The Spanish Version of Dracula Is Better

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By JOHN SEGURA

The 1931 classic, Dracula, is an iconic piece of cinematic history that’s influenced a slew of remakes and adaptations over the years. Bela Lugosi’s performance as the famous bloodsucking count is indeed memorable and has helped propel the character as a cultural icon. However, there’s another version of the film that often gets overlooked. While director Tod Browning and his crew were filming Lugosi and his fellow actors during the day, another cast and crew used the same set at night to produce a Spanish-speaking iteration of the picture. While both productions tell the same story, the Spanish version, directed by George Melford, is arguably the better movie.

At the time, Universal Studios and other production companies used the same film sets and props to create foreign-language versions of their movies to tap into non-English speaking markets. As a result, in the Spanish version, Count Dracula is played by Carlos Villarías. At the same time, characters like Mina Seward (Helen Chandler), Lucy Weston (Frances Dade) and John Harker (David Manners) become Eva (Lupita Tovar), Lucía (Carmen Guerrero) and Juan (Barry Norton). Moreover, because the movie catered to foreign audiences in Latin America, there’s added emphasis on religion, and the costumes were more risqué in contrast to their English counterpart. Nevertheless, although there’s some variation, the quality of the Spanish Dracula over its more well-known equivalent comes down to the actors’ performances and its use of close-ups and space…

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