El Vampiro, 1957

Count Lavud makes his move

Directed by Fernando Méndez
Script by Ramón Obón and Ramon Rodriguez
Actors: Abel Salaza, rAriadne Welter, Carmen Montejo

If you watch this film and say to yourself "Hey, they must've watched the Christopher Lee Horror of Dracula before making this version" you'll need to switch the order around because El Vampiro was first, released October 4, 1957, predating the Hammer Dracula of June 16, 1958.

Featuring a different kind of dinner-jacketed vampire (Count Lavud here, played by German Robles) that had come before, el Vampiro has an aggressive, leaner and longer-fanged vampire on the hunt, not far from how Christopher Lee updated the character of the king vampire just a half year later from the more static, moody Bela Lugosi style.

Set in a large, rundown Mexican hacienda that is almost, but not entirely, abandoned, the recently arrived Count Lavud has big plans for Marta González (Ariadna Welter) who has come home because of the death of her Aunt Theresa. Marta is young and beautiful and so the Count immediately goes to work on mesmerizing her, making his way to her bedroom at night to effect his power of control over her.

But, we discover Aunt Theresa isn't actually dead. Carrying a large crucifix and a little wild-eyed, she's been running a one-woman counter-attack on Count Lavud from within hidden chambers and passageways in the huge house. Thought dead, her reappearance startles everyone, particularly Marta who has brought along the reluctant Dr. Enrique (Abel Salazar) who she met while in transit home. The doctor is a man of rational thought and science (and sardonic remarks), and the accumulating clues around him that something is deeply amiss and unnatural stirs not just his brain cells but his concern for Marta's safety as events quickly start "going sideways."

German Robles' vampire is tall and aristocratic and poses quite a bit under carefully lit spots around the darkened house, and usually he is the center of our attention. He's quite quick moving at times, something that for 1957 isn't the familiar slow-moving vampire with cape up around the eyes slowly advancing onto the prey, but here something animalistic and dangerous. The Christopher Lee version for Hammer of a year later builds upon this to make the famous vampire even more unpredictable and acting like an immediate threat to everyone on the screen.

Abel Salazar plays the Doctor who is part of the battle against the Count (Salazar is also the producer for el Vampiro). His character of the Doctor is a sometimes comic portrayal and his intentional humour leavens the film. Despite an obviously limited budget for the production, the movie has excellent photography and a beautifully well-done main set. The ruined hacienda where we see most of the film taking place is only partially occupied by humans, the rest of it falling apart and decorated with a lot of cob webs, many the same giant size as what saw in the Bela Lugosi version of 1931 (or, if you look further, the Spanish version, also from 1931).

Director Fernando Méndez tells the story efficiently, effectively, but without much camera ingenuity, and the stunt work is also rather limited, both things probably due to budget constraints. Still, the cast does fine work with what they've got and the concepts that are here are exploited with a bigger budget, the same cast (though expanded considerably) with a larger number of sets in the sequel from a year later El ataúd del vampiro (The Vampire's Coffin) which mostly improves upon the original film and gives us a script that has a lot more humour and some spectacular cinematography.

In a way, the straight-on horror of el Vampiro is like that of the original 1931 Frankenstein, and like the sequel to that film (Bride of Frankenstein, 1935) El ataúd del vampiro presents a more multi-sided story that gives us Abel Salazar again as the doctor, but instead of something like Dr. Van Helsing "a man who knows too much" as in the English language films, the tall and handsome Salazar's Dr. Enrique gives us a sometimes comic performance with some very funny lines.

In the 250 versions of Dracula that have put on film featuring the basic elements of Bram Stoker's original story, or just pure pastiche using the titular character, el Vampiro belongs in the higher rank of quality, despite the humble budget. In the recent Blu Ray edition from Indicator the movie looks exceptionally well preserved and converted for home video.

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