Drácula (1931/I)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

George Melford

Writers:

Bram Stoker (novel)
Baltasar Fernández Cué (Spanish adaptation)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror

Plot:

At midnight on Walpurgis Night, an English clerk, Renfield, arrives at Count Dracula's castle in the Carpathian Mountains...

Plot Keywords:

Dracula | Count | Doctor | Abbey | Castle

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Carlos Villarías	...	Conde Drácula (as Carlos Villar)
Lupita Tovar	...	Eva Seward
Barry Norton	...	Juan Harker
Pablo Álvarez Rubio	...	Renfield
Eduardo Arozamena	...	Prof. Van Helsing
José Soriano Viosca	...	Doctor Seward
Carmen Guerrero	...	Lucía Weston
Amelia Senisterra	...	Marta
Manuel Arbó	...	Martín

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Spanish | Hungarian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Certification:

Finland:K-11 (2004) | Spain:13 | Canada:G (Quebec) | USA:Unrated | Sweden:7

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Although this version was shot in Spanish, it became a mixture of dialects since the cast came from Mexico, Spain, Central and South America.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Van Helsing is holding the wolfsbane, the close-up shows it in a different position in his hand than the wide shot. The shirt in the close-up doesn't match the wide angle either.

Quotes:

Eva: [English subtitle] The next morning, I felt very weak as if I had lost my virginity.

Movie Connections:

Edited from The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

A Superior Dracula!

This movie was shot on the same sets as the Bela Lugosi/Tod Browning version, and it used the same script translated into Spanish. It is a vast improvement. Just about everything is superior; the cast, the shooting, the sound effects and the editing. In fact, many of what appear to be hideous continuity errors in the Lugosi version are revealed to the result of sloppy editing when viewed against this film, which is around thirty minutes longer. George Melford, director of Valentino's "The Sheik", directed, and Carlos Villarias stars as Dracula. Although Villarias somewhat pales next to Lugosi, his performance is devoid of Bela's stylized hammings. He is not as frightening, but is much more sympathetic than Lugosi. Lupita Tovar plays Eva, (Mina) and she gives her character a strength and vitality that escaped her English-speaking counterpart. But the show is stolen by Pablo Alvarez Rubio, who is far and away the best Renfield I have seen. He is much more natural than was Dwight Frye of the Lugosi film. He is much more interesting and sympathetic in the early scenes, (he appears genuinely frightened in the castle) and he is riveting once he goes hideously mad. He has a truly dramatic and tragic climax with the evil Count on the castle steps. You also get to see entire scenes, subplots and even sets that were dropped from the English spoken version. If you like the Lugosi film, this is a must-see. If you were left unmoved by the English version, (as I was) this movie will offer you a pleasant surprise. Fear not, it has been given subtitles by the producers of the video.