Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Film: Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Stars: Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Irving Pichel

Director: Lambert Hillyer

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

On Sunday, we talked about Bela Lugosi, and I mentioned that I wanted to kick the series off with him as I didn't expect us to get to Bela in the coming weeks despite him being a major part of our past two seasons.  That's in large part due to Dracula's Daughter not going as intended.  In the years that followed Dracula, Lugosi was oftentimes typecast (much to his chagrin) as a staple in horror movies.  Unlike Boris Karloff, he wasn't able to escape that shadow, and because he was constantly working in bargain-basement horror (even by 1936), he wasn't able to negotiate the kind of salary he initially demanded in Dracula's Daughter, which he priced himself out of by demanding too much money (the initial plans were to hire Lugosi for the film).  As a result of these factors, Lugosi (unlike Karloff) would not get to spend most of the 1930's playing his  most famous role, and indeed his only other appearance onscreen as Dracula was in 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

(Spoilers Ahead) Dracula's Daughter takes place immediately after the events of 1931's Dracula, with Professor Van Helsing (Edward van Sloan in a small part), being arrested for murder, but ultimately it not being a problem because he killed a man who was already dead.  He enlists the help of his old student Dr. Garth (Kruger), who quickly comes in contact with a woman named Countess Marya Zaleska (Holden), who turns out to be Dracula's daughter.  Zaleska is leerier of her urges for blood, but like Dracula, ultimately cannot resist, and starts to murder young woman around London, including kidnapping Dr. Garth's love interest Janet (Churchill).  The film ends with the Countess shot through the heart by one of her accomplices whom she refused to make immortal, and Dr. Garth & Janet safe-and-sound.

The film takes on a different camp value than we're used to from Dracula.  When I think of the Dracula pictures, I am always struck by how they have this sort of fading virility, this way that Bela Lugosi or John Carradine are seducing young women, but to a modern audience feeling a bit absurd because they are not seductive in the way we'd expect today.  This lacks that masculinity, and as a result it feels refreshing.  Countess Zelaska is a cooler murderer, someone who never waivers (I don't think I saw her blink the whole picture), but who also finds a bit of the camp value not from the dated horror, but from her melodramatic line readings.

This works for me-I liked Dracula's Daughter in a way I haven't felt about a lot of the Monster sequels (save the Frankenstein ones).  The film's lesbian undertones (they're there, with Countess Zelaska clearly struggling with her sexuality beyond-the-page) add a modern element to the film, and Gloria Holden can genuinely act.  The rest of the cast is tripe (though I have a soft spot for Edward van Sloan at this point he's shown up in so many of these pictures), but Holden keeps the movie together, and starts us out with a solid, well-constructed monster sequel, one that strangely doesn't seem to miss Bela Lugosi's distinctive energy.

Past Horror Month Reviews (Listed Chronologically): The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love, The Raven, Werewolf of London, Son of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy's Hand, The Wolf Man, Cat People, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, The House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob, The Masque of the Red Death