Sorry for the delay every one. Will’s October Scary Story Spooktacular has finally begun.

Film in Yellow #17: A Pornographic Dracula

Tod Browning’s DRACULA 1931

An early classic of film and one of my personal favorites as a boy. This was one of the earliest talking pictures rumored to feature Leslie Townes. Lugosi lamented that he never got the chance to share a scene with him during the filming, and couldn’t believe they’d cut his scenes entirely from the film.

Critics unaware of his role as Dobson, often point out how Renfield is given a cross around his neck by the gypsy woman to protect him from Dracula, but this element is immediately forgotten by the next scene.

Those cinephiles that have tracked down the rare print of the film offer an explanation through Townes’ role as Dobson, Renfield’s clerk. He has few lines, but acts as a foil for Renfield in the opening 20 minutes. He tries to heed the villagers warnings. Why this was left out no doubt has to do with the controversial nature of his last and major scene in the film.

Instead of cutting to the Vesta at the 18 minute mark, it cuts to Dobson stumbling through the castle. He finds a room with a large tapestry depicting 2 suns shining above a castle and city. As he stares at it, the now famished brides appear. He holds up his cross and they are at first repelled, but one comes around him and touches him tenderly. He drops the cross. The film becomes grotesquely graphic as they bare their breasts to seduce him. Then they bare their fangs, tearing his flesh off, lapping up his blood like animals. The man screams for several minutes as they eat him alive while performing sex acts. 

Excerpted from the notes of R. William Chambers manuscript, Leslie Townes, The Tattered King: A Lost filmography of the Greatest Actor That Never Was. Professor of Film History, USC School of Cinematic Arts