Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

This 1936 Universal Pictures horror film is a sequel, taking up exactly where the 1931 Dracula left off. I watched this movie, directed by Lambert Hillyer (The Invisible Ray, the first screen depiction of Batman, and many westerns) on Svengoolie.

This movie stars Gloria Holden (Ann Rice mentions her in her novel The Queen of the Damned, A Man Without a Country, This Happy Feeling) as Countess Marya Zaleska, the daughter of Count Dracula. Following Dracula’s death, she believes that by destroying his body she will be free of his influence and live normally. When this fails, she turns to a psychiatrist,

Dr. Jeffrey Garth played by Otto Kruger (High Noon, TV episodes of Perry Mason, Bonanza, Dr. Kildare). He, in turn, has a fiance, Janet played by Marguerite Churchill (John Wayne’s first leading lady, in The Big Trail in 1930.

The Countess kidnaps Janet and takes her to Transylvania, leading to a battle between Dr. Garth and the Countess in an attempt by him to save Janet. Dracula’s Daughter is possibly based on a short story titled “Dracula’s Guest” by Bram Stoker, although the film bears no resemblance to the original source material.

Von Helsing (altered from Van Helsing) is played by Edward Van Sloan (Dracula, Behind The Mask, The Mummy, The Black Room, The Monter and the Girl) the only actor to be featured in the previous Dracula movie.

While not as successful as the original upon its release, the film was generally well-reviewed. In the intervening decades, criticism has been deeply divided. Contemporary critics and scholars have noted the film’s strong lesbian overtones, which Universal acknowledged from the start of production and exploited in some early advertising.

They paid Bela Lugosi $4000 to use his image as a mannequin of the deceased Dracula. The two nervous policeman are a good addition to the movie giving it a little comic tension relief. I feel the film is a lttle slow but I enjoy it to some extent. I’ll give it 2.75 out of 5.