Day 2: Dracula's Daughter (1936), dir. by Lambert Hillyer
Streaming Availability: N/A (but easy to find if you know which Archives of the Internet to search)
The original Dracula has an abrupt and jarring conclusion. This was not that unusual for the era – “story’s done, get out” is how a lot of movies ended back then. Still, it does feel like a scene is missing. Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) has defeated Count Dracula. Mina, rescued from the sexy foreigner, goes up the gothic stone stairs with Jonathan Harker, the heteronormative order of the world restored. However, before they leave, the couple asks “Aren’t you coming with us?” and the Professor responds “Not yet, presently” with no further explanation. We cut to a Universal logo. What was he doing down there?
Five years later, Universal Pictures picked up the story
right where it left off with the sequel, Dracula’s Daughter, directed by Lambert
Hillyer. We open on two bumbling English Bobbies walking into Dracula’s lair, only
to find two dead bodies. They also meet a mild-manner professor calmly explaining he’s
murdered one of them with a stake through the heart. Scotland Yard is unsurprisingly
doubtful of the story Van Helsing (called “Von Helsing” in the credits for some
reason) tells of vampires and heroism, so he's arrested. However, just as peace
seems to have returned to London, one of the doofus cops is found dead later that night. And
Dracula’s body has disappeared.
Do not get your hopes up. Bela Lugosi and his piercing Male Gaze are not in this picture. Dracula’s corpse is immediately burnt by the new villain of the picture, Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden), assisted by her stern brute, Sandor (Irving Pichel).
The movie makes a big
point to keep some mystery around the Countess. She believes herself to be
freed from “Dracula’s curse”, yet Sandor insists she’s doomed towards evil. There’s a great scene between the two where Marya is playing music, and tries
to describe a beautiful day with dogs and flapping wings, but Sandor notes the
wings are of bats and the dogs are wolves. Once confirmed that her mind is still
twisted and bent, she goes off to kill again.
We sadly do not get any extravagant powers like Papa Dracula had.
Countess Zaleska never turns into a bat or a night fog. We’re left unsure if this is a
psychological compulsion to kill or true supernatural powers. Gloria Holden is a
good actress when it comes to playing a cold, mature society woman. But she just cannot
bring the same graceful theatricality to the vampire role as Lugosi. It also
does not help that her monster costume is just insufficient for the horror. They dress
her up in a black niqab to cover her face besides her eyes, and Holden can
sure hold up her arm with her magic hypnotism ring well-enough. But the costume
has no sharp angles. It is just not a memorable silhouette. At least the
Countless makes the same “I never drink… wine” joke as Dadula.
And the mystery is less intriguing than it could have
been. There’s a third act reveal that Marya is Dracula’s daughter, and well,
who’d have guessed? The movie is spoiled by its own title! If you want intriguing ambiguity with vampirism or dark
fantasy, well, Vampire’s Kiss this ain’t.
In general, Dracula’s Daughter is a more conventional movie
than the original. For one, it is set in the then-present 1930s, versus Dracula's ambiguous Gothic time period. Dracula’s Daughter
does have a score, removing the awkwardness of the first one. The hero
characters actually have
personality. The protagonist is Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), a
respected psychologist
drawn into the story by Van Helsing and also by running into the
Countess at a social
party. Van Helsing more or less disappears from the story, which is
disappointing, leaving Dr. Garth open to fall into a love triangle with
the Countess on one end and on the
other, his fashionable assistant, Janet Blake (Marguerite
Churchill). No character in the movie is lacking for personality like
the
original. Janet and Garth have decently funny screwball comedy banter.
Competent batter will make a scene watchable, but will it make it
SCARY? The answer is no. I’m sorry to say. A lot of this movie feels like selling out. There’s something fascinating and unique
to Dracula, despite its archaic qualities or maybe even thanks to them. Dracula’s
Daughter is just another one of a thousand movies just like it. It is a much easier movie to forget.
Dracula’s Daughter does have something interesting going on,
luckily, and that’s the queer undercurrents. This is on display even as far as
the trailer, which prominently features the Countess leering towards a young
woman with naked shoulders. Lesbian vampire stories predate even Bram Stoker’s
Dracula, they feel inevitable for the genre. Queerness is a core element to the vampire concept, vampires being an escape from mainstream society’s ideas of decency. This movie never spells out the issue directly, yet the theming here is not subtle. We have this Countess
compelled towards a forbidden lust, desperately attempting a conventional life
with a man. Interestingly, that forbidden lust just keeps appearing as Marya
devouring beautiful women. (The film spends a lot more time with Countess Zaleska
nearly kissing Janet than Dr. Garth getting any, if you're wondering what it finds erotic)
We’re still in the Thirties, however, the queer element is going to be destroyed. Countess Zaleska is murdered by her assistant in almost literally the last second of the movie. Dr. Garth and Janet escape her castle and go home, with again, heteronormativity restored.
I do not think Dracula's Daughter fully achieves the potential of the Zaleska character. Tragically, as far as I know, she would never again return in the any of other Dracula mythos. There's a lot in this movie that’s fertile ground for a remake. Sadly, there is not quite enough for a reappraisal.
Also, we'll see plenty more of lesbianism in vampire movies, don't you worry.
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