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| English version = 1 hr & 25 min |
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| Spanish version = 1 hr & 44 min |
I went to see this yesterday, October 25th, 2015, here in Vallejo, CA, at the CENTURY 14 VALLEJO, for the special double-feature Turner Classic Movies' showing of the original 1931 horror classic, DRACULA, in auditorium 6, 2nd row ( counting from the front ), 8ht column ( counting from the left ). The price of admission was $8.00. And I bought a Lite Bite ( junior Powerade Mountain Berry Blast, kid's size Buttered Popcorn and small bag of Beef Jerkey ) for $6.80 at the concessions counter. During the 10-minute intermission, I went back to the concessions counter to buy a one-litre bottle of Dasani Water for $4.80.
Quickie Review: Count Dracula ( Bela Lugosi, English version/Carlos Villarias, Spanish version ) goes to England to satisfy his lust for fair maidens' blood.
There were just a half-dozen people in the audience with me. I think they liked this double-feature.
I liked it in the sense that it's the original Dracula movie, which I never saw before in my life. You may or may not want to see this movie, depending on your own taste.
Here are some spoilers: Both versions have a "high school stage play" feel to them, but with bad acting. Most of the English people speak with an American accent in the Bela Lugosi movie. Both movies had men howl like a wolf in the background, the English version had just one "wolf" while the Spanish version had two or three "wolves". Apparently, Count Dracula could change himself into a wolf, too, according to the English version! With that set aside, the Spanish version is the better of the two. Here's why: Both movies were shot back to back, employing the same sets and props, with the English scenes shot first and the Spanish scenes shot at night. I don't know about you, but shooting a horror movie in the evening gives it an added advantage over a horror movie shot in the daytime. And the Spanish version director ( who didn't speak Spanish ) was able to watch and take notes on how to better the English version--by "better" I mean, slightly better. Neither one is scary at all.
According to the TCM host, DRACULA was meant to be a Love Story. To that end, it was released on February 14th, 1931. Lon Chaney was the original choice for the role before his untimely death. Hollywood back then had the habit of shooting movies back to back in English and in Spanish to maximize their profits at the box office. And speaking of maximizing profits, the Spanish version of Hollywood movies were more risque--evident in this Spanish version with one actress wearing a see-through gown ( nothing showed, though ) and another actress not wearing a bra underneath her blouse.
I sat there thinking to myself, I'm actually watching a couple of movies filmed 84 years ago. All the actors and actresses, including the babies in the crib, are long dead and gone, I said to myself. I was wrong. The TCM host said at the end of the presentation that the lead actress in the Spanish version , Ms. Lupita Tovar, just recently celebrated her 105th birthday this last July! And her grandsons, Paul and Chris Weitz, are Hollywood actors, writers, producers and directors in their own right!
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The Dracula that I grew up on was the one portrayed by none other than the late/great Christopher Lee. He was an excellent Dracula, the definitive one!
One day in the early 70s, when I was perusing my mom's Reader's Digest magazine, an article caught my interest. It was an article on the late Bela Lugosi who was buried wearing his Dracula costume. When I read it, I came to believe that Bela Lugosi was the actual vampire depicted in the movies! In my young, impressionable mind, Bela Lugosi would have to have been a real vampire because he was buried in "vampire" clothes.
These two movies are laughably bad by today's Horror Movie standards. Imagine if you could go back in time to 1931 with a collection of today's horror movies to show to the people back then. Lots of them would faint, would get a heart attack or stroke, or would refuse to sleep with the lights off from then on!
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