Once upon a time, Hollywood was dominated by Spanish-speaking stars: only the movies in which they starred were silent films. With the advent of "talkies", Spanish-language cinema became their special vehicle: just like today's Televisa, Galavision or MTV Latina. To the films they made, Latino actors brought bigger, livelier emotions than their anglo counterparts (plus, for the women, lower necklines and very few Visible Panty Lines).
There is no better place to catch the difference than in the Spanish-language version of the "Dracula": shot BY NIGHT, every night, on the very same sets as the Tod Browning classic which starred Bela Lugosi. (Tod's crew shot by day; the "other cast" started work as the sun sank). Carlos Villar, who plays "Conde Dracula", is almost a dead (oops) ringer for the anglo star -- yet moves even more slowly than that morphine-addicted great. His girlish victims include one superstar, Lupita Tovar, who starts the video version with amusing anecdotes. (Two years later, she married the film's producer).
Although director George Melford spoke no Spanish, his interpeter certainly allowed the cast to "express themselves", despite the fact they were "hitting the marks" laid out for Lugosi and company. The result is much darker and wilder than the better known classic -- and it was studied carefully by the new-age team who tackled "Interview With A Vampire" . "Dracula" in Spanish, with English subtitles, is one of the Universal Monsters Classics Collection. Subtitled "A Collector's Treasure", it can be got for 14.98 retail, from MCA/Universal Home Video.
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