2014 Horror Countdown: Dracula-Spanish Version (1931)

Dracula (1931), dir. George Melford and (uncredited) Enrique Tova Avalos, Universal Pictures. 

Back in the early days of Hollywood there was a new problem that the studios discovered when they went to sound. With the silent films it was no challenge to simply put in cards written in the language of the country they wanted to release the film, but with sound that option was out. Dubbing was considered too costly so it was decided that it would cheaper to simply reshoot the film with different actors. Dracula was one of the films that underwent this process. While Tod Browning worked away the daylight hours, George Melford (and assisted by Mr. Avalos) would take a brand new cast through almost the exact same script and use the same wardrobe and props. The end result is a film that despite all the things it reuses still manages to come across as different.

For most of the first half the film follows Browning’s version. Renfield (Pablo Alvarez Rubio) is a solicitor who travels to Transylvania to meet with Count Dracula (Carlos Villarias) to oversee the count’s purchase of a disused abbey in London. The man is later found a madman on a deserted ship along with several boxes filled with dirt.

From there we meet Eva Seward (Lupita Tovar) and her friend Lucia Western (Carmen Guerrero). The Count seduces both women and like the previous versions kills and turns Lucia into a vampire. Eva’s father, Dr. Seward (Jose Soriano Viosca) summons her fiancé Juan Harker (Barry Norton) and his old mentor Dr. Van Helsing (Eduardo Arozamena). The trio manages to find Lucia and stake her, but can they find and defeat the count before he transforms Eva?

This film manages to do several things that the Browning version didn’t, namely deal with the problem of Lucy/Lucia. If you’ll recall she was killed by Dracula and no one bothered to do anything about it. Here the matter is brought and handled. Another plus is the cast. Nearly everyone out acts their English counterpart by miles; the relationships seem believable and the people seem to convey more emotions than simple annoyance. That said the only real drawback is Villarias. The man was a decent enough actor, but Melford seemed obsessed with him being as much like Bela Lugosi as possible. With all that aside this version still holds up better than Browning’s take.