This film looks bad. The Spanish one (allegedly shot with the same equipment) looks much more crispy(considering the year). PLus, there's a noisy hiss in this one that even sometimes you won't understand some words said by the actors.
shareEVERYTHING in this movie, save for Lugosi (he did good enough with what he had to work with) is horrible by default, because it $#!+s all over the original novel.
How you can make the world a better place:
Don't shop at Wal-Mart.
dracula 1931 is based on the 1924 stage play Dracula by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston which is loosely based on the novel.
shareNO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER.
The Spanish Version was based on the play as well, but it was LOADS better. It wasn't censored nearly as much, and the acting was Much better (especially on the part of Lupita Tovar as Eva Over Helen Chandler's Mina)
How you can make the world a better place:
Don't shop at Wal-Mart.
Obsess much ????
shareYour logic is inconsistent. The English version sucks automatically because it's so different from your precious book (which isn't even its direct basis) yet you judge the Spanish version on its own merits. So which is it, fidelity or quality?
Either way I disagree. The Spanish version is hardly any more faithful to the book and the only thing superior about it as a movie is the cinematography. It's slower paced than the already slow paced English version and Lupita Tovar is the only one doing better acting. The rest were about equal to their English counterparts except for Dracula and Renfield, who were much better preformed by Lugosi and Frye.
But many films back then deviated from the source literature. Just look at Pride and Prejudice with Olivier and Garson yet I love it still.
shareCan't speak about the Spanish version but I'm watching the English version in "Super HD" on Netflix and it looks abysmal. The problem is that they've tried to blur out the natural grain of the film. Anything static looks greasy and there's little speckly dots shimmering and flashing on everyone's skin. Memo to Universal: film is supposed to have grain and washing it out just leads to unnecessary and distracting distortion.
shareAgreed, the film has to have some grain to preserve that classic
yet spooky feel. It's also a very old film and unfortunately, they
didn't have the technology we have today. I guess they had to
make do with what they had.
You should get the Blu-ray, which came out last year. The grain is intact on that transfer. I do not believe Netflix had access to the same transfer when they loaded it onto their server.
shareI second redfirebird's reply, the Blu-Ray is miles better.
I'm from Paris... TEXAS
I just watched it and the film looks fantastic except for the ship scenes. But how do you know if it's the Spanish or English version - by the language, is that it? Because the one I watched was in english.
shareWell, if you love the Spanish version so much, then why don't you marry it?
According to the commentary on the DVD, the Spanish version was shot at night while this version was using the same set during the day. The Spanish version used the nitrate film stock, which the commentator explains made for a better picture quality.
share[deleted]
All 35mm commercial film stock was cellulose nitrate at the time (cellulose triacetate 35mm "safety film" was introduced in 1948, and became industry standard after 1951).
I'll have to listen to the commentary to know for sure, but it's possible that what was meant was that the English version had been mastered from a transferred safety film source, and the Spanish from an existing nitrate element.
Any source that is closest to the original negative will yield better image quality, assuming that dirt and/or damage have been addressed. The grain of the English Blu-ray is indeed excessive compared to that of the Spanish version, almost certainly indicating that the English was mastered from a source that was more generations removed from the original negative.
Poe! You are...avenged!
I disagree. I like and prefer the English version better because I don't speak Spanish
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