美国国家公共电台 NPR--Spanish 'Dracula' finds new blood, more than 90 years after its release

Spanish 'Dracula' finds new blood, more than 90 years after its release

Transcript¹

In 1931, another cast and crew for the movie Dracula worked overnight, after the star and the English language crew wrapped, to redo the scenes in Spanish. (Story aired on ATC on Sept. 19, 2022.)

Spanish 'Dracula' finds new blood, more than 90 years after its release

LATINOS IN HOLLYWOOD

Spanish 'Dracula' finds new blood, more than 90 years after its release

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

In 1931, Universal Studios shot its classic horror film starring Bela Lugosi as the bloodsucking count from Transylvania.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DRACULA")

BELA LUGOSI: (As Dracula) I am Dracula.

FADEL: After the production of "Dracula" wrapped every day, a whole new crew and actors arrived at night to redo all the scenes in Spanish. NPR's Mandalit del Barco tells us more, as part of our series on Latinos in Hollywood.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE²: The Spanish-language version of "Dracula" starred Carlos Villarias as the caped³ vampire⁴ out for blood.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DRACULA")

CARLOS VILLARIAS: (As Dracula, speaking Spanish).

DEL BARCO: Villarias had been a stage actor in Spain, and his resemblance to Bela Lugosi was uncanny, recalled the late actress Lupita Tovar. She was just 20 when she played the lovely Eva, who's seduced⁵ by Dracula. In a video for the complete legacy⁶ collection of "Dracula," Tovar reminisced about working the graveyard⁷ shift.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LUPITA TOVAR: We shot all night long. We use exactly the same sets. So matter of fact, we had the same marks the English guys got. We step in the same place.

DEL BARCO: She said the scenery was creepy - dark shadows, lit candles and cobwebs.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOVAR: Once you went into that set, it was a different world. You became under the spell of Dracula. You know, if anybody will touch me, I think I would scream.

(SOUNDBITE OF SCREAM)

TOVAR: I was frightened. I really felt a scare of Dracula, you know.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DRACULA")

TOVAR: (As Eva, speaking Spanish).

DEL BARCO: Tovar said her character Eva's wardrobe was more risque than in the English-language version.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOVAR: The dresses that Helen Chandler wore were all covered up. What they gave me were what you would call sexy.

DEL BARCO: The actors were from different Spanish-speaking countries. But the director, George Melford, didn't speak the language. So his directions were translated for the cast and crew.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOVAR: We wanted our version to be the best. And according to the critics, I think it was.

DEL BARCO: This version of "Dracula" was 29 minutes longer than "Dracula" in English. Lupita Tovar's son, Pancho Kohner, says director Melford and Villarias would watch the scenes shot during the day, the dailies, and make improvements, setting up better camera angles and adding more exciting elements.

PANCHO KOHNER: They didn't have to contend with the Hays Office, the censorship. My mother wore a low-cut negligee, and it was very sexy. My father, who was on the set, he was producing it, made sure that it was a better film.

DEL BARCO: Kohner, who became a producer like his father, helped his mother write her memoirs⁹ before she died in 2016 at age 106. He says she was a high school student in Oaxaca when Robert Flaherty, the director of the film "Nanook Of The North," discovered her. Fox Studios had sent him to find the most beautiful girl in Mexico.

KOHNER: My mother came then to Hollywood with her Irish grandmother as her chaperone, spent a year at Fox Studios doing small bits, but she didn't speak English. When talkies came in, they weren't going to renew her contract.

DEL BARCO: Someone at Fox recommended her to Universal Studios, where she met the head of dubbing¹⁰, Paul Kohner.

KOHNER: Who instantly fell in love with her.

DEL BARCO: Without a contract, Tovar was reluctantly getting ready to head back to Mexico. She went to say goodbye to her suitor.

KOHNER: Paul Kohner said, wait. Give me 24 hours. And he quickly went to see Carl Laemmle, head of the studio. And he said, we're wasting half the studio. At 6 o'clock at night, we turn the lights off until 6 in the morning. We should bring in a fresh crew, Spanish-speaking actors, shoot the same film that we shoot during the day at night in Spanish, using the same equipment, same everything. It'll cost peanuts. Laemmle said, you're a genius.

CHRIS WEITZ: That was part of his plan in terms of keeping my grandma around.

DEL BARCO: Chris Weitz is the grandson of Tovar and Kohner, who were married more than 50 years. Weitz is now a well-known film director; so is his brother, Paul. Together, they're writing a script for a movie about the making of Spanish "Dracula." Paul says they'll focus on their grandparents.

PAUL WEITZ: It is a love story between two immigrants.

DEL BARCO: Chris Weitz says Spanish "Dracula" is also an immigrant story.

C WEITZ: Dracula comes over from Transylvania to England, and he's generally considered bad news. And he's a bloodsucker. He's a parasite¹¹ - and this kind of view of immigrants, as opposed to what we really believe about the role of immigrants in this country, which is, like, it's kind of the lifeblood of how the country works.

DEL BARCO: For a time in the 1930s, hundreds of movies were reshot not only into Spanish but French, German and Italian. It was a mini boom in Hollywood before the film industries in other countries geared up and before dubbing or subtitles¹² came into vogue¹³. And now, in addition to Spanish "Dracula" the movie, there will soon be a TV series. Ben Odell is producing the series for Vix+, the new streaming service by TelevisaUnivision.

BEN ODELL: It's a single-cam workplace comedy about this kind of cast of quirky characters trying to make this thing, which ends up being great.

DEL BARCO: Odell says this production will be shot in Mexico with actor Eugenio Derbez directing and starring as Dracula.

ODELL: In our version, he's a ham. Like, he loves the attention. He loves the applause. He's a theater actor, so he's disgusted by the movie business. You know, when he's offered this movie role, he turns it down at first. He's like, don't they know who I am?

DEL BARCO: The Lupita Tovar character is based on stories from her memoir⁸.

ODELL: Lupita was very afraid of her father, who was an alcoholic¹⁴, and he was abusive. So it's this idea that there's this monster at home. She doesn't want to go back to Mexico. With the silent era ending, she thinks she may be forced to go back.

DEL BARCO: Odell says the cast and crew of the original "Dracula" worked under the worst circumstances.

ODELL: They had to come in at night and work crappy hours, and they had a lower budget. But they ended up making a better movie. And it was like, that's such a great American immigrant story. And it's such a great Latino story because oftentimes, you know, in order to succeed when you come to this country, you have to work harder. You have less support, less opportunities. And you still have to try to deliver. And they overdelivered, as often is the case. So it just - it was a beautiful kind of underdog immigrant story.

DEL BARCO: So more than 90 years after one of the most famous monster movies was made, Dracula is being revamped yet again. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MONSTER MASH¹⁵ EN ESPANOL")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in Spanish).

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 caped   

披斗篷的

参考例句：

4 vampire   

n.吸血鬼

参考例句：

• It wasn't a wife waiting there for him but a blood sucking vampire!家里的不是个老婆，而是个吸人血的妖精！
• Children were afraid to go to sleep at night because of the many legends of vampire.由于听过许多有关吸血鬼的传说，孩子们晚上不敢去睡觉。

5 seduced   

诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷

参考例句：

• The promise of huge profits seduced him into parting with his money. 高额利润的许诺诱使他把钱出了手。
• His doctrines have seduced many into error. 他的学说把许多人诱入歧途。

6 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

7 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

8 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

9 memoirs   

n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数)

参考例句：

• Her memoirs were ghostwritten. 她的回忆录是由别人代写的。
• I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs. 我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 dubbing   

n.配音v.给…起绰号( dub的现在分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• There are mainly two forms of film translation: dubbing and subtitling. 电影翻译通常主要表现为两种形式：配音和字幕翻译。 来自互联网
• Its auspices, dubbing the program has won national awards in China. 其主持配音的节目多次获得中国全国奖项。 来自互联网

11 parasite   

n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客

参考例句：

• The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
• I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。

12 subtitles   

n.说明字幕，印在外国影片上的对白翻译字幕，译文对白字幕；小标题，副标题( subtitle的名词复数 )；（电影的）字幕

参考例句：

• subtitles for the deaf and the hard of hearing 为耳聋和听力不佳者打出的字幕
• a Polish film with English subtitles 附有英语字幕的波兰影片

13 Vogue   

n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的

参考例句：

• Flowery carpets became the vogue.花卉地毯变成了时髦货。
• Short hair came back into vogue about ten years ago.大约十年前短发又开始流行起来了。

14 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

15 mash   

n.麦芽浆，糊状物，土豆泥；v.把…捣成糊状，挑逗，调情

参考例句：

• He beat the potato into a mash before eating it.他把马铃薯捣烂后再吃。
• Whiskey,originating in Scotland,is distilled from a mash of grains.威士忌源于苏格兰，是从一种大麦芽提纯出来的。