Dracula's Daughter
Encyclopedia
Dracula's Daughter is a 1936 American vampire horror film
produced by Universal Studios
, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula
. Directed by Lambert Hillyer
from a screenplay by Garrett Fort
, the film stars Otto Kruger
, Gloria Holden
, Marguerite Churchill
and, as the only cast member to return from the original, Edward Van Sloan
. Dracula's Daughter tells the story of Countess Marya Zaleska, the daughter of Count Dracula
and herself a vampire. Following Dracula's death, she believes that by destroying his body she will be free of his influence and can live as a human. When this fails, she turns to psychiatry
and Dr. Jeffrey Garth. When his efforts fail, she kidnaps Janet, the woman Jeffrey loves, and flees with her to Transylvania in an attempt to bind Jeffrey to her. She is foiled and destroyed when her jealous manservant shoots her with an arrow.
Ostensibly based on a short story titled "Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker
, the film bears little or no resemblance to the original source material. David O. Selznick
initially purchased the rights to the story for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
. Selznick, probably knowing he could not legally make the film because of Universal's copyright on the original film, sold the rights to Universal. After first assigning the picture to James Whale
, Universal production head Carl Laemmle, Jr. finally put Hillyer in the director's chair.
Upon its release, Dracula's Daughter was not as successful as the original, although it was generally critically well-reviewed. In the intervening decades, criticism has been deeply divided. Modern critics and scholars have noted the strong lesbian overtones of the film, overtones that Universal acknowledged from the start of filming and which they exploited in some early advertising.
has just been destroyed by Professor Van Helsing
(Edward Van Sloan
). Van Helsing is taken by police to Scotland Yard
, where he explains that he indeed did destroy Count Dracula, but because he had already been dead for over 500 years, it cannot be considered murder. Instead of hiring a lawyer, he enlists the aid of a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger
), who was once one of his star students. Meanwhile, Dracula's daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden
), with the aid of her manservant, Sandor (Irving Pichel
), steals Dracula’s body from Scotland Yard and ritualistically burns it, hoping to break her curse of vampirism. However, Sandor soon makes her realize that her thirst for blood has not been quenched and that all that is in her eyes is "Death". The Countess resumes her hunting, mesmerizing her victims with her exotic jeweled ring. After a chance meeting with Dr. Garth at a society party, the Countess asks him to help her overcome the influence she feels from beyond the grave. The doctor advises her to defeat her cravings by confronting them and the Countess becomes hopeful that her will plus Dr. Garth's science will be strong enough to overcome Dracula's malevolence.
The Countess sends Sandor to fetch her a model to paint; he returns with Lili (Nan Grey
). Countess Zaleska initially resists her urges but succumbs and attacks Lili. Although the girl survives the attack, when Dr. Garth tries to hypnotize her to learn what happened, she suffers heart failure and dies. As the Countess comes to accept that a cure is not possible — and the doctor discovers the truth about her condition — she lures him to Transylvania
by kidnapping Janet (Marguerite Churchill
), the woman he loves. She intends to transform him into a vampire to be her eternal companion; Dr. Garth agrees to exchange his life for Janet's. Before he can be transformed, Countess Zaleska is destroyed when Sandor shoots her through the heart with an arrow as revenge for her breaking her promise to make him immortal. He takes aim at Dr. Garth but is shot dead by a policeman.
's original novel and the purported source material for the film. The story includes an encounter between a man (presumed by some to be Jonathan Harker
although the character is not identified as such) and a female vampire. The story does not establish a filial relationship between the female vampire and Dracula. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
executive David O. Selznick
negotiated a contract in 1933 with Stoker's widow, Florence, to buy the rights to the chapter for an advance of $500 against a purchase price of $5,000. MGM's lawyers and executives were worried about the use of the word "Dracula" in the film's title, fearing that Universal would take legal action, although Selzick's contract with Stoker explicitly listed "Dracula's Daughter" as a possible alternate title. The project was code-named "Tarantula" in correspondence.
Selznick hired John L. Balderston
, who had previously worked on the 1931 Dracula and Frankenstein
, to write the screenplay. Balderston's screenplay involved tying up loose ends from the original film. In it, Von Helsing returns to Transylvania to destroy the three vampire brides
seen in Dracula but overlooks a fourth tomb concealing Dracula's daughter. She follows him back to London and operates under the name "Countess Szekelsky". She attacks a young aristocrat and Von Helsing and the aristocrat's fiancée track her back to Transylvania and destroy her. The script included scenes that implied that Dracula's daughter enjoyed torturing her male victims and that while under her control the men liked it too. Also included were shots of the Countess's chambers being stocked with whips and straps, which she would never use on-screen but whose uses the audience could imagine. Regardless of any objections that the Production Code Administration
(PCA) would have raised to many aspects of the scenario, Balderston's script could never have been filmed because Selznick's contract with Stoker expressly barred him from using any Bram Stoker characters that did not appear in "Dracula's Guest". Selznick re-sold the rights to "Dracula's Guest" to Universal in September 1935 for $12,500, which included the rights to Balderston's scenario. Horror film scholar David J. Skal
theorizes that this was Selznick's actual motivation in buying the rights in the first place, to profit from Universal's desire for a sequel by tying up the only obvious source material.
, fresh from his great success with Bride of Frankenstein
, to direct Dracula's Daughter. Whale was idle, waiting for Irene Dunne
to finish work on Magnificent Obsession
so she could begin work on Whale's Show Boat
. Wary of directing two horror films in a row, Whale instead convinced Laemmle to buy the rights to a mystery novel called The Hangover Murders. Laemmle agreed only after extracting a promise from Whale that he would direct Dracula's Daughter next. Whale completed work on the film, titled Remember Last Night?
for release, on September 14, 1935. Magnificent Obsession completed filming on October 29. With Dunne freed up, Whale went to work on Show Boat. Laemmle replaced him with A. Edward Sutherland
, who was best known for his work on comedies. Sutherland had as little interest in Dracula's Daughter as Whale and soon left the studio, and Hillyer came on to direct.
. It began with three scenes set in the 14th Century and centered around the Dracula legend. It then switched to the present day, focusing on two engaged couples who visit Transylvania. The men explore the ruins of Dracula's castle. One is later found, insane, and the other goes missing. Professor Von Helsing is summoned and he tracks the missing man to London, where he is in thrall to Dracula's daughter, the Countess Szelinski (sic). When she attempts to flee with her thrall to the Orient by ship, Von Helsing and three others book passage on the same ship. During a violent storm, Von Helsing destroys Dracula's daughter and, with her hold over the men broken, the scenario closes with a double wedding. This version was submitted on August 28, 1935 to the British Board of Film Censors, which rejected it, saying in part "...Dracula's Daughter would require half a dozen...languages to adequately express its beastliness." On September 10 Sherriff met with BBFC representatives and submitted a revised scenario two days later. This scenario was passed but because its details were not recorded by the BBFC it is unknown how much it differed from the original or how much if any of that scenario was retained in the final script.
Universal also submitted Sherriff's first draft to the PCA on September 5, 1935 and encountered stronger resistance from PCA enforcer Joseph Breen
than it had from the British. Breen reported back that the script "contains countless offensive stuff which makes the picture utterly impossible for approval under the Production Code." A second draft was submitted on October 21, but it too was rejected, with many of Breen's objections centering around the 14th Century scenes in which Dracula himself appeared. It is unclear whether this submission was the same submission that the BBFC had previously passed. A third Sherriff draft was submitted on October 24 and Sherriff's fourth and final draft on November 10. All remained unacceptable, and Whale biographer James Curtis suggests that Whale, who had no interest in the project and feared that his commitment to it might cost him control over the filming of Show Boat, encouraged Sherriff to submit ever more wildly unacceptable versions in hopes of getting himself off the film. On January 14, 1936, producer E. M. Asher advised Breen that the Sherriff script was not going to be used and that a new script would be put together from scratch. Screenwriting duties were assigned to Garrett Fort.
struggle over the years since Dracula was made to free himself from typecasting
and feared that the role would lead to the same fate for her. Critic Mark Clark believes that ironically it may have been Holden's disgust for the role that led to the quality of her performance. "Her disdain for the part translates into a kind of self-loathing that perfectly suits her troubled character."
Initially Lugosi and Jane Wyatt
were set to star in the film. Universal also announced that Boris Karloff
and Colin Clive
, who had starred together in Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, would appear, and that Cesar Romero
would play Dr. Garth. According to the Hollywood Reporter, before casting Pichel Universal had sought Herbert Marshall
for the role of Sandor. None of them appeared except, after a fashion, Lugosi, in the form of a wax bust molded in his image for use in Dracula's coffin. Some sources report that Lugosi was paid as much as $4,000 for his abortive involvement, but the only confirmed record of any financial arrangement is a letter in which Lugosi consents to the use of his likeness at no cost to create the wax bust.
worked together closely, especially on Holden's make-up design. Notably they combined special lighting with a greyish-green make-up for Holden's final scenes, creating a pallor that contrasted with the more normally flesh-toned make-ups of the others in the scene. Heinz Roemheld composed the score and Albert S. D'Agostino
redressed Charles D. Hall
's set of Dracula's castle and created new sets including a London bridge, the moor where Dracula's body is burned and Countess Zaleska's apartment.
Dracula's Daughter was the last in the first cycle of Universal Horror films that reached back into the 1920s. Publicly, Universal stated that it was because a British ban on horror films would cut too deeply into the revenue such films could generate. In truth, the cycle was suspended because, just before filming on Dracula's Daughter had wrapped, the Laemmle family had lost control of Universal. Because of cost overruns on a number of pictures, Junior Laemmle was forced to borrow $1,000,000 on November 1, 1935. The money came from J. Cheever Cowdin, head of the Standard Capital Corporation, and from Charles R. Rogers. When the loan was called in March of the following year, Universal was unable to repay it. Standard assumed control of the studio on March 4, 1936 and Rogers replaced Junior as head of production. Rogers did not like horror films and he shut down production on them following the release of Dracula's Daughter to focus on fare like Deanna Durbin
musicals. Universal would not return to the horror genre for three years, when it released Son of Frankenstein
in 1939.
gave Dracula's Daughter a solid, albeit somewhat tongue-in-cheek, review upon its release, citing the film's "blood-curdling events" and noting that "Gloria Holden is a remarkably convincing bat-woman" in concluding that the film is both "quite terrifying" and "a cute little horror picture." Variety
also praised the production and Holden's performance in particular. Despite critical approval, Dracula's Daughter was unable to duplicate the box office success of the original.
Recent reviews of Dracula's Daughter are sharply split. Entertainment Weekly
, reviewing the film following its video release, called it "one of the most satisfying vampire pictures ever made". Describing director Hillyer's visuals as "lush, evocative, and suffused with just the right gothic chiaroscuro" and noting that "Gloria Holden, as the reluctant vampire protagonist, absolutely drips patrician eroticism", EW concludes that this film is better than Lugosi's original Dracula.
Ryan Cracknell of Apollo Movie Guide, while echoing the praise for Holden's performance, nonetheless found that the film "doesn't hold up so well today". Citing what he sees as slow pacing and "long bouts of over-the-top dialogue", Cracknell compares the film to "reading a textbook – not the most exciting thing in the world, but it does provide insights into and perspectives on the foundation of early horror movies and how many similarities carry over into movies half a century and more later." Michael W. Phillips, Jr. concurs, calling the film "a marked improvement on the original film [but] still a bit of a snooze, relying too much on forced comedy and not enough on suspense or fright." Phillips again praises Holden's performance and also Pichel's portrayal of Sandor, but finds the rest of the cast weak.
Horror author Anne Rice
has named Dracula's Daughter as a direct inspiration for her own homoerotic vampire fiction. She named a bar in her novel Queen of the Damned "Dracula's Daughter" in honor of the film. Author Ramsey Campbell
, under the pseudonym
"Carl Dreadstone", wrote a novelization of the film also entitled Dracula's Daughter that was published in 1977. A juvenile fiction version, written by Carl R. Green, William R. Sanford and Howard Schroeder, was published in 1985. Some observers have suggested that the film served as an inspiration for Sunset Blvd.
, noting similarities between the outlines of each film. Michael Almereyda
's 1994 film Nadja
has been described as an "unofficial remake" of Dracula's Daughter.
has been a trope
in literature dating back to Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's 1872 novella "Carmilla
". Dracula's Daughter, however, marked the first time that the trope was incorporated into a film. The lesbian
implications of Dracula's Daughter were obvious from the start and were of great concern to the Production Code Administration. PCA head Breen took special notice of the scene between the Countess and her model, Lili, writing, "This will need very careful handling to avoid any questionable flavor." The day before the scene was to be shot, Universal's Harry Zehner asked Breen to read a draft of the scene. In response, Breen wrote:
Gay film historian Vito Russo
noted in his book The Celluloid Closet
that Universal highlighted Countess 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!" He further cited Countess Zaleska as an example of the presentation of the "essence of homosexuality as a predatory weakness". Some reviewers of the day picked up on and condemned the lesbian content, including the New York World-Telegram which noted the Countess's tendency to wander around "giving the eye to sweet young girls". Other reviews missed it entirely, including the aforementioned New York Times which advised "Be sure to bring the kiddies." Entertainment Weekly describes the encounter between the Countess and Lili as "so hot it's impossible to imagine how it ever got past '30s censors" whereas Time Out London finds only a "subtle suggestion" of lesbianism. Horror scholar Skal notes that the scene has come to be seen as a "classic 'lesbian' sequence, although of a decidedly negative stripe". The scene between Countess Zaleska and Lili was included in the 1995 documentary film
adaptation of Russo's book.
Another lesbian-tinged scene which has received less critical attention comes when the Countess is holding Janet captive. Described as "the longest kiss never filmed", Countess Zaleska "hovers lovingly over Janet...hovers...and hovers...slowly descending to kiss the recumbent Janet..." until interrupted by the arrival of Dr. Garth.
Bright Lights Film Journal
, after noting that "Gloria Holden in the title role almost singlehandedly redefined the '20s movie vamp as an impressive Euro-butch dyke bloodsucker", draws an implicit comparison between Countess Zaleska's seeking to cure her vampirism through psychiatry and the former position of mainstream psychiatry of homosexuality as a mental illness (a view still held by a minority in the profession). Zaleska's cruising the streets of London is seen as parallel to cruising for sex
(although that tends to be a gay male activity) and as suggesting "society's image of the lesbian as soulless predator" but the conclusion is that "Holden's striking, masklike face and haunting, luminous eyes [are] the intoxicating essence of transgressive lesbian power."
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
produced by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula
Dracula (1931 film)
Dracula is a 1931 vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...
. Directed by Lambert Hillyer
Lambert Hillyer
Lambert Hillyer was an American film director and screenwriter. He directed over 160 films between 1917 and 1949. He also wrote for 54 films between 1917 and 1948....
from a screenplay by Garrett Fort
Garrett Fort
Garrett Elsden Fort was an American short story writer, playwright, and Hollywood screenwriter. He was also a close follower of Meher Baba....
, the film stars Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger was an American actor who began his career in 1915. His career was most prolific during the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:...
, Gloria Holden
Gloria Holden
-Early life:Gloria Holden came to America as a child. She attended school in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.-Theater:...
, Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Churchill was an American movie actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952.She was daughter of a producer who owned a chain of theaters but he died when she was ten years old. She was educated in New York at the Professional Children's School and the Theatre Guild Dramatic...
and, as the only cast member to return from the original, Edward Van Sloan
Edward Van Sloan
Edward Van Sloan was an American film character actor best remembered for his roles in Universal Studios horror films.-Career:...
. Dracula's Daughter tells the story of Countess Marya Zaleska, the daughter of Count Dracula
Count Dracula
Count Dracula is a fictional character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula and archetypal vampire. Some aspects of his character have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian general and Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler...
and herself a vampire. Following Dracula's death, she believes that by destroying his body she will be free of his influence and can live as a human. When this fails, she turns to psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
and Dr. Jeffrey Garth. When his efforts fail, she kidnaps Janet, the woman Jeffrey loves, and flees with her to Transylvania in an attempt to bind Jeffrey to her. She is foiled and destroyed when her jealous manservant shoots her with an arrow.
Ostensibly based on a short story titled "Dracula's Guest" by Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
, the film bears little or no resemblance to the original source material. David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
initially purchased the rights to the story for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. Selznick, probably knowing he could not legally make the film because of Universal's copyright on the original film, sold the rights to Universal. After first assigning the picture to James Whale
James Whale
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
, Universal production head Carl Laemmle, Jr. finally put Hillyer in the director's chair.
Upon its release, Dracula's Daughter was not as successful as the original, although it was generally critically well-reviewed. In the intervening decades, criticism has been deeply divided. Modern critics and scholars have noted the strong lesbian overtones of the film, overtones that Universal acknowledged from the start of filming and which they exploited in some early advertising.
Plot
Dracula's Daughter begins a few moments after Dracula ends. Count DraculaCount Dracula
Count Dracula is a fictional character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula and archetypal vampire. Some aspects of his character have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian general and Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler...
has just been destroyed by Professor Van Helsing
Abraham Van Helsing
Professor Abraham van Helsing is a protagonist from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula.Van Helsing is a Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt., etc." The character is best known as a...
(Edward Van Sloan
Edward Van Sloan
Edward Van Sloan was an American film character actor best remembered for his roles in Universal Studios horror films.-Career:...
). Van Helsing is taken by police to Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
, where he explains that he indeed did destroy Count Dracula, but because he had already been dead for over 500 years, it cannot be considered murder. Instead of hiring a lawyer, he enlists the aid of a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger was an American actor who began his career in 1915. His career was most prolific during the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:...
), who was once one of his star students. Meanwhile, Dracula's daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden
Gloria Holden
-Early life:Gloria Holden came to America as a child. She attended school in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.-Theater:...
), with the aid of her manservant, Sandor (Irving Pichel
Irving Pichel
Irving Pichel was an American actor and film director. He married Violette Wilson, daughter of Jackson Stitt Wilson, a Methodist minister and Socialist mayor of Berkeley, California. Her sister was actress Viola Barry...
), steals Dracula’s body from Scotland Yard and ritualistically burns it, hoping to break her curse of vampirism. However, Sandor soon makes her realize that her thirst for blood has not been quenched and that all that is in her eyes is "Death". The Countess resumes her hunting, mesmerizing her victims with her exotic jeweled ring. After a chance meeting with Dr. Garth at a society party, the Countess asks him to help her overcome the influence she feels from beyond the grave. The doctor advises her to defeat her cravings by confronting them and the Countess becomes hopeful that her will plus Dr. Garth's science will be strong enough to overcome Dracula's malevolence.
The Countess sends Sandor to fetch her a model to paint; he returns with Lili (Nan Grey
Nan Grey
Nan Grey was an American film actress. She was born Eschal Loleet Grey Miller on July 25, 1918 in Houston, Texas.-Career:...
). Countess Zaleska initially resists her urges but succumbs and attacks Lili. Although the girl survives the attack, when Dr. Garth tries to hypnotize her to learn what happened, she suffers heart failure and dies. As the Countess comes to accept that a cure is not possible — and the doctor discovers the truth about her condition — she lures him to Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
by kidnapping Janet (Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Churchill was an American movie actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952.She was daughter of a producer who owned a chain of theaters but he died when she was ten years old. She was educated in New York at the Professional Children's School and the Theatre Guild Dramatic...
), the woman he loves. She intends to transform him into a vampire to be her eternal companion; Dr. Garth agrees to exchange his life for Janet's. Before he can be transformed, Countess Zaleska is destroyed when Sandor shoots her through the heart with an arrow as revenge for her breaking her promise to make him immortal. He takes aim at Dr. Garth but is shot dead by a policeman.
Cast
- Otto KrugerOtto KrugerOtto Kruger was an American actor who began his career in 1915. His career was most prolific during the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:...
as Dr. Jeffrey Garth - Gloria HoldenGloria Holden-Early life:Gloria Holden came to America as a child. She attended school in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and later studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.-Theater:...
as Countess Marya Zaleska - Dracula's Daughter - Marguerite ChurchillMarguerite ChurchillMarguerite Churchill was an American movie actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952.She was daughter of a producer who owned a chain of theaters but he died when she was ten years old. She was educated in New York at the Professional Children's School and the Theatre Guild Dramatic...
as Janet - Edward Van SloanEdward Van SloanEdward Van Sloan was an American film character actor best remembered for his roles in Universal Studios horror films.-Career:...
as Professor Van Helsing - Gilbert EmeryGilbert EmeryGilbert Emery was the stage name of Gilbert Emery Bensley Pottle, an American actor who appeared in over 80 movies from 1921 to his death in 1945.- Early years :...
as Sir Basil Humphrey, Scotland Yard - Irving PichelIrving PichelIrving Pichel was an American actor and film director. He married Violette Wilson, daughter of Jackson Stitt Wilson, a Methodist minister and Socialist mayor of Berkeley, California. Her sister was actress Viola Barry...
as Sandor - Halliwell HobbesHalliwell HobbesHalliwell Hobbes was an English actor.-Life:His stage debut was in Sir Frank Benson's company in 1898, playing in Shakespearean rep alongside actors such as Ellen Terry and Mrs Patrick Campbell...
as Hawkins - Billy BevanBilly BevanBilly Bevan was an Australian film actor. He appeared in 254 American films between 1916 and 1950....
as Albert - Nan GreyNan GreyNan Grey was an American film actress. She was born Eschal Loleet Grey Miller on July 25, 1918 in Houston, Texas.-Career:...
as Lili - Hedda HopperHedda HopperHedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
as Lady Esme Hammond - Claud Allister as Sir Aubrey
- Edgar Norton as Hobbs
- E. E. CliveE. E. CliveEdward E. Clive was a Welsh actor in the early 20th century.- Biography :Born in Monmouthshire, Clive studied for a medical career, having four years of medical course at St Bartholomew's Hospital before switching his focus to acting at age 22...
as Sergeant Wilkes
Production
Universal originally did not hold the rights to "Dracula's Guest", a chapter excised from Bram StokerBram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
's original novel and the purported source material for the film. The story includes an encounter between a man (presumed by some to be Jonathan Harker
Jonathan Harker
Jonathan Harker is one of the main protagonists in the 1897 horror novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. His journey to Transylvania and encounter with Count Dracula and the Brides of Dracula at Castle Dracula constitutes the dramatic opening scenes in the novel and most of the film adaptations.-In the...
although the character is not identified as such) and a female vampire. The story does not establish a filial relationship between the female vampire and Dracula. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
executive David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
negotiated a contract in 1933 with Stoker's widow, Florence, to buy the rights to the chapter for an advance of $500 against a purchase price of $5,000. MGM's lawyers and executives were worried about the use of the word "Dracula" in the film's title, fearing that Universal would take legal action, although Selzick's contract with Stoker explicitly listed "Dracula's Daughter" as a possible alternate title. The project was code-named "Tarantula" in correspondence.
Selznick hired John L. Balderston
John L. Balderston
John L. Balderston was an American playwright and screenwriter best known for his horror and fantasy scripts....
, who had previously worked on the 1931 Dracula and Frankenstein
Frankenstein (1931 film)
Frankenstein is a 1931 Pre-Code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features...
, to write the screenplay. Balderston's screenplay involved tying up loose ends from the original film. In it, Von Helsing returns to Transylvania to destroy the three vampire brides
Brides of Dracula
The Brides of Dracula are characters in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. They are three seductive female vampire "sisters" who reside with Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania, where they entrance male humans with their beauty and charm, and then proceed to feed upon them...
seen in Dracula but overlooks a fourth tomb concealing Dracula's daughter. She follows him back to London and operates under the name "Countess Szekelsky". She attacks a young aristocrat and Von Helsing and the aristocrat's fiancée track her back to Transylvania and destroy her. The script included scenes that implied that Dracula's daughter enjoyed torturing her male victims and that while under her control the men liked it too. Also included were shots of the Countess's chambers being stocked with whips and straps, which she would never use on-screen but whose uses the audience could imagine. Regardless of any objections that the Production Code Administration
Production Code Administration
The Production Code Administration was established by the Motion Picture Association of America in 1934. The PCA required all filmmakers to submit their films for approval before release.-See also:* Pre-Code* Joseph Breen* Will H. Hays...
(PCA) would have raised to many aspects of the scenario, Balderston's script could never have been filmed because Selznick's contract with Stoker expressly barred him from using any Bram Stoker characters that did not appear in "Dracula's Guest". Selznick re-sold the rights to "Dracula's Guest" to Universal in September 1935 for $12,500, which included the rights to Balderston's scenario. Horror film scholar David J. Skal
David J. Skal
David J. Skal is an American cultural historian known for his writings on horror films and horror literature.-Early life:...
theorizes that this was Selznick's actual motivation in buying the rights in the first place, to profit from Universal's desire for a sequel by tying up the only obvious source material.
Director
Universal studio head Carl Laemmle, Jr. (nicknamed "Junior") wanted James WhaleJames Whale
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
, fresh from his great success with Bride of Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 American horror film, the first sequel to Frankenstein...
, to direct Dracula's Daughter. Whale was idle, waiting for Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
to finish work on Magnificent Obsession
Magnificent Obsession (1935 film)
Magnificent Obsession is a 1935 drama film based on a book of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas. It was adapted by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, and George O'Neil, and directed by John M. Stahl...
so she could begin work on Whale's Show Boat
Show Boat (1936 film)
Show Boat is a 1936 film based on the musical play by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II , which the team adapted from the novel by Edna Ferber....
. Wary of directing two horror films in a row, Whale instead convinced Laemmle to buy the rights to a mystery novel called The Hangover Murders. Laemmle agreed only after extracting a promise from Whale that he would direct Dracula's Daughter next. Whale completed work on the film, titled Remember Last Night?
Remember Last Night?
Remember Last Night? is a 1935 American mystery comedy film directed by James Whale. The film, based on the novel The Hangover Murders, is about the investigation of the murder of one of a group of friends. The survivors are unable to recall the events of the night of the murder because they were...
for release, on September 14, 1935. Magnificent Obsession completed filming on October 29. With Dunne freed up, Whale went to work on Show Boat. Laemmle replaced him with A. Edward Sutherland
A. Edward Sutherland
A. Edward Sutherland aka Eddie Sutherland was a film director and actor. Born Albert Edward Sutherland in London, he was from a theatrical family. His father, Al Sutherland, was a theatre manager and producer and his mother, Julie Ring, was a vaudeville performer...
, who was best known for his work on comedies. Sutherland had as little interest in Dracula's Daughter as Whale and soon left the studio, and Hillyer came on to direct.
Universal script
The earliest scenario for the Universal film was written by R. C. SherriffR. C. Sherriff
-External links:**...
. It began with three scenes set in the 14th Century and centered around the Dracula legend. It then switched to the present day, focusing on two engaged couples who visit Transylvania. The men explore the ruins of Dracula's castle. One is later found, insane, and the other goes missing. Professor Von Helsing is summoned and he tracks the missing man to London, where he is in thrall to Dracula's daughter, the Countess Szelinski (sic). When she attempts to flee with her thrall to the Orient by ship, Von Helsing and three others book passage on the same ship. During a violent storm, Von Helsing destroys Dracula's daughter and, with her hold over the men broken, the scenario closes with a double wedding. This version was submitted on August 28, 1935 to the British Board of Film Censors, which rejected it, saying in part "...Dracula's Daughter would require half a dozen...languages to adequately express its beastliness." On September 10 Sherriff met with BBFC representatives and submitted a revised scenario two days later. This scenario was passed but because its details were not recorded by the BBFC it is unknown how much it differed from the original or how much if any of that scenario was retained in the final script.
Universal also submitted Sherriff's first draft to the PCA on September 5, 1935 and encountered stronger resistance from PCA enforcer Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen is an American soap opera actor.He played contract parts on both Guiding Light and Loving before being offered his most front-burner role to date: that of Lisa’s long-lost son, Scott Eldridge, on As the World Turns...
than it had from the British. Breen reported back that the script "contains countless offensive stuff which makes the picture utterly impossible for approval under the Production Code." A second draft was submitted on October 21, but it too was rejected, with many of Breen's objections centering around the 14th Century scenes in which Dracula himself appeared. It is unclear whether this submission was the same submission that the BBFC had previously passed. A third Sherriff draft was submitted on October 24 and Sherriff's fourth and final draft on November 10. All remained unacceptable, and Whale biographer James Curtis suggests that Whale, who had no interest in the project and feared that his commitment to it might cost him control over the filming of Show Boat, encouraged Sherriff to submit ever more wildly unacceptable versions in hopes of getting himself off the film. On January 14, 1936, producer E. M. Asher advised Breen that the Sherriff script was not going to be used and that a new script would be put together from scratch. Screenwriting duties were assigned to Garrett Fort.
Casting
Dracula's Daughter was Gloria Holden's first starring role and reportedly she was extremely displeased at having been assigned it. Like many actors, Holden looked down on horror films. She had also seen Bela LugosiBéla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
struggle over the years since Dracula was made to free himself from typecasting
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
and feared that the role would lead to the same fate for her. Critic Mark Clark believes that ironically it may have been Holden's disgust for the role that led to the quality of her performance. "Her disdain for the part translates into a kind of self-loathing that perfectly suits her troubled character."
Initially Lugosi and Jane Wyatt
Jane Wyatt
Jane Waddington Wyatt was an American actress perhaps best known for her role as the housewife and mother on the television comedy Father Knows Best, and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science fiction television series Star Trek...
were set to star in the film. Universal also announced that Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
and Colin Clive
Colin Clive
Colin Clive was an English stage and screen actor best remembered for his portrayal of Dr...
, who had starred together in Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, would appear, and that Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
would play Dr. Garth. According to the Hollywood Reporter, before casting Pichel Universal had sought Herbert Marshall
Herbert Marshall
Herbert Marshall , born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall, was an English actor.His parents were Percy F. Marshall and Ethel May Turner. He graduated from St. Mary's College in Old Harlow, Essex and worked for a time as an accounting clerk...
for the role of Sandor. None of them appeared except, after a fashion, Lugosi, in the form of a wax bust molded in his image for use in Dracula's coffin. Some sources report that Lugosi was paid as much as $4,000 for his abortive involvement, but the only confirmed record of any financial arrangement is a letter in which Lugosi consents to the use of his likeness at no cost to create the wax bust.
Other production aspects
Makeup artist Jack Pierce and special effects supervisor John P. FultonJohn P. Fulton
John P. Fulton, A.S.C. was an American special effects supervisor and cinematographer.-Biography:...
worked together closely, especially on Holden's make-up design. Notably they combined special lighting with a greyish-green make-up for Holden's final scenes, creating a pallor that contrasted with the more normally flesh-toned make-ups of the others in the scene. Heinz Roemheld composed the score and Albert S. D'Agostino
Albert S. D'Agostino
Albert S. D'Agostino was an American art director. He was nominated for five Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction...
redressed Charles D. Hall
Charles D. Hall
Charles D. Hall was a British-American art director and production designer. He is perhaps best remembered for his tenure at Universal Pictures, where he began his career during the silent era...
's set of Dracula's castle and created new sets including a London bridge, the moor where Dracula's body is burned and Countess Zaleska's apartment.
Shooting
Shooting on Dracula's Daughter began on February 4, 1936, rushed into production before Fort had completed the script, because of a deadline clause in Universal's option of the property from Selznick. The script was not finalized until shooting had been underway for three weeks. The film was completed on March 10. Despite studio orders that the film be shot on a seven-day-per-week schedule, filming ran seven days over its schedule and $50,000 over budget, with the final cost of the film tallied at $278,380.Dracula's Daughter was the last in the first cycle of Universal Horror films that reached back into the 1920s. Publicly, Universal stated that it was because a British ban on horror films would cut too deeply into the revenue such films could generate. In truth, the cycle was suspended because, just before filming on Dracula's Daughter had wrapped, the Laemmle family had lost control of Universal. Because of cost overruns on a number of pictures, Junior Laemmle was forced to borrow $1,000,000 on November 1, 1935. The money came from J. Cheever Cowdin, head of the Standard Capital Corporation, and from Charles R. Rogers. When the loan was called in March of the following year, Universal was unable to repay it. Standard assumed control of the studio on March 4, 1936 and Rogers replaced Junior as head of production. Rogers did not like horror films and he shut down production on them following the release of Dracula's Daughter to focus on fare like Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin
Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....
musicals. Universal would not return to the horror genre for three years, when it released Son of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein
Son of Frankenstein is the third film in Universal Studios' Frankenstein series and the last to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster as well as the first to feature Béla Lugosi as Ygor. It is a sequel to Bride of Frankenstein....
in 1939.
Reception and influence
The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
gave Dracula's Daughter a solid, albeit somewhat tongue-in-cheek, review upon its release, citing the film's "blood-curdling events" and noting that "Gloria Holden is a remarkably convincing bat-woman" in concluding that the film is both "quite terrifying" and "a cute little horror picture." Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
also praised the production and Holden's performance in particular. Despite critical approval, Dracula's Daughter was unable to duplicate the box office success of the original.
Recent reviews of Dracula's Daughter are sharply split. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, reviewing the film following its video release, called it "one of the most satisfying vampire pictures ever made". Describing director Hillyer's visuals as "lush, evocative, and suffused with just the right gothic chiaroscuro" and noting that "Gloria Holden, as the reluctant vampire protagonist, absolutely drips patrician eroticism", EW concludes that this film is better than Lugosi's original Dracula.
Ryan Cracknell of Apollo Movie Guide, while echoing the praise for Holden's performance, nonetheless found that the film "doesn't hold up so well today". Citing what he sees as slow pacing and "long bouts of over-the-top dialogue", Cracknell compares the film to "reading a textbook – not the most exciting thing in the world, but it does provide insights into and perspectives on the foundation of early horror movies and how many similarities carry over into movies half a century and more later." Michael W. Phillips, Jr. concurs, calling the film "a marked improvement on the original film [but] still a bit of a snooze, relying too much on forced comedy and not enough on suspense or fright." Phillips again praises Holden's performance and also Pichel's portrayal of Sandor, but finds the rest of the cast weak.
Horror author Anne Rice
Anne Rice
Anne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...
has named Dracula's Daughter as a direct inspiration for her own homoerotic vampire fiction. She named a bar in her novel Queen of the Damned "Dracula's Daughter" in honor of the film. Author Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell
John Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction author.Since he first came to prominence in the mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", while S. T...
, under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Carl Dreadstone", wrote a novelization of the film also entitled Dracula's Daughter that was published in 1977. A juvenile fiction version, written by Carl R. Green, William R. Sanford and Howard Schroeder, was published in 1985. Some observers have suggested that the film served as an inspiration for Sunset Blvd.
Sunset Boulevard (film)
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett...
, noting similarities between the outlines of each film. Michael Almereyda
Michael Almereyda
Michael Almereyda is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. His most well known work is Hamlet , starring Ethan Hawke.-Early life:...
's 1994 film Nadja
Nadja (film)
Nadja is a 1994 film by Michael Almereyda starring Elina Löwensohn as the creature Nadja and Peter Fonda as Van Helsing. As the character's names suggest, Nadja is a vampire film, but treating elements of the genre in an understated arthouse style....
has been described as an "unofficial remake" of Dracula's Daughter.
Lesbian implications
The lesbian vampireLesbian vampire
Lesbian vampirism is a trope in 20th century exploitation film that has its roots in Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's novella Carmilla about the predatory love of a female vampire for a young woman :...
has been a trope
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
in literature dating back to Joseph Sheridan le Fanu's 1872 novella "Carmilla
Carmilla
Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla...
". Dracula's Daughter, however, marked the first time that the trope was incorporated into a film. The lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
implications of Dracula's Daughter were obvious from the start and were of great concern to the Production Code Administration. PCA head Breen took special notice of the scene between the Countess and her model, Lili, writing, "This will need very careful handling to avoid any questionable flavor." The day before the scene was to be shot, Universal's Harry Zehner asked Breen to read a draft of the scene. In response, Breen wrote:
"The present suggestion that...Lili poses in the nude will be changed. She will be posing her neck and shoulders, and there will be no suggestion that she undresses, and there will be no exposure of her person. It was also stated that the present incomplete sequence will be followed by a scene in which Lili is taken to a hospital and there it will be definitely established that she has been attacked by a vampire. The whole sequence will be treated 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."
Gay film historian Vito Russo
Vito Russo
Vito Russo was an American LGBT activist, film historian and author who is best remembered as the author of the book The Celluloid Closet ....
noted in his book The Celluloid Closet
The Celluloid Closet
The Celluloid Closet is a 1996 American documentary film directed and written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. The film is based on the 1981 book of the same name written by Vito Russo, and on previous lecture and film clip presentations given in person by Russo 1972–82.Russo researched the...
that Universal highlighted Countess 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!" He further cited Countess Zaleska as an example of the presentation of the "essence of homosexuality as a predatory weakness". Some reviewers of the day picked up on and condemned the lesbian content, including the New York World-Telegram which noted the Countess's tendency to wander around "giving the eye to sweet young girls". Other reviews missed it entirely, including the aforementioned New York Times which advised "Be sure to bring the kiddies." Entertainment Weekly describes the encounter between the Countess and Lili as "so hot it's impossible to imagine how it ever got past '30s censors" whereas Time Out London finds only a "subtle suggestion" of lesbianism. Horror scholar Skal notes that the scene has come to be seen as a "classic 'lesbian' sequence, although of a decidedly negative stripe". The scene between Countess Zaleska and Lili was included in the 1995 documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
adaptation of Russo's book.
Another lesbian-tinged scene which has received less critical attention comes when the Countess is holding Janet captive. Described as "the longest kiss never filmed", Countess Zaleska "hovers lovingly over Janet...hovers...and hovers...slowly descending to kiss the recumbent Janet..." until interrupted by the arrival of Dr. Garth.
Bright Lights Film Journal
Bright Lights Film Journal
Bright Lights Film Journal is an online popular-academic film magazine, with a left-leaning critical orientation, based in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is edited and published by Gary Morris....
, after noting that "Gloria Holden in the title role almost singlehandedly redefined the '20s movie vamp as an impressive Euro-butch dyke bloodsucker", draws an implicit comparison between Countess Zaleska's seeking to cure her vampirism through psychiatry and the former position of mainstream psychiatry of homosexuality as a mental illness (a view still held by a minority in the profession). Zaleska's cruising the streets of London is seen as parallel to cruising for sex
Cruising for sex
Cruising for sex, or cruising is the act of walking or driving about a locality in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety...
(although that tends to be a gay male activity) and as suggesting "society's image of the lesbian as soulless predator" but the conclusion is that "Holden's striking, masklike face and haunting, luminous eyes [are] the intoxicating essence of transgressive lesbian power."