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Dracula's Daughter (1936) - Lambert Hillyer

Trying to ride the popularity train of Tod Browning's 1931 film Dracula, Dracula's Daughter falls flat on its face. This movie is boring, dull and has nothing going for it. The stars of the movie include: Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Chruchill, and Edward Von Sloan returning from Dracula to portray the character Van Helsing. The only passable actor would have to be Gloria Holden who plays Dracula's Daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska. 

This movie is canon to the original, set only moments after the first film ends. We see Van Helsing dealing with the police for driving a stake through the heart of a man known as Count Dracula. The police have no idea that he was a vampire and they think the entire idea is ludicrous; meanwhile Countess Marya Zaleska comes to London to destroy her fathers body and do what vampires do best. 

There are a ton of things that bother me about this flim. One being that the movie is set in London and none of the actors have British accents, the movie could have easily been set in New York or Chicago. The movie is not scary what-so-ever, virtually all of the vampire "biting" scenes are done off camera. The storyline seems forced, it seems like the screenwriter scribbled this down one lonely night after watching the original Dracula. I am glad Bela Lugosi kept himself away from the film altogether, it would have been a disaster...Well more so than it already was. 

The only thing that I like about this movie is the character Van Helsing and the subsequent investigation of his involvement in the murder Count Dracula. The movie is well shot and the dialog is delivered very well, albeit with no accents. 

Wanna see my jewels?


  • The movie was originally slated for James Whale (The Bride of Frankenstein, Old Dark House) to direct.
  • Bela Lugosi took promotional shots for the movie, however he doesn't appear in the movie at all.
  • This was one of Universals most expensive films of the thirties being made for $278,000.00

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