Monster-of-the-Week: …let’s give the nod this week to the 1931 Universal Pictures Dracula...but not, this time, the Dracula of the immortal Bela Lugosi, but rather that of Carlos Villarias…
…who played the Count in the Spanish-language version of the flick shot on the same sets during the same dates as the Lugosi/Tod Browning version, but on the night shift. While Villarias can’t claim quite the grandeur of Lugosi (who he resembled, so that long shots of Lugosi could economically be used in both versions), he’s still very good, as is the film overall, directed by George Melford.
If you've never seen it, I recommend you get out to the TCM-sponsored double feature of both versions playing at 2 and 7 p.m. October 25 at various multiplexes around the country, including several screens here in the Valley and in Tucson. Details here.
The neck that the Villarias Drac understandably wishes to bite belongs, by the way, to the luscious Lupita Tovar, still alive at well over a hundred, and the grandmother of the screenwriting/directing brothers Chris and Paul Weitz.
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