The Night-Shift Drácula

The story as it is told

Fans tell this one like a detective story. In 1930 Universal shot a Spanish-language Drácula on the same sets as Tod Browning's English one, and its director, George Melford, watched Browning's filming each day and applied what he saw to his own. The result, the story goes, was a shot-for-shot copy, with the same camera setups, and it is the better film, longer and bolder in its costumes and scenes, with critics weighing Carlos Villarías's Count against Bela Lugosi's.

Released in Cuba in 1931, it was then forgotten for decades, mentioned only in passing by horror historians in the 1960s and 1970s. A print turned up in New Jersey and was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in August 1977, and the film reached a wider audience on VHS in 1992. Some tellings add a fan-driven hunt that ran from a New Jersey warehouse to Havana and saved it.

What we can confirm

Part of the online version holds up. The sets were shared (Los Angeles Times; AFI), but the staging and setups differ, and the Spanish cut runs about half an hour longer. "Better" is critics' opinion. The warehouse-and-Havana rescue details come from a fan blog, while the documented rescue runs through the Cinemateca de Cuba and UCLA.

In the first years of sound, Hollywood had no good way to sell talking pictures abroad, since dubbing was crude and subtitles were unpopular, and so studios sometimes shot the same script twice in different languages. According to the Los Angeles Times account of the film's 1992 revival, Universal's associate producer Paul Kohner suggested to Carl Laemmle that the studio make a Spanish Drácula alongside Tod Browning's English one.

The two units shared the sets. The LA Times reports that the English crew left at 6 pm and the Spanish cast took over at 8, working through the night under George Melford, a director who spoke no Spanish and had made The Sheik. Carlos Villarías, billed onscreen as "Carlos Villar" according to the AFI Catalog, played the Count, and the LA Times says he even wore Lugosi's hairpiece. Lupita Tovar played Eva, and decades later she told historian David Skal that the English company was "very nice, but condescending. We were the children and they were the grown-ups, you."

The night unit made its own choices. The Library of Congress National Film Registry essay by Lénárt notes that Melford's version includes close-ups of the bites, and the LA Times reports that his cameraman reached the Carfax Abbey set before the cobwebs were dressed. The Spanish cut is also much longer, running 103 minutes in 11 reels according to AFI.

AFI records production from October 23 into November 1930, a Havana opening on March 11, 1931 and a New York opening on April 24, 1931. The LA Times puts the Spanish shoot at 22 nights and "only $66,000 and change," against Browning's seven weeks and nearly $442,000, and both budget figures are reported numbers from that one newspaper source.

Then the film slipped away. Filmoteca UNAM describes it as considered lost until the early 1990s, when a nitrate copy surfaced in Cuba, and the LA Times explains that the Library of Congress copy lacked the crucial third reel. UCLA, at Universal's request, went to the Cinemateca de Cuba in Havana for help, and the restored film had its revival premiere at UCLA's Melnitz Theater on Halloween 1992. Universal then released a subtitled video for $14.95, and in 2015 the film was named to the National Film Registry.

The rights story is as unusual as the production. Universal registered and renewed the English Dracula (LP1947, renewed R227698), so that film enters the US public domain on Jan 1, 2027. No 1931 registration or renewal has been found for the Spanish version, and the only Copyright Office record is the 1992 video registration covering new matter. That gap could mean the 1931 Spanish film is already in the US public domain, or something more complicated, depending on whether its 1931 release counted as "publication" under the 1909 Act. We don't know yet.

The facts

• Production Oct 23 to Nov 1930; Havana opening Mar 11, 1931; New York opening Apr 24, 1931; 103 min, 11 reels; Villarías billed as "Carlos Villar"; associate producer Paul Kohner; dialogue director Enrique Tovar Ávalos; Spanish version by B. Fernández Cué. AFI Catalog, catalog.afi.com
• Kohner proposed the dual-language idea to Laemmle; the English crew left at 6 pm and the Spanish cast arrived at 8; Villarías used Lugosi's hairpiece; Melford spoke no Spanish; Tovar's "children and grown-ups" quote (as told to Skal); 22 nights and about $66,000 versus seven weeks and about $442,000; LoC copy lacked reel 3; UCLA went to Havana; revival premiere Halloween 1992. Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, Oct 31, 1992, latimes.com
• Considered lost until the early 1990s; nitrate copy found in Cuba; Cinemateca de Cuba lent it to UCLA. Filmoteca UNAM, "Historias recuperadas," filmoteca.unam.mx
• Melford's version finished days before Browning's; includes bite close-ups; Universal distributed only Melford's version in Spanish-speaking countries; National Film Registry 2015. LoC NFR essay (Lénárt), local copy ; LoC Now See Hear! blog, local copy
• Copyright: no 1931 registration or renewal located; only PA 662-505 (1992 video; new matter "some footage; re-editing; music"). Q12

Related: Is Dracula (1931) public domain? · What enters the public domain in 2027

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