Horrorfest 2018: Dracula (Spanish Version)

Ever since I was a kid I always heard about how Universal produced a Spanish language version of DRACULA at the same time as the famous Bela Lugosi version. The more famous English-language version of DRACULA would shoot during the day and then a Spanish-speaking cast and a separate crew shot on the same sets from the same script at night.
The reason I’d hear about this as a kid reading my monster books was that many held it up as a superior version of the film, which is mind blowing – how can DRACULA without Lugosi be better than DRACULA with Lugosi?

Well, the answer is, it’s not REALLY. But it mostly is! Here’s why. Despite being famous and having the greatest Dracula performance ever (Lugosi), the 1931 Universal version of DRACULA suffers from static directing. Which is weird because Tod Browning has clearly made visually dynamic movies – he just didn’t in this case. It’s based on a play and shot like a play, so it moves slowly.

The Spanish version, directed by George Melford, on the other hand, has a lot more dynamic shots and camera movement. It’s a longer movie, but moves more quickly than the Lugosi version because of the way it’s put together. There are tracking shots in dramatic moments, we get to see cool stuff like Dracula actually rising out of his coffin, the scenes on the ship are more creepy. There’s all kinds of examples.

The biggest strength the Lugosi version has over the Spanish version is Lugosi himself, though Carlos Villarias is no slouch. Lugosi plays the role as more of a gentleman who also happens to be cursed. Villarias is also a gentleman, but he seems to take more pleasure in his vampiric activities.

Another pair of actors worth comparing and contrasting are Dwight Frye and Pablo Alvarez Rubio as Renfield, who starts off as a normal real estate agent and progresses into insanity under the influence of Dracula. I love Frye in everything I’ve seen him in, and his otherworldly laugh as Renfield is unforgettable. However, Rubio is just as great, ratcheting the insanity up a notch and really going for it. He doesn’t have a subdued “insane laugh” – he has a roaring howl. It’s unsettling in a completely different way, and fascinating to watch two radically different takes on the same character that deliver similar results.

Anyway, that wraps it up for Horrorfest 2018. I’ve now seen 31 Universal Horror movies I’d never seen before. Maybe next year I’ll see the rest, and then I can claim to have seen all of them! It was fun to spend most of the month with the likes of Lugosi, Karloff and Chaney, with others like Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone showing up, too. Happy Halloween!