Franchises: Universal's Dracula Series. Dracula's Daughter (1936)

We once more go back to Universal Horror for my first impression of Dracula's Daughter, where Kenneth Branagh noted that it was originally, "Intended as a Whale extravaganza with Lugosi," and then alluded to its lesbian overtones as, "Something else for the censors to object to," in the wake of The Raven. Of course, like much of the info in that documentary, this is stuff I only truly grasped years after I first saw it, although I did remember the scene between Countess Zaleska and Lili in her art studio. A couple of years later, I saw the documentary, Bride of Monster Mania, hosted by Elvira, which discussed the movie in more detail. What I remembered most from that was the scene where Zaleska preys on a young man she comes across in the streets of London, but looking at it now on YouTube, I realize that they talked more about those overtones, as well as how it was the first mainstream movie to feature a female vampire. However, despite these glimpses, Dracula's Daughter was not a movie I felt any major urge to seek out, as it seemed to be a standard sequel, and when I finally did see it when I got the Dracula Legacy DVD set, I felt I was pretty much right. I've never thought it was a bad film at all; rather just simply watchable, and not one I've found myself going back to very often. But, I must admit that my opinion changed quite a bit during this most recent re-watch, as I was surprised at how much I truly enjoyed it. I was also able to see that, while it certainly doesn't have any classic status on par with the original, it's a more than competent companion piece, with some good performances, a surprising complexity to its story, a well-executed, thoroughly Gothic visual style, and a nice pace that more than makes up for the instances where the original badly dragged.

Two Whitby police officers, Constable Albert and Sergeant Hawkins, enter Carfax Abbey to find the body of Renfield at the bottom of the stairs. They then meet Prof. Von Helsing, who has just finished staking Count Dracula, and after he admits to the grisly act, they arrest him for murder. Talking with Commissioner Sir Basil Humphrey at Scotland Yard, the professor sticks with his story that Dracula was a vampire whom he destroyed. He then sends for his old student and friend, Dr. Jeffrey Garth, a noted psychiatrist, to help prove his innocence. Meanwhile, back at Whitby, the jittery Albert is left at the station to look after the bodies of Dracula and Renfield, while Hawkins heads to the train station to meet Sergeant Wilkes, who's been dispatched to retrieve them. As soon as Albert is alone, a mysterious woman in black, Countess Marya Zaleska, enters the station and, after using her hypnotic powers on him, takes the body of Dracula, her father. She cremates the body, confident that it will release her from her own vampirism. But the following night, despite her desire to live a normal life, she finds she still has her unholy appetite for human blood and stalks the streets of London, where she prays on a young man. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Garth, who's in Scotland for some grouse hunting, is met by his secretary, Janet Blake, who tells her of Von Helsing's predicament. Despite being skeptical about his claims of vampires, Garth does agree to help him. By chance, Garth meets Countess Zaleska at a society party. She becomes taken with his talk about freeing someone suffering from an overwhelming obsession and has him meet up with her at her apartment, telling him that someone who is long dead is influencing her from beyond the grave. Not believing in the supernatural, Garth advises the Countess to confront her impulses head on. But when that doesn't work and she attacks another person, she becomes convinced that nothing can free her, and plots to lure Garth back to Transylvania to make him a vampire and serve as her eternal companion.

R.C. Sherriff

Akin to The Son of Kong, Dracula's Daughter is a pretty good sequel to a classic film that, early in its development, had the potential to be absolutely amazing. After Bride of Frankenstein had proven a critical and commercial success in the spring of 1935, Universal immediately set out to produce a sequel to another of their early horror successes, buying the rights to Dracula's Guest, the deleted chapter from the original Bram Stoker novel turned independent short story, from MGM, along with an initial screenplay by John L. Balderston. Carl Laemmle Jr. also intended for the film to be another project for James Whale, with a new screenplay by R.C. Sherriff, who'd written the original play of Journey's End that first put Whale on the map, and had since worked with him on the screenplays for The Invisible Man and One More River. Most interesting about this script is that it began with a prologue set in the 14th century, showing how Bela Lugosi's Dracula first became a vampire due to the workings of a demon (who, rumor has it, was to have been played by Boris Karloff!). However, the sequence also contained imagery such as an orgy and that same demon transforming Dracula's friends into pigs, as well as other elements that neither the BBFC nor the Production Code Administration would ever allow. In fact, in his biography on James Whale, James Curtis theorizes that Whale, who was more keen on directing Showboat rather than another horror film directly after Bride of Frankenstein, encouraged Sherriff to add more outrageous elements to keep the film from being made. While the movie itself wasn't cancelled, Whale was taken off it and able to move on to Showboat, while Sherriff was also replaced. The new writer, Garrett Fort, virtually rewrote the screenplay and removed the prologue, thus ending Lugosi's involvement with the movie.

To replace James Whale, Laemmle Jr. first went with comedy director A. Edward Sutherland, who would go on to direct Abbott and Costello's first film, A Night in the Tropics, as well as The Invisible Woman. However, Sutherland didn't have any more interest in the film than Whale and he left almost immediately. Finally, they went with Lambert Hillyer, who'd just worked with both Lugosi and Karloff on The Invisible Ray. A former Vaudeville actor turned Hollywood filmmaker, Hillyer's specialty was the western genre, as he would direct over a hundred of them in his career, which is likely why Dracula's Daughter isn't as slow and stilted as the original sometimes was. It and The Invisible Ray were Hillyer's only true forays into horror and science fiction, and he continued making films into the late 40's, and also directed his fair share of television, before retiring in the late 50's. He died in 1969, at the age of 79. 

One thing that truly elevates the film out of the mediocrity it could've easily fallen into is the acting, which is quite good, and that's especially true of Gloria Holden in the title of Countess Marya Zaleska. Akin to what I've read about Henry Hull, Holden felt horror films were beneath her and wasn't at all happy about being cast in the film. Moreover, she was also afraid she'd be typecast like Bela Lugosi, and while that didn't quite happen, Dracula's Daughter is the film she's best remembered for. But while Hull's displeasure over Werewolf of London led to a performance that left a lot to be desired, Holden gives a great performance and it's been suggested that her disgust led to an appropriate feeling of self-loathing. We first see her when she arrives at the police station in Whitby to retrieve Count Dracula's body, and though she uses her hypnotic influence on Constable Albert in order to get to it, her ultimate goal is one of release. Burning her father's body, she attempts to exorcise his evil by sprinkling salt on the pyre and then placing a makeshift cross on it. She also hopes that this will mean release from her own curse of vampirism, and she looks forward to being able to live as a normal woman. But the next night, when she attempts to play a song from her childhood on the piano, she finds it becomes eerie and unsettling the longer she plays it, and feels the impulse to feed on human blood overtake her. When she asks her servant, Sandor, to describe what he sees in her eyes, he grimly intones, "Death." With that, she goes out into the London streets, preys on a young man, and returns to her coffin before the sun rises.

We learn next to nothing about Countess Zaleska's background, aside from the basics of her being Dracula's offspring and that, when she was an infant, her mother would sing a song to her as twilight approached. We don't know if her mother was one of the brides we saw at Castle Dracula in the first film, another one from years ago, or if she was an ordinary woman whom Dracula did more than simply bite. Also, whether her memory of the song was a pleasant one that Sandor corrupts while she's trying to play it or if it truly was sinister and

she only realizes it as she goes on playing it is never made clear, but either one is unsettling to think about. What is clear is that, while her father was an evil monster who relished in his preying on people and turning them into vampires like himself or making them his slaves, like Renfield, Zaleska despises what she is and, initially, only feeds on human blood because she has no choice. That doesn't stop her from indulging in a passion for painting and mingling with high society. At one

such party, she meets Dr. Jeffrey Garth. At first, when he speaks about the predicament he's in with trying to help Prof. Von Helsing, Zaleska stays silent, until she suggests that vampires do exist, modifying a famous quote from Hamlet to prove her point. But when he talks about freeing the mind from a deep-rooted obsession, she becomes intrigued and asks to meet with him privately at her apartment. There, she tells him, "Do you believe that the dead can influence the living?... Could you

conceive of a superhuman mentality influencing someone from the other side of death?... There is such a one... Someone... something that reaches out from beyond the grave and fills me with horrible impulses." Garth assures her that her mind can free itself and suggests that she confront these impulses head on and beat them back. After he leaves, she attempts this by having Sandor fetch a model for her to paint, but she's ultimately unable to resist and attacks the woman.

Failing that, Zaleska comes to the conclusion that there's no hope, that she'll always be a vampire, and goes to see Garth again at the hospital. Though she doesn't go into the specifics, she tells him that she failed to resist her impulses and that she's leaving London. To Garth's shock, she asks him to come with her, which he, naturally, refuses. When he has to leave momentarily, he tells Zaleska that she'd better prepare to tell him everything when he returns. Determined to have him come with her, she has Sandor abduct Garth's secretary, Janet

Blake. Garth tracks Zaleska down to her art studio in Chelsea, where she finally confesses that she's Dracula's daughter, as well as that she's abducted Janet. By the time Garth confirms it, he realizes that Zaleska has left, having fled back to Transylvania. There, she returns to Castle Dracula and fully embraces her evil heritage, rising from a coffin come sunset, just as her father did. Rather than be lonely for all eternity, she decides to make Garth, whom she knows will come for Janet, a vampire himself. When he arrives, Zaleska offers his life in exchange for Janet's, but before she can through with it, she's killed by a very unexpected assassin.

Like with Bela Lugosi in the original film, Jack Pierce came up with a makeup that, when photographed in black-and-white, would emphasize Countess Zaleska's unearthly skin tones. For much of the movie, Gloria Holden wore a very sallow-colored makeup but, during the movie's finale, she was painted with a grey-green color, akin to the one Lugosi wore, and special lighting made her look deathly pale. Pierce gave her some creepier eyelashes, drew some arched eyebrows onto her, and painted her lips with similarly dark

lipstick like what Lugosi wore. In the end, the makeup, combined with Holden's rather unique face, makes Zaleska come off as exotic and alluring, but she can also be genuinely menacing when she's in vampire mode. She has a rather soft, hypnotic way of talking, and she looks quite creepy when she wears that black hood over her head, with those piercing eyes of hers looking at you from within or from behind a veil. Unlike her father, she never becomes a bat or a wolf, but she does still feed on human blood, must avoid sunlight, casts no reflection in mirrors (she has no mirrors in her apartment), and has hypnotic powers. Oddly, she doesn't hypnotize people with her eyes but rather, the large ring she wears on her left hand.

Countess Zaleska's answer to Renfield is her manservant, Sandor (Irving Pichel). However, that's where the similarities between the two end, as Sandor is an unsmiling, stoic hulk of a man with a deep, monotone voice. Also unlike Renfield, who may or may not have been a partial vampire, Sandor is a true human. Early on, as Zaleska attempts to put her past as a vampire behind her, Sandor not only has little faith in her resolve but is clearly intent on bringing her impulses back out. When Zaleska plays her mother's song on the piano and reminisces about the setting in which she would sing it to her, Sandor twists it all into something sinister, saying, "That music doesn't speak of release... That music tells of the dark, evil things, shadowy places." He then helps her put on her black cloak and ring, sends her out on the hunt yet again, and helps her get to her coffin before the sun rises when she returns. After that, Sandor mostly just acts as a servant, most significantly bringing the young woman named Lili to her art studio and helping her abduct Janet Blake. When they've returned to Transylvania and Castle Dracula, it's revealed that Zaleska once promised Sandor eternal life and he's not pleased when he discovers she intends to give it to Garth instead. He threatens to kill Garth if he comes to the castle but, when he fails to do so, he shoots her in the heart with an arrow but is shot down by the police before he can do the same to Garth.

Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger) is first seen in Scotland, just about to enjoy a vacation consisting of grouse hunting, when he has to go back to London to help Prof. Von Helsing, his former teacher. Though he doesn't believe in vampires, and warns Von Helsing that his defense being that you can't murder a vampire won't hold up in court, he does agree to help him. Later, at a high society gathering, he mentions how he believes Von Helsing's research has led to the delusion that vampires are real. At this same gathering, he meets and is immediately taken with Countess Zaleska, agreeing to see her at her apartment to talk with her. When she describes being influenced by a force from beyond the grave, Garth talks to her about immersion therapy, then tells her, "The next time you feel this influence, don't avoid it. Meet it. Fight it. Score the first victory. That's the secret." The next day, Garth examines Lili following her encounter with the Countess. Though the doctors believe she's suffering from amnesia, Garth discovers it's actually the effects of post-hypnosis. When he's shown the bite marks on her neck, this, coupled with the similar condition of the young man found dead the previous week, begins to turn him into a believer in vampires. After speaking with Von Helsing and Sir Basil Humphrey, Garth intends to use a scientific means of producing hypnosis to find out what happened to Lili. Before he does, Zaleska comes to him, asking him to leave England with her but he, naturally, refuses. He becomes even more suspicious when she refuses to submit to the hypnosis machine because it makes use of mirrors. He then leaves to examine Lili further and tells Zaleska that she'd better prepare to tell him everything when he returns.

Though Lili ultimately dies, she gives Garth enough information to make him realize that Zaleska was behind the attack. Returning to his home office and finding her gone, he goes to Chelsea, where Lili revealed the attack happened, and finds Zaleska's studio. Confronting the Countess there, he learns her true identity as Dracula's daughter, as well as that she's had his secretary, Janet Blake, abducted. Zaleska then disappears and Von Helsing and Humphrey meet up with Garth, who tells them what's happened. He

has Humphrey throw out a dragnet to find Janet, but he eventually follows Zaleska to Transylvania by himself and makes his way up to Castle Dracula. There, he finds both the Countess and Janet, the latter of whom is under hypnosis, an old and powerful type that Zaleska says he won't be able to break. She then offers to release Janet in exchange for his life and he reluctantly agrees to it. But Sandor's intervention unintentionally saves Garth from becoming a vampire himself.

Throughout the movie, Garth has a love/hate relationship with his secretary, Janet Blake (Marguerite Churchill), as they spend most of the movie squabbling and seem to really dislike each other. Garth is not all pleased to see Janet when she shows up in Scotland to bring him back to London, and when she tells him it's due to Prof. Von Helsing's plight, he's still extremely aggravated with her, all but threatening to shoot her if he takes his new hunting rifle back with him. She often tries to be as much of a pest as possible, leaving Garth's bow-tie crooked after she ties it for him and calling him at Countess Zaleska's apartment to annoy him, which causes him to later insult the hospital's chief of staff! Garth, in retaliation, sees to it that she doesn't get a wink of sleep, having her phone ring every thirty minutes. The reason for her attitude is clearly because Janet is jealous over Garth's interest in Zaleska, proving that she does have some feelings for him. Zaleska notices this as well, and decides to abduct Janet and take her with her to Transylvania, knowing that Garth will follow. And sure enough, despite his apparent disdain for her, when he realizes that Zaleska has kidnapped her, he quickly rushes to her aid, now acting as if he's always loved her, to the point where he's willing to give up his life for hers. While Garth is a good enough man who would do this, it's still a very abrupt change of feelings and it could've benefited from a couple of scenes showing that he does have a genuine fondness for her as well.

If you've been wondering why I'm writing it as Prof. "Von" Helsing instead of "Van" Helsing, it's because the movie randomly renames the character as such. In any case, Edward Van Sloan reprises the role, making him the only concrete link between the two movies. In the opening, Albert and Hawkins find him in Carfax Abbey immediately after he's finished staking Dracula. He makes no attempt to run away, and when Hawkins finds Dracula's staked corpse, Von Helsing admits to doing it, though he adds that Dracula had already been dead... for 500 years. He's then arrested and, when interviewed by Scotland Yard's Sir Basil Humphrey, sticks with his story about Dracula having been a vampire and that he staked him to end his reign of terror. Despite being faced with either execution or institutionalization, Von Helsing remains calm about his predicament. When Humphrey asks him who intends to retain for his defense, he names Jeffrey Garth, despite his not being an attorney, thinking he'll be the one person who might understand. (It's weird how there's no mention of Jonathan Harker, Mina, or Dr. Seward, as surely they could vouch for Von Helsing.) But when Garth meets with him, Von Helsing is disappointed when he tells him that nothing he has to say, be it about vampires or his quotes about superstition and folklore, will hold up in court. Regardless, Garth does agree to help him. Von Helsing disappears from the movie for a while after that, appearing again when Garth and Humphrey come to him with killings akin to the ones Dracula committed. Sure that Dracula is dead, Von Helsing suggests it may be the work of one of his victims, and also advises Garth that the vampire will be residing somewhere with a box of earth for them to rest in, and that there will be no mirrors to be found on the premises. He could never guess that this new vampire is Dracula's own offspring, and upon learning of Janet Blake's abduction, Von Helsing advises Garth that Janet won't be harmed since Countess Zaleska is using her as bait for him. In the end, even though it was cool of the filmmakers to bring back Van Sloan in the role, he has very little to do other than spout all this exposition, and by the time he and Humphrey make it to Castle Dracula, Zaleska has already been killed.

Though she's a minor character, appearing in only a few scenes, Lili (Nan Grey), the young woman whom Sandor brings to Zaleska to pose for her, is quite significant in more ways than one. When Sandor first approaches her, she's naturally apprehensive, but relaxes when she meets Zaleska. The Countess tells her that she intends to paint her head and shoulders and asks her to remove her blouse, as well as lower the straps of her bra. But then, in a moment that, as we'll go into later, screams of lesbian overtones, Zaleska gives in to her vampiric urges and attacks Lili. Lili is later found and taken to the hospital, where Dr. Garth examines her. Initially rambling incoherently, when Garth gets to her, she's become comatose and is apparently suffering from amnesia, but he deduces she's actually in a state of post-hypnosis. He decides to use a scientific method of inducing hypnosis to make her remember and has her given a shot of adrenaline beforehand. Under hypnosis, she's able to remember Zaleska's attack on her and gives the location, before she dies of heart failure from the shock of the ordeal.

Much of the rest of the cast is meant mainly as comic relief. Sir Basil Humphrey (Gilbert Emery), the head of Scotland Yard, is a fairly serious character, warning Prof. Von Helsing of the grim fates that await him for having committed murder, and also not believing in vampires for much of the movie. But what makes him funny is how temperamental and aggravated he is with everybody and everything. When one of his men, Squires, comes in to report, "That constable is on the wire again. Wants to know what's being done about the bodies," Humphrey yells, "What constable?! What bodies?!" Squires clarifies it's the constable at Whitby, referring to Dracula and Renfield's bodies, and Humphrey calmly goes, "Oh." Despite himself, when a pattern is found connecting the two recent attacks, Humphrey theorizes that Dracula wasn't actually dead and came to life at night, before realizing, "Oh, dash it all! You've got me talking this gibberish!" He then says that people are always attacking each other in the London fog and adds, "I think you two are trying to pull my leg!" Later, when Garth tracks Countess Zaleska to Chelsea, he calls Humphrey at his home as he's sitting in bed, playing around with paints. Even though he says he thinks it's nothing but nonsense, he agrees to meet Garth there with Von Helsing. As he gets out of bed, he tells his butler, Hobbs, "Get me my heavy topcoat and revolver. I'm going out after vampires... Vampires! Ha, ha, ha!" Hobbs then comments, "But I always understood you went after them with checkbooks, sir," and Humphrey, in turn, tells him not to be so facetious. Once he learns that Zaleska has abducted Janet Blake, Humphrey puts out an APB on her and, when Garth goes to Transylvania himself, Humphrey and Von Helsing promptly follow suit. They arrive just in time for Humphrey to save Garth from Sandor by shooting him dead.

Constable Albert (Billy Bevan) and Sergeant Hawkins (Halliwell Hobbes), the two cops at the beginning who find Von Helsing, as well as Renfield and Dracula's bodies, are most definitely meant as comic relief. Albert is especially spooked by the discovery of the bodies and the idea of having to wait with Von Helsing while Hawkins goes into the next room to confirm the presence of Dracula's body. Later that night, at the Whitby police station, Hawkins leaves to go meet Sergeant Wilkes, the man from Scotland Yard sent to collect

the bodies, with the creeped out Albert, again, having to stay behind. Albert then hears weird sounds in the room housing the bodies and Hawkins forces him to go have a look. Seeing something moving under the dirt on the floor, Albert tells Hawkins it's a rat. Not believing that there are any, Hawkins goes inside to make sure, only to see a larger movement beneath the soil. He goes back out and denies that he saw anything, before heading off to the station. (Whatever that was in there is never explained). As soon as he's gone, Countess Zaleska makes her first appearance, asking to see Dracula's body. Albert is reluctant to let her in to see it, but she uses her hypnotic ring on him and makes off with the body. When Hawkins returns with Sergeant Wilkes, he's surprised to find Albert sitting in his chair, in a total trance. He falls to the floor when Hawkins pushes him, as Wilkes discovers that Dracula's body is gone. Speaking of Wilkes, he's played by E.E. Clive, an actor whom James Whale cast in several of his films, including The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein (you may not recognize him, however, as he doesn't have his mustache).

One thing I never appreciated about Dracula's Daughter until this most recent viewing is how much it invokes the original movie's style. From a visual standpoint, cinematographer George Robinson manages to recreate the moody look that Karl Freund brought to the original, right from the opening scene in Carfax Abbey, where Albert and Hawkins descend down the dark steps and come across both Prof. Von Helsing and the bodies of Renfield and Dracula. He continues this look

throughout the movie, such as at the Whitby police station, in Countess Zaleska's art studio, and in the climax, set within Castle Dracula, which, as we'll get into, was skillfully recreated from the original. In addition, many of the exteriors, such as the lonely moor where Zaleska cremates Dracula's body and the streets of London, have a moody mist about them, which most definitely conjures memories of the original. The film also slyly references that film in several ways. At the society

party, Dr. Garth inquires about who painted a mural hanging above the fireplace. He asks, "What's her name?", and then, the butler announces, "Countess Marya Zaleska!", before she enters the room, hearkening back to the moment when Jonathan Harker asked Von Helsing what could've caused the marks on Mina's neck, only for a maid to then announce Dracula's arrival by name, as if answering his question. A few seconds later, the party's host asks Zaleska, "Sherry, Marya?" and she responds, "Thank you. I never drink... wine."

Speaking of which, like the original, we never see Zaleska actually bite into someone's neck, nor do we even see the marks on the victims. As in that film, they're only alluded to, though in this instance, it was possibly less a stylistic choice and more because they knew the Production Code wouldn't allow it. And during the climax, Zaleska rises from a coffin in Castle Dracula and, just like in the original, the camera pans away and comes back to show her now standing beside it (she even grips the edge of the coffin and the lid like her 

father). The only time the film gets lazy in this referencing is after Zaleska kills her first victim. They use a shot from the original film (an overhead of doctors examining Lucy's body), and then cut to new footage of them examining the young man, made to match that bit of stock footage. The dialogue is virtually identical, mentioning that he had a transfusion four hours earlier, that he died from an unnatural loss of blood whose origin they can't determine, and he has two punctures over the jugular.

Director Lambert Hillyer not only manages to keep the film moving and never allows it to drag, but he's clearly more comfortable with the moving camera and the use of editing than Tod Browning was. For instance, there are several times in the film where we see a POV of someone falling under Zaleska's spell, as their vision becomes blurry. Another moment I always remember is when she approaches Lili in a threatening manner and the camera suddenly pans up from her horrified face to

a mask on the wall behind her and quickly cuts to black as she screams. We then immediately cut to Lili being taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Late in the film, when Garth asks Sir Basil Humphrey to put out an APB on Janet, we get a short but memorable montage of the search in progress, with maps of London, missing person fliers with Janet's photograph being printed up, and reports filtering through the wires (it's akin to the montage near the end of Werewolf of London, only done better). And the last ten or so minutes, after

Garth has gone to Transylvania himself, are done at breakneck speed. We get a montage of Garth's chartered plane taking off, an attempt by Scotland Yard to stop him, and we then cut to a village near Castle Dracula, where the happy residents become terrified at the sound of a wolf and are horrified when they see a light come on in the castle, believing that Dracula himself has returned. From there, Garth arrives and makes his way to the castle, for his final confrontation with the

Countess. However, said confrontation is a bit anti-climactic, as Zaleska is suddenly killed by Sandor before she can change Garth, Sandor himself is shot by Sir Basil Humphrey before he can kill Garth, and Garth awakens Janet, while Humphrey and Prof. Von Helsing examine Zaleska's body.

Like the cinematography, the art direction by Albert S. D'Agostino is top notch and manages to capture the feel of the original. Though the interiors of Carfax Abbey at the beginning aren't an exact duplicate, they're just as Gothic and evocative of German Expressionism, with the stone staircase and the creepy, dark corridors. Similarly creepy and darkly photographed are the interiors of the Whitby jail, particularly the room in the back where Dracula and Renfield's bodies are kept. A

wonderfully atmospheric exterior is the fog-enshrouded moor where Countess Zaleska burns Dracula's body, akin to the foggy woods we'd later see in The Wolf Man, and with a nice touch being the old, ivy-covered stone archway behind where Zaleska stands. As I've said before, similarly evocative are the misty streets of London, where Zaleska hunts for victims, as well as the bridge where Sandor finds Lili. As far as other interiors go, while Zaleska's apartment in London is pretty

normal-looking, as well as upscale, her art studio in Chelsea, which sits above a bookstore, is much darker and more Gothic, with shadows, candelabras, a piano, a fireplace, and decorations such as that bizarre mask above the mantel. Notably, it's also where her coffin is located. The closest we ever get to the drawing room at the Seward home in the first film is in both Zaleska's actual apartment and the home of Lady Esme Hammond, who throws the party where Garth first meets the Countess. Garth's own home is similar,

also containing his office and some medical equipment, chief among them being the machine he uses to induce hypnosis. Fortunately, though, we're not stuck in these types of places for most of the movie. We also see a little bit of the interiors of St. Mary's hospital, mainly the room where Garth attempts to restore Lili's memory.

But the most spectacular art direction comes during the finale in Transylvania. Not only does the little village square on the Universal backlot get put to use once more, with the villagers, like in Frankenstein, having a wedding reception that's rudely interrupted, and we see a little bit of the misty Borgo Pass (this time, at the studio, rather than at Vasquez Rocks), but we find ourselves back at Castle Dracula for the ending. While the exterior isn't an exact match, it still looks really good and

moody, and when Garth goes inside, we see an amazing recreation of the foyer and main staircase, right down to the giant spider-webs (like Renfield before him, Garth has to swipe them out of his way). We get to see a few more rooms than we did before, including some hallways, a large room where Zaleska keeps Janet, and a part of the roof, where Sandor fires at Garth with an arrow and also where Zaleska collapses after being fatally shot.

Our one look at Dracula's staked corpse during the opening is accomplished through a was dummy that, supposedly, was molded in Bela Lugosi's image. Looking at a still of it... I guess, but it's only onscreen for a couple of seconds and, in those few seconds, it's hard to make out those details, so it doesn't matter anyway. No one's sure if the bust was Jack Pierce's work or someone else's. In any case, there are some other effects to be found here, such as some miniature telephone poles and radio towers during the montage of the APB on Janet, and the exterior shots of Castle Dracula are a mixture of a well-done matte painting and, I believe, another miniature for the shot of Garth walking up its steps.

However, in spite of all its strengths, one thing the original Dracula has over the sequel is genuine creepiness. While there are certainly many atmospheric scenes here, that feeling of unease and eeriness that permeated the first film isn't here. One reason is that this film does have a music score, so you don't have the instances of spooky near silence like before. For example, while effective, the scene where Zaleska stalks and preys on the young man in the London streets isn't as eerie as when 

Dracula does the same to the flower girl, where all you hear are the offscreen sounds of the city and the girl screaming. Another reason is that the actual attempts at that kind of atmosphere, such as when you hear the occasional distant sound of howling wolves, aren't as unsettling. There is one scene I do find to be genuinely creepy, though, and that's when, as Zaleska plays the tune from her childhood, Sandor twists her recollections around into something more sinister. "Twilight. Long shadows on the hillsides." "Evil shadows." "No.

No, peaceful shadows. The flutter of wings in the treetops." "The wings of bats." "No. No, the wings of birds. From far off, the barking of a dog." "Barking because there are wolves about." Nothing else about the movie gives me the feeling of that scene. 

Dracula's Daughter often goes much more for fast-paced thrills and comedy than it does genuine chills. As I've said, the movie has a much better pace than the first one, with a very exciting race to the ending, and there's plenty of comic relief, with how jittery Constable Albert is, how easily annoyed Sir Basil Humphrey is, and particularly in Garth and Janet's antagonistic relationship. Besides being about ready to kill her for ruining his vacation in Scotland, when he's getting ready to

meet Zaleska at her apartment and he's having trouble with his bow-tie, he, through very gritted teeth, asks Janet to help him. She does, but leaves it crooked, much to his annoyance. Then, she calls him at Zaleska's apartment and, through a fake German accent, tells him, "Please come right away. This is the zoo speaking... One of our elephants is seeing pink men." Later, when he gets another call, Garth jumps to the conclusion that it's Janet again and lays right into "her," exclaiming, "Now look here. I'm tired of being annoyed after office hours.

If you don't stop calling me, I'll come over there and, regardless of your sex, I'll smack you in the nose." Cut to an outraged Dr. Beemish, who tells Garth who he is, only for Garth to retort, "Oh, yes. It's Dr. Beemish now, is it? Well, Doctor, how would you like to go back to the zoo and find a nice, empty cage?" Even angrier, Beemish pounds his desk as he tells Garth that he's chief of staff at St. Mary's hospital, making him realize what he just did. The tie gag comes back around not too long afterward, when Garth prepares to examine

Lili. Not wanting to deal with Janet again, he asks his nurse, Ms. Peabody, to tie it, but she doesn't know how, and accidentally hits his chin in her fumbling. Janet steps in and, much to Garth's shock, actually does a good job this time around.

Despite it being discussed in Universal Horror, I was too young when I first saw it to truly grasp the notion of there being lesbian overtones in the film. Even when I first saw the movie at the age of seventeen, I didn't think much of it (despite my age, I was pretty naive) but, as I got older and I looked into it more, it really hit me, as I went, "Oh... yeah." I honestly don't know how I didn't think that before, as Zaleska is clearly taken with Lili as soon as Sandor brings her to the studio. She

tells Lili that she has beautiful hands and asks her to remove her blouse so she can paint her head and shoulders. She even wines and dines her in a way, as she has Sandor bring a bottle and some food for her, before she goes behind a screen to take her blouse off. Even then, Zaleska watches her in a very predatory manner, and Lili says, "I'm ready now," which has a certain air about it that could be inferred as though she means she's ready for sex. As if things weren't suggestive enough, Zaleska has her lower the straps of her bra, and that seems to

really excite the Countess. She then basically undresses Lili with her eyes and when Lili, sensing this, asks if she'll suffice, Zaleska answers, "Yes, you'll do very nicely." She then shows her the hypnotic ring before going in for the bite. Also, while it doesn't get as much attention as that scene, when Zaleska has Janet in her castle near the end of the movie, there's a moment where she hovers above her in a suggestive manner and then slowly leans down towards her, looking as if she's going to kiss her, before Garth's arrival interrupts her. The parallel between that and Dracula himself doing that to a female victim all his own is undeniable.

So, yeah, Dracula's Daughter can easily be touted as the first lesbian vampire movie. And not only did Universal make no attempt to hide these overtones, they even exploited them in the advertising, as one of the taglines exclaimed, "Save the women of London from Dracula's daughter!" Moreover, Lili was originally supposed to pose nude, though how much of her they intended to show isn't clear. However, Joseph Breen of the Production Code Administration was the one who 

insisted they change it to where Lili only poses her neck and bare shoulders and that they shoot it, "In such a way as to avoid any suggestion of perverse sexual desire on the part of Marya or of an attempted sexual attack by her upon Lili." Knowing how strict the censors became once the Production Code was truly enforced, it's amazing that the scene was even passed the way it is. And Breen and the other censors must've been asleep if they felt there was no suggestion of sexual desire or attack in the final film, as Lili's telling Zaleska,

"Please don't come any closer," when she moves in for the bite does sound like someone attempting to stave off a rape. Like I said in my review of The Raven, these films could be seen as the last couple of leftovers from the Pre-Code era of Hollywood.

When it was released on May 11th, 1936, Dracula's Daughter, as well as James Whale's Showboat, also served as the last remnants of the Laemmle family's control over Universal. Due to a loan of $1 million that the studio was unable to repay, the Laemmles were ousted by those they'd borrow the loan from. Moreover, Charles R. Rogers, the new head of production, had no love for horror films and thus, dropped them from the studio's slate, with Dracula's Daughter marking the end of the first wave of Universal Horror. While Carl Laemmle Sr. retired altogether and died in 1939 at the age of 72, his son wasn't quite ready to leave the film industry. He attempted to set up his own independent production company, as well as try to get James Whale to work for him, but when that didn't work out, he signed on as a producer at MGM. He left just six months later without producing a single film and sold other studios the properties he had the rights to. At just 29, he retired from the film industry and died in 1979, at the age of 71.

Instead of compiling and re-orchestrating a number of compositions that already exist, this time Heinz Roemheld was able to create an entirely original musical score. As a whole, the score for Dracula's Daughter is just okay. It has a distinctive main theme which you hear during the opening credits and is used throughout as Countess Zaleska's leitmotif, there's an eerie, high-pitched sound heard when she hypnotizes someone with her ring, and in the scene where she cremates Dracula's body, there's a memorably solemn piece which alludes to her desire for release now that her father is gone. I also often think of this loud sting of music when Zaleska moves in on Lili and the camera pans up above her as she screams, and in the scene where Jeffrey Garth is introduced in Scotland, you hear a traditional trumpet tune that signifies the start of a hunt. And when Zaleska plays at the piano, the tune starts off as serene and peaceful, but becomes sinister as she realizes she's still a vampire and, though she stops playing, the orchestra seems to carry on and finish it with a crescendo.

Dracula's Daughter may not be a well-known classic like the first but I do think it more than holds its own and is a well-made, entertaining flick in its own right. It benefits from some good actors giving some very good performances, a visual style and art direction that's very evocative of the original, some very daring lesbian overtones, and fast-paced direction by Lambert Hillyer that, in many ways, makes it more fun to watch than the original. But, that said, the film has none of the original's mood and atmosphere, instead going for more traditional thrills and a fair amount of comedy, the music score is suitable but nothing amazing, and the climax, despite the nice recreation of the castle from the original movie, again feels rushed and little of note happens. Still, while it may not be a masterpiece, that doesn't mean the film isn't an enjoyable watch and, at just 71 minutes, it, like most of these movies, doesn't force you to sacrifice a lot of your time.