Dracula is a classic 1931 horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn is based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Summary
On Walpurgisnacht, Renfield (Dwight Frye) goes to the Borgo Pass where he is met by Count Dracula's coach. The next day, Renfield and Dracula (Bela Lugosi) take 'the Vesta' to England. Ship arrives in Whitby harbor in a storm, captain lashed to boat, everyone dead, Renfield mad.
Renfield is taken to Dr Jack Seward (Herbert Bunston)'s sanitarium near London. Newspaper clipping notes Renfield's strange desire to eat small living things.

Dracula arrives in London. He goes to a play where he is introduced to Dr Seward, daughter Mina (Helen Chandler), Lucy Weston (Frances Dade) and John Harker (David Manners). Dracula announces he has taken Carfax Abbey which adjoins the Sanitarium. Shortly thereafter, Lucy dies of blood loss. Professor Van Helsing arrives to examine her. At the same time, Dracula visits, and Van Helsing notes no reflection in mirror.

While Van Helsing, Seward and Harker discuss vampires, Dracula summons Mina outside. She is found in a faint on the lawn.

Detailed plot
Renfield (Dwight Frye), a British solicitor, travels through the Carpathian Mountains via stagecoach. The people in the stagecoach are fearful that the coach won’t reach the local inn before sundown. Arriving there safely before sundown, Renfield refuses to stay at the inn and asks the driver to take him to the Borgo Pass. The innkeeper and his wife seem to be afraid of Renfield’s destination, Castle Dracula, and warn him about vampires. The innkeeper's wife gives Renfield a cross for protection before he leaves for Borgo Pass, whence he is driven to the castle by Dracula's coach, which was awaiting him at Borgo Pass, with Dracula himself disguised as the driver.

Renfield enters the castle after his driver and his luggage disappear, and is bid welcomed by charming but weird nobleman Count Dracula (Béla Lugosi), who is a vampire, as seen him crawling from his coffin before Renfield left the inn. Dracula and Renfield discuss the purchase of Carfax
Abbey in England, and afterwards Dracula departs. Renfield faints when opens a window and a bat comes in, and Dracula, morphed from bat, forces his wives to get away from Renfield and he bites him.

Dracula visits a sleeping Mina in her bedroom and bites her, leaving her the same marks Lucy had. She talks to the others about a dream of hers, when Dracula visited her. Then, Dracula enters for a night's visit at the Sewards. Van Helsing and Harker notice that Dracula does not have a
reflection in the mirrored top of the cigarette case. When Van Helsing shows that "most amazing phenomenon" to Dracula, he smashes the mirror and excuses himself leaving. Van Helsing deduces that Dracula is the vampire.

Meanwhile, Mina leaves her room and runs into Dracula’s hug in the garden, and is discovered there unconscious. The next day, newspapers write about a “beautiful lady” who lured little children playing in the park with chocolate and then biting them. Mina recognizes the beautiful lady as Lucy, who has risen as a vampire. Harker wants to take Mina at London for safety, but he is finally convinced to leave Mina with them.

Van Helsing orders nurse Briggs (Joan Standing) to take care of Mina when she is sleeping, and not to remove the garland of wolfbane around her neck.

Renfield again escapes from his cell and listens to the three men discussing vampires. Before Martin (Charles K. Gerrard), his attendant, arrives to take Renfield back to his cell, Renfield narratives to Van Helsing, Harker and Seward how Dracula convinced Renfield to allow him enter the
sanitarium by promising him thousands of rats with blood and life in them.