10 Movies That Were Nearly Lost Completely

In the present day, a film that is released in a foreign country will have subtitles layered over it or have the dialogue dubbed over so that foreign audiences can enjoy it in whole. However, back in the early days of sound, producers would go the extra mile by having a film remade in different languages for different audiences to enjoy. When a film was made, there would be numerous other versions of it produced at the same time for Spanish, Italian, French and German markets.

One of the most iconic films of 1931 was Tod Browning’s Dracula, and as per other sound films made around that time,foreign versions were made. The most interesting out of all these was the Spanish version, made at the same time as Browning’s original - they used the sets during the day whilst the American crew would use them at night. What ended up happening was that the Spanish crew would watch the filming of Dracula during the night and make notes of camera placement and lighting in order to make theirs look much better than the English version. As a result, many praise Spanish Dracula as being better than Universal's original.

Due to its limited release in Spain, however, it was thought lost for many years until it turned up in the 1970s and underwent a full restoration.