Horror Movie A Day: Dracula (1931) in Spanish.

For many years I’ve heard tell of a version of Dracula that came out the same year as the legendary 1931 version with Bela Lugosi. It supposedly feature the same script and set, but was filmed with a cast of Spanish speaking actors. And rumor has it, it was a vastly superior version.

Although I will admit, that Bela Lugosi is simply magnetic on screen, even to this day. I myself have never cared for the original Dracula. After the first 30 minutes or so It’s starts to drag and while I’m sure it was horrifying in it’s day, it’s just a big bore today It doesn’t hold up as well as Frankenstein, which is a much more lively and kinetic film. I have seen a version Universal put out with a Phillip Glass score that is absolutely amazing. The film at this point becomes a near masterpiece and is almost riveting. You almost wish you could turn down the other actor’s dialogue and just enjoy Lugosi with Philip Glass. But the original version has no score and therefore suffers tremendously as a result.

In the 1930’s it seems it was common practice for studios to make foreign language versions of many of their films. Not many of these survived, but Dracula luckily was one of the few. The English crew would wrap up in the evening, and the Spanish crew would come in then and work throughout the night. They had the benefits of watching the dailies every day and therefore took that opportunity to basically beat the English crew at their game. The result is a much stronger film. It’s darker, sexier, better artistic camera angles, which was a blessing at that time where most film work was static and dull. They also had an expanded running time that allowed the film to develop the storyline.

Oh and did I mention it was funnier? The Spanish cast was full of good humor and took some of the piss out of some of the absurd bits of the script. This keeps the film lively, cause it also suffers through some of the same pacing issues and lack of score. There was also some unintentional humor here as well. The actor who plays Dracula does his best, I’m sure, but he was told to mimic Lugosi to such an extent, he ends up looking like someone’s uncle Pancho in a cape.

“if you keep making that face it’s gonna stay that way”

In the end though, it’s surprisingly a decent flick, The actor who plays Renfield is amazing, The Hispanicized names are hilarious. (Jonathan Harker becomes Juan Harker). Oh and Lucy Westenra, or Lucia, doesn’t just die from the vampire’s bite. Through throwaway dialogue we’re told she awakens and becomes a mysterious lady in white who lures little children with candy and then drains their blood. No way would they have stood for this in the U.S. in 1931.

I enjoyed this and can recommend to anyone who can deal with subtitled score-less movies, or Hispanics who will get a kick out of some of the wacky dialogue chock full of Mexican slang. I give this film two Count von Count’s.

That’s two Count Von Count’s Ah-Ah-ah-ah-ah..