DRACULA’S DAUGHTER 1936
55%
Directed by Lambert Hillyer
Written by Garrett Fort
Starring Gloria Holden, Otto Kruger, Marguerite Churchill, Edward Van Sloan
Synopsis
Countess Zaleska carries the curse of vampirism inherited from her father. First, she tries psychiatrists to rid her thirst. Realizing what a sham that is, she resorts to the second-best option: kidnapping and feasting on luscious young women!
Why We Love It
The original Dracula ushered in the golden age of the Universal monsters, a time when Frankenstein experiments, the Invisible Man, the Mummy, and more shared not only screen time at the cinema but also a connected cinematic universe—decades before your Captain America and Wonder Woman. Universal was quick to churn out a Frankenstein sequel (and by “churn,” we mean field another masterpiece with Bride of Frankenstein), though a follow-up to Dracula took longer for the studio to sink their teeth into.
When Dracula’s Daughter released, five years had already passed in the real world, but in the movie, only mere minutes had lapsed. Van Helsing—sorry, VON Helsing—has killed the vampire and been taken into custody, where no one believes his batty story. That same night, a cloaked figure hypnotizes the guard and steals off with Dracula’s corpse. Von Helsing’s skeptical pupil, psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth, is called to help. If you were wondering about the state of psychiatry in 1936, here’s some sample medicine: Dr. Garth puts alcoholics in a room with a cup of liquor and punishes them if they touch it over the course of an hour. We trust him completely.
Dr. Garth has a new patient: Countess Marya Zaleska, a woman with a problem of supernatural nature that she cannot fully divulge. She is Count Dracula’s daughter, the one who stole her father’s body and has burned it to cleanse her soul. Yet, still with a hunger for blood, she turns to the field of psychiatry for help but soon will succumb to the dark ritual of vampirism. Gloria Holden, acting on contract and hating the horror genre, projects contempt by shutting down any flourishes of fun in the role. “Let them try adding any of this to my highlight reel,” you can almost hear her gnashing between takes. But her hopelessly ambiguous acting had the opposite of the desired effect: it made the performance memorable, as witness to a vampire in roiling conflict with its own existence.
Anxiety and discomfort ooze beneath Zaleska’s regal surface. Her moment with an undressed Nan Grey, modeling vulnerably for a painting, is so sizzling, it launched a million eyebrows and essays over the film’s lesbian undertones. Cloaked in black velvet covering all except her searching, penetrating eyes, the Countess looks just as spooky as any of the evil-doers in the Universal monster camarilla. Holden made a horror icon without ever giving a shit.