Dracula/Drácula
(1931)
While Tod Browning was directing Bela Lugosi in what may be the best-known and most-seen horror film ever, Universal was getting more bang for its peso by using the same sets at night, after the English-language crew had gone home, to film a Spanish-language version, directed by George Melford (despite the fact that he didn't speak Spanish) and starring Carlos Villarías (who overacts every bit as much as Lugosi, though in different ways).I gather from some of the comments that the disc that Netflix rents includes the Spanish version, but I'm not sure. Mine is the Universal Legacy 75th anniversary edition, which does, and watching both versions back to back is a highly recommended trip.
On the one hand, the two versions are mostly shot-for-shot duplicates . . . and yet the English-language version (and no, I'm not saying it doesn't merit its reputation as the horr-Ur-text) rushes through the plot as if the sun were coming up 75 minutes in. The Spanish version takes its time scene by scene--it's 100 minutes long, though it adds probably no more than two or three scenes--and thus boosts the creep factor. The writing is also better--and yes, I can grasp enough Spanish to recognize that the subtitles I'm reading are accurate, and that Baltasar Fernández Cué's script is more poetic and more evocative than Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston's. I won't go so far as to say I'll never again watch Lugosi as the Count, but the Spanish version will be my first choice henceforth. See it.
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