Drácula

Drácula (1931)

A British estate agent travels to Transylvania to meet the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a London castle. After Dracula enslaves the agent and drives him to insanity, the pair return to London together, where Dracula, a secret bloodsucker, begins preying on socialites.

Date of release
1931-03-01
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (144)
Runtime
1h 44m
Genres
Horror
Director
George Melford

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Dracula and Dracula

Dracula is a 1931 Spanish-language American horror film directed by George Melford. The film is based on both the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker and its 1924 play adaptation by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. It follows the eponymous vampire Conde Drácula as he travels from Transylvania to England to prey upon new victims. The film stars Carlos Villarías as Drácula, alongside Barry Norton, Pablo Alvarez Rubio, and Eduardo Arozamena.

Production

In the late 1920s, Hollywood studios depended on the successful exportation of their films to other countries. While silent films could easily be sold to other countries, sound film could not. By 1928, the preferred approach to the foreign-language market was to develop more than one version of a film using the same script, sets and costumes of the English-language original, but employing different actors who could speak the languages such as Fre…

A Spanish-language version of Dracula was announced on October 1, 1930, with George Melford hired to direct, with actors Lupita Tovar and Carlos Villarías. Melford was a former actor who had made several directorial credits including the Rudolph Valentino film The Sheik (1921). After several years with Paramount, he began working at Universal often handling the directorial duties on Spanish version of studio films.

On October 10, Melford began directing the film, shooting at night while Browning's crew would shoot during the day. At certain times, the crews would shoot on the same set.

Filming lasted a total of 22 shooting days. Tovar discussed the Spanish-language production as to make it for "as little money as possible. They used the same sets and everything. And those [Spanish-speaking actors] were not demanding big salaries". Melford spoke no Spanish, but used an interpreter on set to direct the film. Melford studied the English-language footage filmed during the day and composed his own shots accordingly.

The film differs from Tod Browning's Dracula, as it has a running time of 104 minutes, making it almost half-hour longer than Browning's version. Costumes in this film are also somewhat different, such as actress Lupita Tovar's more low-cut nightgowns.

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