Dracula's Daughter

Long before Anne Rice began penning tales of sympathetic vampires, there was Gloria Holden in Universal’s Dracula’s Daughter.

Tod Browning’s Dracula was a huge hit for Universal in 1931. By 1936 over-budgeting on other productions and the effects of the The Depression had damaged the studio. With Dracula’s Daughter they attempted to make a profit at limited cost. That meant no return for Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Rather than recast the role with a cheaper actor, Dracula only appears briefly as a corpse, a cameo from a Bela look-a-like dummy. It also meant that Frankenstein director James Whale, originally attached to direct, walked away when Universal found his ideas too extravagant. Journeyman director Lambert Hillyer was hired instead and did a workmanlike job. Lugosi’s absence must have been a huge let-down for audiences, not that many people went to see the film.

Dracula is still regarded as a classic, though these days it seems creakier than the front door to Dracula’s castle. Dracula’s Daughter however, is almost forgotten, ironically mirroring the film’s main storyline, of a child being unable to escape the overpowering influence of her father. A shame then, for it is one of the best from the golden age of Universal’s horror productions, and Gloria Holden’s performance as the troubled, but deadly Countess Zaleska is as striking as Lugosi’s.

The film begins where the original ended, with Dr Van Helsing having just defeated Dracula. Unfortunately the opening sequence is played for laughs. Two comedy coppers enter the crypt and arrest Van Helsing for the murder of Dracula and the spider-munching Renfield. The head of Scotland Yard tries to reason with Van Helsing and convince him that his story of killing a vampire is insanity. Meanwhile Dracula’s body is entrusted in the care of Albert, the dumber of the two policemen, whom his colleague repeatedly refers to as lad, despite him being at least 54 years old. So far, so boring. Thankfully The Countess appears, mesmerising Albert with a hypnotic shiny ring, or possibly by confusing him with the art of conversation. Either way, the comedy is dispensed with and Gloria Holden, tall, sharp-featured and with a faraway look in her eyes, takes over the film.

The Countess steals Dracula’s body and with the reluctant help of her shifty-looking assistant, Sandor, burns it. Believing herself to have destroyed the curse, she tries to prove it to Sandor by playing a lullaby from her childhood on the piano. It is tender music invoking innocence, but every suggestion of peacefulness The Countess makes is twisted by Sandor into something sinister “The flutter of wings in the tree tops,” becomes “the wings of bats!” The music gets faster and more chaotic as The Countess loses control and can no longer play. She does go hunting again, killing a young toff who appears a little drunk, and under the impression he just got lucky. Later, Sandor finds Lili, a fragile blonde seemingly about to throw herself into the River Thames and brings her home.

What follows reawakened interest in the film in the 90’s when the makers of the documentary The Celluloid Closet included it as an example of how Hollywood portrayed homosexuality onscreen in a coded manner. There is considerable frisson in what is essentially a seduction sequence. The Countess commands or makes suggestions, without using any hypnotic vampire mojo, that Lili do certain things, such as remove her blouse. Even in 1936 it must have raised a few eyebrows. Although it is possible to read it another way, that back then poor people tended to be a bit more obedient around posh folk, or that it is simply the standard vampire attacking an unwitting victim scene, given a female twist. Despite the killing the Countess wants to be normal again, as she was before Dracula turned her into one of the Undead.

Holden gives an affecting performance that ensures she has our sympathy, even when she turns nastier as the film goes on. She does at least have the excuse of being a vampire. Dr Garth (Otto Kruger) has no good reason for being such an obnoxious boor. Although he is psychiatrist and therefore supposed to be interested in the human condition, Dr Garth describes his patients as neurotic women and jokes about shooting them. The Countess makes a huge error in seeking a cure from such a man. Dr Garth is the perfect successor to the heroes in Bram Stoker’s original novel Dracula, all of whom represent some form of authority, but whose moral standing betrays a vicious, reactionary side. The women in the film fare better. As well as Holden, there are two other fine performances, from Nan Grey as the doomed Lili, and from Marguerite Churchill as Garth’s sidekick Janet, who is beguiling despite seeming to have wandered in from a screwball comedy.

Dracula’s Daughter certainly has flaws, from its uninspired direction and annoying comedy policemen routine, to a highly punchable leading man. It is also tempting to wonder what might have been had James Whale been allowed to make his version. Yet the Dracula’s Daughter we are left with is worth seeing for any horror fan with an interest in the early years of the genre.

Universal would eventually start cashing-in by having Dracula, The Wolf Man and Frankenstein appear in each other’s movies. It is a shame they could not find room for Gloria Holden’s haunted Countess Zaleska. She is one of the great lost screen villains.

Trivia. Universal brought Dracula back in the form of Lon Chaney Jr for Son of Dracula, or did they? It is never quite clear if this Dracula is a relative as the title suggests, or the original Count himself. In later sequels John Carradine played Dracula. Bela Lugosi would only reprise the role in 1948 in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, another underrated film worth of reappraisal.

Thanks to Kevin Sturton for this review…