Feb 021936
 
two reels

Mere seconds after Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan)—and yes, it is now “Von Helsing” instead of “Van Helsing”—staked Dracula, the bobbies show up. Van Helsing goes with the “I was killing an immortal undead” defense which gets him arrested for murder, although as an upper class professor, he’s treated ridiculously well. Psychologist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), another holier than though sort, is his choice for legal counsel. The case becomes a bit easier when Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden), Dracula’s Daughter, shows up and burns Dracula’s body. The Countess, with the help of her servant, Sandor (Irving Pichel) hunts at night as her father had. The difference is that she is fighting her vampiric nature and wants Garth’s help.

Five years passed after Bela Lugosi stunned audiences with Dracula and Universal had made buckets of money, before they made a sequel. In the ‘40s they spun them out in a hurry, but in the ’30s they hadn’t yet grasped the easy money of horror sequels so took their time. Perhaps they should have taken a bit more time.

Dracula’s Daughter is an uneasy mix of styles, half stilted like early talkies, and half like the more chatty melodramas and light comedies that were beginning to come into vogue. The problem isn’t a particular style, but the switching that is disconcerting. Sandor would have been at home in a 1920s silent film, while Gath’s cute and plucky assistant (Margerite Churchill) is a full on rom-com character.

Continuity is shaky as well. Dracula’s Daughter is set in a different century from Dracula, even though it starts immediately after. And Renfield was now killed due to a broken neck instead of being stabbed.

A poorly paced film—where people travel across a continent in hours, and the ending is a five minute tacked-on scene with no climax—Dracula’s Daughter’s strength lays with Gloria Holden. Her regal but haunted bearing makes her a perfect daughter for the king of vampires. Every time she speaks, or better, covers her face and allows her piercing eyes to express hunger, the film is elevated to the top ranks of the Universal monster movies. Unfortunately, when Kruger or Sloan take over, the film plummets. Garth is a moralistic, unpleasant, aging figure who we are supposed to root for. I just wanted to see him drained and tossed aside. With a better protagonist, or a change in the structure to make the Countess the main character, Dracula’s Daughter could have been one of the greats. Instead, it is frustrating.

The often-mentioned lesbian subtext makes Dracula’s Daughter more interesting, but that is mostly on display in only one scene. Afterward, the Countess goes chasing after Garth for reasons which are impossible to understand. But being the first lesbian vampire film, even if only for a few minutes, does give it some status. That, and Holden, make it worth watching, if not with complete attention.

While even under duress, they should have been able to make a better film, but it is relevant that the film was under constant attack and the original plans would have made a better film. Joseph Breen of the Production Code Administration hated horror films and wanted them stopped, and he’d tasted blood. The studios would cave if he pushed, so for Daughter of Dracula, he pushed hard, forcing rewrite after rewrite, and with each one, softening the horror, weakening the Countess, and emphasizing the morals that he preferred. Breen wanted the horror removed from this horror picture, and he mostly succeeded.