dwight Frye) & Jonathan Harker & Mina (David Manners & Helen Chandler) & they're boring. And there's only fleeting moments of Bela Lugosi. The movie struggles a bit to sustain your interest. In White Zombie the direction is more consistent & it sustains your interest better & is easier to watch all the way through & it's editing & camerawork & visual details & classic sets are very interesting & creative & quite innovative for it's time. White Zombie is more consistent & more watchable than Dracula & for that reason White Zombie is superior & better than Dracula. Bela Lugosi is in top form in both movies it's just too bad Tod Browning wasn't when he directed Dracula.