Dracula’s Daughter *** (1936, Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Edward Van Sloan) – Classic Movie Review 2767

Director Lambert Hillyer’s 1936 horror movie (remotely based on Bram Stoker’s short story Dracula’s Guest) is a low-budget, effective sequel to the 1931 Dracula that picks up (alas without Bela Lugosi) where it leaves off.

The script and direction are uneven, but the movie keeps on the rails from the eerie opening in a forest where countess Contessa Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden) sends her father Count Dracula to the funeral flames, through the central section where she yearns to be free of vampire lusts and falls for psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), who unmasks her identity, to the rush of action at the finale.

A touch of clandestine lesbianism helps spice it up nicely, while Edward Van Sloan (the only cast member to return from the original) re-creates his fine rendition of Professor Von Helsing [sic], who is accused by the police of killing Dracula as seen at the end of the first film.

The story is by John L Balderston, co-author of the 1925 play on which both the 1931 and 1978 Dracula films are based and writer on the 1931 Dracula and Frankenstein. The screenplay is by Garrett Fort, with Oliver Jeffries, actually David O Selznick, credited for suggestion.

Selznick bought the rights to the story for MGM, but probably realising he could not legally make the film because of Universal’s copyright on the original film and the name Dracula, sold the rights to the studio.

Also in the cast are Irving Pichel, Nan Grey, Hedda Hopper, Halliwell Hobbes, Gilbert Emery, Claud Allister, E E Clive, Billy Bevan, Gordon Hart, Douglas Wood, Joseph E Tozer, Eily Maylon, Fred Walton, Christian Rub, Wilhelm von Brincken, Edgar Norton, Guy Kingsford, David, Dunbar, Paul Weigel, George Sorel, Douglas Gordon, Eric Wilton, Agnes Anderson, William Schramm, Owen Gorin, Elsa Janssen, Bert Sprotte, John Blood, Clive Morgan, Hedwig Reicher and John Power.

Countess Zaleska seduces Lili (Nan Grey). Universal highlighted Zaleska’s attraction to women in some of its original advertising for the film, using the tag line ‘Save the women of London from Dracula’s Daughter!’

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2767

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Countess Zaleska seduces Lili (Nan Grey).