Dracula in popular culture Balderston (see below); it starred Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing, both of whom had originated their respective roles on the stage in the aforementioned play, along with Helen Chandler as Mina and Dwight Frye as Renfield. Directed by Tod Browning, it is one of the most famous versions of the story and is widely credited with initiating the Universal horror film series of the 1930s and ‘40s. The 1931 Dracula film was an inductee of the 2000 National Film Registry list. The films had music only during the opening (the famous main theme from
Dracula in popular culture called "Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens" ("Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror"), which took the story of Dracula and set it in Transylvania and Germany. In the story, Dracula's role was changed to that of Count Orlok, played by Max Schreck. The Stoker estate won its lawsuit, and all existing prints of "Nosferatu" were ordered destroyed. However, a number of unlicensed copies of the movie survived to the present era, where they entered the public domain. The 1931 film version of "Dracula" was based on the 1927 stage play dramatised, with the Stoker estate's endorsement, by Hamilton Deane and John L.