# Count Dracula and the Haunting Cardboard

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-dracula-and-the-haunting-cardboard/800967>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 7, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-dracula-and-the-haunting-cardboard/800967 "2017-11-07T13:37:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-dracula-and-the-haunting-cardboard/800967/1 "2017-11-07T13:37:39Z")

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I saw this on the Huffington Post yesterday, and I have to admit that it blows me away.

I must’ve watched the 1931 Universal Tod Browning film _Dracula_ a zillion times – the one with Bela Lugosi. I’ve watched it recently while taking notes. I’ve read and re-read David Skal’s book about it, _Hollywood Gothic_. I would have thought that I had the film pretty much committed to memory by now, and that nothing more could surprise me. But it did:

> **[The One Weird Detail In 'Dracula' That You Completely Missed](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dracula-cardboard-meaning_n_59ffea36e4b0c96530006af1)**
>
> A mistake... or is it there for a reason?

> [@](#):
>
> It’s an odd detail in the 1931 version of “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi that most people never even notice. But once you spot that piece of torn cardboard in a key scene, it’s impossible to unsee.  
> Was it a big, glaring production error… or does it actually serve a purpose in the plot?  
> Find out in the latest viral video from the Cinemassacre YouTube channel.

It’s true – there’s a big winking piece of irregular cardboard attached to a lamp in one scene of the film. It’s not obscurely stuck in the background – it’s right in the middle of one shot, and it obscures our view of The count.

Furthermore, as if that doesn’t make it obvious that it’s not some weird error, the damned thing is in other shots in the scene, from other angles. It’s not as if some clumsy gaffer just left the thing there by mistake and they didn’t have time to reshoot the scene.

And, as they say, once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it. They go into quite a bit of detail in the video.  
It’s not in the Spanish version. But I’ve noticed that there’s quite a bit of difference between the Spanish version and the original, and that viewing the two side-by-side answers many questions you might have.

Worth a look.

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**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/count-dracula-and-the-haunting-cardboard/800967/2 "2017-11-07T15:39:07Z")

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I had heard about this piece of cardboard before, but the video showing how often it appeared and a possible practical reason for it was interesting. Whether it’s for stage reasons or story reasons, it’s there to block the lamplight.