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“It’s tempting to elevate the Spanish version of Drácula over the original,” film critic Paul Boyne reflected in September 2015, “because the story behind it is so fascinating. The producer, Paul Kohner, was in love with the Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, and campaigned to give her more roles in Hollywood.”
“The female lead in the Spanish language Drácula was the most memorable result. They married in 1932 …
… and remained so until his death in 1988. As of this writing, Lupita Tovar, at 105 years old, is still among theliving. Dracula hasn’t gotten her yet, as far as I know.”
Just before Thanksgiving, sadly, we learned that she’s no longer among the undead.
“Filmed simultaneously as the famous English language version in 1931,” observes From the Sidelines, “the Spanish Drácula is now regarded as being vastly superior. Using the same shooting script and sets, but with a different director and cast, it offers a fascinating contrast in approaches. While the English version got all the fame, this is the better movie by far.”
“First off,” the reviewer explains, “the babe factor is a big reason. Yes, that is sexist, but it is also accurate.” Concurs Epinions.com, “The Spanish film’s women are much sexier.”
Just compare prim, pale under cover blonde Helen Chandler about to get a ‘love bite’ from Dracula (BelaLugosi) in the American film …
… to the more hands on approach of Spain’s Carlos Villarías that exotic brunette Lupita signed off on—with her bodice no longer beneath the bedclothes.
“My wardrobe was the sexiest ever!” laughed Lupita in a 2008 interview with NPR. “You know, they gave me—the negligée is all transparent, you know.”
And from her earliest days as a studio starlet, the spicy señorita never wore a bra!
“Tovar’s performance needs to be noted,” From the Sidelines empha•sizes. “Her Eva is full of life [even when undead], likeable and warm.”
“The actress gets wonderfully out of control and better yet, goes completely feral. This reminded me of Hammer Films’ take on Dracula that would come many decades later.” Similarly, states TheNitrate Diva: “With the Count’s blood coursing through her veins, Eva turns positively maniacal. Though she’s even livelier than she was before, Tovar evokes a vivacity at once seductive and unnatural.”
Though it’s abundantly clear she’s all natural … and, in the words of TCM: embodies “the nipply Latina.”
“Her fiendishly aggressive, erotically charged interpretation of female vampirism was decades ahead of its time,” marvels The Nitrate Diva. “I mean, [Drac’s most famous rack, below right] Ingrid Pitt wasn’t even born yet!
Indeed, Lupita was already 27 when Pitt was born in Poland—yet would outlive her by 6 years! So let’s go back to the beginning …
Born Guadalupe Natalia Tovar on July 27, 1910 in Matías Romero, a tiny town in southwest Mexico, in the words of the New York Times in its recent obituary: “She was the oldest of nine children in an impoverished family and described her father as a strict man who initially frowned on her acting ambitions.”
Discovered in a dance class at age 17 and invited to Hollywood to take a screen test against 65 aspiring actresses, the naïve girl was allowed to go only if her grandmother went as a chaperone. “I came right from school, a teenager, who had never had any makeup or anything like that,” the actress recalled. “The family of my father was very religious—there were priests and nuns in the family.” Still, nun could compete with little Lupi … she was ranked #1 in the screen tests and given a $150-a-week contract for 12 months {the equivalent of $110,000 a year today} by famed Fox Studios, which played up her caliente qualities.
“When I came to Hollywood,” as Tovar told it, “Fox took some stills of me and when I came back to Mexico City, we paid a visit to the aunts. Fox had filmed me in skimpy clothes.”
“They had a photo of me on display, but they had put lace around my chest to cover me. It was very funny.”
Drácula was hardly a scream … and Lupita was barely covered: “For the Latin countries,” she revealed, “they thought censorship wasn’t required and that Latins like something more sexy. I had no approval of anything.”
But she had the goods: “There’s actual cleavage among the ladies of the Spanish version,” TCM says with surprise, “which isn’t easy given that they were all wearing flapper styles.”
Flaps up, Tovar was up front about her surprise: “I remember when I saw the English version later, the wardrobe was different. What they gave me were big décolletées, you know, what you’d call sexy. I wasn’t even aware of it!” Hard to miss:
“The dresses that [continental counterpart] Helen Chandler wore were all covered up,” Lupita laughed … the contrast sheerly obvious below.
Perhaps that’s because Chandler “did not want to play the role,” having earlier auditioned for the tit•ular part of Alice in Wonderland being made the same year—and was “very disappointed” to lose out at the last minute. “In Dracula, I played one of those bewildered little girls who go around pale, hollow-eyed and anguished,” Helen later lamented, “wondering about things.” What she was really wondering about “how to schedule surgery for chronic appendicitis without holding up the film.” No wonder she looked so im•pale with that Bela fella!
Somehow, the actress managed to put off surgery until after the film’s completion … and finally returned to form in time for Sleuth to uncover this rare mid-Thirties lingerie look:
But Helen’s health would not last: she developed an addiction to pills and by the late-1930s “was battling severe alcoholism—culminating in her “falling asleep while drinking and smoking and being severely burned in an apartment fire” in November 1950.
She survived, but her body was extremely disfigured … and she continued drinking heavily: Chandler would be in and out of hospitals before dying of cardiac arrest during surgery in 1965. Thus, her less than 4 years younger, far less known Mexican counterpart would wind up outliving her fellow vampire victim by 51 years!
A similar lack of longevity plagued Helen’s bosom bud in the movie, Frances Dade—equally “washed out” as Lucy Harker, below right.
“The Spanish women are better looking than the English cast,” reiterates From the Sidelines. “This Dracula prefers dark haired lasses and has impeccable taste."
Exhibit B being Tovar’s dusky, devoted friend—called Lucia in the Latin version and played by curvy CarmenGuerrero.
Perhaps that’s because the pair were given a stake {ouch!} that the Americans lacked. “Lupita Tovar and fellow Mexican Carmen Guerrero—who in silent films had carved out a niche as seductive Latinas—chose their own costumes,” confides Mex Files, which were much more revealing than those worn by Helen Chandler and Frances Dade … in large part because they could show more and, as Tovar explained, because unlike the United States, there are not a lot of puritans among Latin American filmgoers. Certainly Ms. Guerrero was more…er…a vamp than Ms. Dade”—though lecherous Lugosi did manage to cop a feel of the braless blonde when their ‘necking’ somehow slipped by the censors.
Carmen somehow slipped under the radar for the rest of her life … with no one knowing her whereabouts for the rest of the century—until Sleuth unearthed this San Francisco certificate from precisely 30 years ago next weekend, which proves she lived till age 75 … 17 years longer than fellow “second victim” Frances was able to remain undead.
It would be another three decades before luminous Lupita would join them—even though she had lived a vampire’s life while working with Dracula 85 years before: “They worked like children of the night,” begins one account, “shooting from sundown to sunrise. The Spanish-language version of Drácula was shot from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. after the English-language cast had gone home.” As Tovar trembled: “This was very, very difficult because I always needed my sleep—10 hours. It was a complete change because I had to sleep in the day time {not in a coffin, we hope}. I was actually frightened by the sets. It was very dark and scary. We left in the morning before the English cast arrived.”
So now we’ve arrived at the question on everyone’s lips … or at least those at VIP FAQ.com: Has Tovar ever taken off her top in front of a camera?
Likely just once … for this figure study circa 1929 after she first arrived in America, first discovered by Sleuth:
“Me, I was very sexy,” she smiled at age 98.
Stay smiling for Part 2of Lupita’s (long) life after death.
