I went and saw Faust at a local theatre and was struck by Mephisto's design
That's a vampire! That is the classic old school cinema vampire. Long black cloak, slinking around the room, and the classic hair style. I was sure I was seeing the addition of the Widow's Peak to the vampire repertorie, even if Mephisto is not one himself.
But upon looking into it I found the claim that the style comes from the famous Bela Lugosi, and his actual hairstyle.
But that article gives a year for the first appearance of Bela on stage as Dracula, 1927. Faust was released in 1926!
I have found one article making the same connection, so I'm not the first one to see this link
Janning’s cape and widow’s peak seem an obvious inspiration for Lugosi’s Dracula. This is also hinted at in his appearance over the village as a giant bat.
But Faust was not a commercial success, is it really believable that the Broadway version of Dracula was pulling so much inspiration from a German movie released just a year earlier?
I'd love to know if anyone can correct me on any of this, or has any information to resolve the mystery.
Also go watch Faust if you haven't, its a fantastic movie.
There is a whole podcast series about Lugosi and other movies of this era, You Must Remember This. I'm not sure if this specific detail is covered explicitly. But my impression (and very hazy memory) leads me to believe that it may be a situation where Lugosi was cast because he looked like the expectation of a vampire from the other movie, but then Lugosi performed better and caught the public's attention better. Kind of like Hydrox vs. Oreos. Hydrox was first to market, but ultimately lost to the copycat. To be fair to Lugosi, he still added several other elements of style we now consider essential to the quintessential vampire character. He just happened to naturally have a widows peak and authentic "old world exotic accent" (he barely spoke English when he got his start in Hollywood), which gave him an advantage.
EDIT: I should clarify that Karina Longworth's podcast, You Must Remember This, is about WAY more than Bela. That was just a short series within that podcast. It's a great listen is you have any interest in film history or long form non-fiction podcasts in general.
I see what you're saying, but the claim I've found in several articles is that it isn't that Bela was cast because he sounded like a vampire, but that vampires sound like that because of Bela. I need to try to find a better source, a book or something. And maybe reach out to the author with my question.
I'll check out the podcast :^)
Dracula was published in 1897 and put the vampire count's origin in Transylvania, Romania. Bela Lugosi was born and raised in what is now Lugoj, Romania, and would go on to play Dracula on Broadway in 1927, then the the Dracula movie began production in 1930.
Bela certainly made his mark on the character, but the accent was just typecasting not an artistic choice.