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 A.D. 1972 Dracula dies, his body crumbling into ashes, and his spell over Jessica is broken. As Jessica embraces her grandfather, the title "Rest in Final Peace" is shown. The film's opening sequence was not in the previous film, "Scars of Dracula" (1970), but is completely new and sets up a new short series of the Hammer Horror Dracula chronology finishing in the following film, "The Satanic Rites of Dracula" (1973). This film's prologue takes place in 1872 and therefore is impossible to reconcile with the previous films in the series, the chronology of which starts in 1885 as described in the