Dracula (1931 English-language film) the screen. With this mesmerizing performance, Dracula became Bela Lugosi's signature role, his Dracula a cultural icon, and he himself a legend in the classic Universal Horror film series. However, Dracula would ultimately become a role which would prove to be both a blessing and a curse. Despite his earlier stage successes in a variety of roles, from the moment Lugosi donned the cape on screen, it would forever see him typecast as the Count. Browning would go on to direct Lugosi once more in another vampire thriller, "Mark of the Vampire", a 1935 remake of his lost silent film
Dracula in popular culture film would have predated the lost 1921 Hungarian film "Dracula's Death", and is thus claimed to be the first film adaption of "Dracula". Nothing regarding this film is known to survive; there are no known production stills, and there is very little information about this film available. Most sources agree that the existence of this film is questionable because no details appear to have survived, and its existence is not verifiable. One of the first film adaptations of Stoker's story caused Stoker's estate to sue for copyright infringement. In 1922, silent film director F. W. Murnau made a horror film