Drácula (1931)

Director:

George Melford
(more)

Writers:

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

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Count | Abbey | Doctor | Castle | Death Of Title Character

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Geraldine Dvorak	...	Bride of Dracula (in catacombs) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Bela Lugosi	...	Conde Drácula (archive footage) (uncredited)
Cornelia Thaw	...	Bride of Dracula (in catacombs) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Dorothy Tree	...	Bride of Dracula (in catacombs) (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
George Melford
Enrique Tovar Ávalos		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Bram Stoker		(novel "Dracula")
Hamilton Deane		(play "Dracula") uncredited &
John L. Balderston		(play "Dracula") uncredited
Garrett Fort		(play script) uncredited
Dudley Murphy		(additional dialogue) uncredited
Baltasar Fernández Cué		(Spanish adaptation) (as B. Fernandez Cue)

Produced by
Paul Kohner	....	associate producer
Carl Laemmle Jr.	....	producer

Cinematography by
George Robinson

Film Editing by
Arthur Tavares		(as Arturo Tavares)

Art Direction by
Charles D. Hall

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles S. Gould	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Jay Marchant	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
C. Roy Hunter	....	recording supervisor

Editorial Department
Maurice Pivar	....	supervising editor

Music Department
Heinz Roemheld	....	conductor (uncredited)
Heinz Roemheld	....	music supervisor (uncredited)

Other crew
Carl Laemmle	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1931) (USA) (theatrical)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Universal Home Entertainment (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Finland (2004) (Finland) (DVD) (14-disc Monster Legacy Collection)
• Universal Pictures Finland (2004) (Finland) (DVD) (3-disc Dracula the Legacy Collection)
• Universal Pictures Nordic (2004) (Sweden) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"Dracula, Spanish Version" - USA (DVD box title)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Spanish | Hungarian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Certification:

USA:Unrated | Sweden:7 | Finland:K-11 (2004) | Spain:13 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Brazil:10

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Director George Melford did not speak or understand Spanish.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Like Bela Lugosi in the English version of Dracula (1931), Carlos Villarías wore a hair-piece that gave him a pronounced widow's peak. But unlike Lugosi, the toupee didn't rest well and is rather obvious in some shots.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Universal Story (1995) (TV)

Greatly Overrated

The Spanish-language Drácula (1931) is frequently said to be better than the simultaneously shot, English-language Dracula. I find this odd.

The performances of Villarías, Rubio, and Arozamena are much less affecting than those of Lugosi, Frye, and Sloan. I'll readily grant that Rubio's behavior is more like than of a typical madman than is Frye's, but *realism* precludes vampires in the first place.

The acting of some of the bit players in Drácula is poor. The lighting is simply thoughtless illumination. Continuity is ignored *ab initio*; for example, does Conde Drácula emerge from the coffin of Count Dracula (as shot by Freund or Browning), or from a packing crate?

There are various points at which Drácula *is* better than Dracula. Holes in the script of Dracula are generally plugged in Drácula. While Sloan's acting is superior to that of Arozamena, the English-language script requires him to be unbelievably ineffectual. (Watch Sloan pause on the steps to explain that there is no time to lose, and then continue *walking*!)