Review: Dracula's Daughter

Dracula's Daughter, 1936, Black and White, Universal, 71 minutes. Directed by Lambert Hillyer. Starring Gloria Holden as Countess Marya Zaleska, Otto Kruger as Dr. Jeffrey Garth, Marguerite Churchill as Janet Blake, Edward Van Sloan as Professor Van Helsing, Gilbert Emery as Sir Basil Humphrey and Irving Pichel as Sandor. Schlock-meter rating: Nine stars out of 10.

Dracula's Daughter was not a box office success when released in 1936. It seems that a lady villain who sucked blood failed to grasp audiences. That was the 1930s' loss. Dracula's Daughter is a magnificent sequel. It can even be argued that it is superior to the original Dracula. Gloria Holden, as the doomed daughter of the Count, radiates feral sensuality. She bemoans her fate, yet eagery succumbs to its temptations. Her mannerisms, her facial gestures, all her personality are filled with the needy arrogance of a vampire. Still, like her father, she longs to be free of the undead curse. Holden's countess is a lonely woman. Her eyes do a wonderful job of expressing that lust for companionship.

Here's the plot: Dracula's death has been discovered. Van Helsing is under suspicion by London's finest. Countess Zaleska (Holden) arrives to take the Count's remains, claiming to be his daughter. With her is a creepy servant named Sandor (Pichel). Zaleska rejoices, believing that Dracula's death has freed her from vampirism. She is wrong, of course, and continues to seek blood from the living. In one scene, she bleeds a young prostitute named Lili. Many critics claim there's strong overtones of lesbianism in that scene. While the scene is slightly erotic, I doubt that was in the minds of the filmmakers.

Zaleska soon seeks help from Dr. Jeffrey Garth, a semi-irritable psychiatrist. This belief that vampirism could be cured through medicine and psychology was a theme of several 1940s Universal horror films. The countess receives little help from psychiatry, but gets the hots for the doctor. He rebuffs her advances, so she takes off for Transylvania with his fiance (Churchill). The doctor, Van Helsing and policeman Sir Basil Humphrey (Emery) take off in pursuit.

I haven't said much about Pichel's role as Sandor, Zaleska's evil servant. He is brilliant, with his white pasty face, eerie accent, and silent grin that seems to know more than he's supposed to. He knows the countess is doomed to continue her undead existence and subtly taunts her throughout the film. Old horror film fans will love this movie, and it's worth owning.

-- Doug Gibson