Dracula thrills audiences at Wanganui’s Regent Theatre

20 August 1931 · Wanganui Chronicle

Bram Stoker Estate account

Estate summary

A Wanganui entertainment column promotes Dracula at the Regent Theatre, praising its atmosphere and describing an appreciative full house. The notice identifies Tod Browning as director and names Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and the supporting cast. It connects the screen production with the stage play and Bram’s novel, illustrating how the adaptation was introduced to local audiences in 1931. The item combines publicity language with screening information rather than offering a sustained independent critical review. Its statements about final performances are not entirely consistent, so no exact closing date is inferred from them.

Complete relevant OCR passage read. Local cinema notice with promotional phrasing; not evidence that every screening date in the paragraph is consistent.

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Bela Lugosi in Dracula costume, Universal publicity photograph,1931. — Bela Lugosi as Dracula in a Universal publicity photograph, 1931. This is a film publicity image, not the Wanganui newspaper illustration.Universal Studios; unidentified photographer, via Wikimedia Commons.