Dracula's Daughter (1936) Contains spoilers!
Dracula's Daughter (1936) d. Lambert Hillyer
Starring Gloria Holden, Otto Kruger, Irving Pichel and Edward Van Sloan
Dracula's Daughter picks up right where Dracula leaves off. The bodies of Renfield and the Count have been discovered at Carfax Abbey. Van Helsing is still at the scene and finds he must defend himself for the murder of Count Dracula.
Enter the mysterious Countess Zeleska. She is portrayed by Gloria Holden. Her performance is eerie and her delivery of dialogue has the deliberateness that was the hallmark of Lugosi's Dracula. Edward Van Sloan reprises his role from the original film. Otto Kruger is the psychiatrist who Van Helsing consults instead of legal cousel. Kruger is marvelous as a doctor, but too cold as a romantic lead. His love interest, Janet, played by Marguerite Churchill is just irritating and not likable at all.
The most interesting thing about this film, is that in Countess Zeleska we find one of the earliest instances of the reluctant vampire that is so prevalent in modern vampire mythology. She wants to coerce Dr. Garth to help her overcome her vapiric curse much in the way that Barnabas Collins turned to Dr. Julia Hoffman in Dark Shadows or Nick Knight turned to Dr. Natalie Lambert in Forever Knight.
At only 71 minutes, it moves fairly swiftly and incorporates many elements introduced in the original. There is the obligatory exposition speech by Van Helsing in which he explains vampire mythos; ie. native soil, no reflection, etc.
It is a pleasant enough diversion and a fairly worthy successor to the original.
This was viewed on October 3 as part of the octobermovie challenge.
Crossposted.
Starring Gloria Holden, Otto Kruger, Irving Pichel and Edward Van Sloan
Dracula's Daughter picks up right where Dracula leaves off. The bodies of Renfield and the Count have been discovered at Carfax Abbey. Van Helsing is still at the scene and finds he must defend himself for the murder of Count Dracula.
Enter the mysterious Countess Zeleska. She is portrayed by Gloria Holden. Her performance is eerie and her delivery of dialogue has the deliberateness that was the hallmark of Lugosi's Dracula. Edward Van Sloan reprises his role from the original film. Otto Kruger is the psychiatrist who Van Helsing consults instead of legal cousel. Kruger is marvelous as a doctor, but too cold as a romantic lead. His love interest, Janet, played by Marguerite Churchill is just irritating and not likable at all.
The most interesting thing about this film, is that in Countess Zeleska we find one of the earliest instances of the reluctant vampire that is so prevalent in modern vampire mythology. She wants to coerce Dr. Garth to help her overcome her vapiric curse much in the way that Barnabas Collins turned to Dr. Julia Hoffman in Dark Shadows or Nick Knight turned to Dr. Natalie Lambert in Forever Knight.
At only 71 minutes, it moves fairly swiftly and incorporates many elements introduced in the original. There is the obligatory exposition speech by Van Helsing in which he explains vampire mythos; ie. native soil, no reflection, etc.
It is a pleasant enough diversion and a fairly worthy successor to the original.
This was viewed on October 3 as part of the octobermovie challenge.
Crossposted.