95 Years of 'Dracula' (1931) — An Interview with Lynne Lugosi-Sparks

Universal's 1931 masterpiece, Dracula, starring Béla Lugosi in the titular role, was released 95 years ago today! Not only is it just my favorite movie ever made, but it's also one of the most influential and important horror films in the history of the genre — as the first sound horror movie, Dracula paved the way for so many films that came before it, even kickstarting what would become a lucrative decades-long franchise of monster movies made by Universal.

There's honestly not a lot I can say about 'Dracula' that I haven't already mentioned in my Monster Memories video essay from a few years ago — those who know me know just how much I love this movie, and those who don't should probably click that link just to get a small impression of my adoration for this classic.

For Dracula's 95th anniversary, ​I knew I had to do something, but couldn't quite figure out what exactly it would be — another video essay? A detailed writeup? After some thinking, I decided to reach out to the Lugosi family to see if Béla Lugosi's granddaughter, Lynne Lugosi-Sparks, would be available for an interview to celebrate the film's anniversary.

While I wasn't expecting a response, I was pleasantly surprised to receive one a few days later from Lynne herself, stating that she'd be available and would be willing to schedule a conversation. The interview took place earlier this week, and it covered all sorts of topics, from the enduring legacy of Dracula and Lugosi's performance as the character, to Lugosi's life and career outside of the vampire role, to the mission of Lugosi Enterprises to preserve and promote Béla's cinematic legacy, the family's upcoming biography "Bela Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape," and SO much more!

As a lifelong Universal Monsters fan, this interview felt like a check off the bucketlist, despite it feeling like such a casual and easy conversation. Lynne was a lot of fun to talk with, and I can't thank her enough for taking the time to speak with me and join me in celebrating the 95th anniversary of Dracula and Béla Lugosi's cinematic interpretation of the eponymous antagonist. I've been wanting to do a lot more horror-related material over the past year and a half after doing almost entirely music-related stuff here in that time, so to break the horror hiatus with a conversation like THIS truly means a lot. It felt great to talk about horror films again in this capacity, especially my favorite film, and I'm hoping to make it more of a regular thing this year.

I could say more about both my love of Dracula and my experience of discussing it with Lynne Lugosi-Sparks, but I'll cut it short here and let the interview itself do the rest of the talking.

Support Béla Lugosi/Lugosi Enterprises here.

Pre-order the biography "Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape" here.