Directors: George Melford, Enrique Tovar Ávalos
Writers: Bram Stoker, Baltasar Fernández Cué
Stars: Carlos Villarías, Lupita Tovar, Barry Norton
1 Hour, 44 minutes
Get it from Amazon: https://amzn.to/351h3II
Synopsis
A group of people ride in a carriage, and one of the men, Renfield, wants the driver to slow down. One of the locals says don’t slow down, there are Nosferatu about. They disembark, but one man wants to continue on to the Borgo pass, where he’s to meet a carriage at midnight. “Not… Dracula?” Asks one of the locals. An old lady gives the man her cross to wear. The coach rides on to where Dracula’s carriage awaits.
We see Dracula rise and then see him pick up the man on the hillside. Once they get underway, he sees no driver, just a bat scaring the horses to run faster.
Things go basically the same. Dracula makes his entrance and talks about the music the wolves make. Dracula passes through the spiderwebs, but Renfield has to hack his way through them. Dracula pours Renfield some win, but none for himself. Dracula asks if Renfield’s visit was a complete secret and that he burnt all their correspondence, which he has. It’s an awkward dinner. Dracula looks over the contracts and everything looks good. He’s the new owner of Carfax Abby.
Dracula leaves and Renfield passes out, allowing Dracula’s brides to close in on him.
We cut to the ship crossing to England. We see Dracula rise out of his coffin on the ship, and later, we see all the crew is dead. Renfield laughs maniacally , but he’s no Dwight Frye. A couple of the shots of Dracula alone are actually Bela Lugosi’s leftover footage.
He goes to the opera and introduces himself to Dr. Seward, who runs the asylum adjoining his new property. He pays Lucia a visit that night, and she dies. Lucia had two small bite marks on her neck, and Professor Van Helsing says it’s a case of vampires.
Renfield is staying at the asylum, and now he’s eating spiders and flies. He’s obsessed with eating living things, and Van Helsing wants to study the case. Van Helsing shows Renfield some wolfsbane, and he totally freaks out. Shortly afterwards Seward and Van Helsing find bite marks on Eva, Seward’s daughter.
Dracula drops in, and Van Helsing notices that there’s no reflection in the mirror. He confronts Dracula, and the two have a battle of words.
“What gives vampires their power is that no one believes in them!” Van Helsing says. Meanwhile, Eva is outside getting bitten again. They interrogate Renfield, but a nurse finds Eva’s dead body and screams. It turns out, she’s not dead, but it won’t take long.
There’s a mysterious woman in white out at night abducting and biting various children. Eva has seen this woman; it’s Lucia. They cover Eva’s room in wolfsbane and lock the windows. Dracula can’t go in, so he visits Renfield. He bends the bars and let Renfield out.
Dracula hypnotizes the nurse and has her remove all the wolfsbane. Dracula then bits Eva yet again. Meanwhile, Dracula and Van Helsing are bickering in the study again. Dracula hypnotizes Van Helsing, but Van Helsing turns the tables and scares away the Count with a cross.
Eva tries to convince Harker to take the crosses and wolfsbane away from Van Helsing. They put her to bed, and Dracula comes in right away. While this is going on, Harker and Van Helsing go out to the cemetery and stake Lucia. Dracula gets angry and kills Renfield.
Dracula locks himself in the dungeon with Eva while the sun comes up. Harker and Van Helsing break in and rescue Eva. They find Dracula asleep in his coffin and kill him.
Commentary
This used all the same sets as the English version, but many of the shots are from different angles. This one also had all different actors. Like the English version, there is no music. The sound effects here are better; the creaking doors are very noticeable. The film is very sharp and well-preserved, maybe better than the English version.
Several of the scenes stretch on longer than the English counterpart, and we get a lot more Renfield in this one– He actually gets more screen time than anyone else. Renfield doesn’t have Dwight Frye’s iconic laugh, but he is very good here. Dracula is also very good, but he smiles too much.
There is more going on here than in the English version: there are more characters, more story, more drama, and more lore. It drags a bit in places, but looking at both side-by-side, this is probably the better stand-alone film, although Bela Lugosi was a far better Dracula than Villarias.