Dracula (Universal) Collection

Otto Kruger

Gloria Holden

Marguerite Churchill

Edward Van Sloan

Gilbert Emery

Irving Pichel

Halliwell Hobbes

Billy Bevan

Nan Grey

Hedda Hopper

Claud Allister

Edgar Norton

E. E. Clive

Eily Malyon

Vernon Steele

Joseph R. Tozer

Douglas Wood

Fred Walton

Paul Weigel

Hedwiga Reicher

William Schramm

Agnes Anderson

Owen Gorin

Christian Rub

Wilhelm von Brincken

Edna Lyall

Silvia Vaughan

Douglas Gordon

David Dunbar

John Blood

Elsa Janssen

Bert Sprotte

Vesey O'Davoren

Eric Wilton

John Power

George Sorel

Gordon Hart

Paul Mitchell

Guy Kingsford

Clive Morgan

Pietro Sosso

George Kirby

Jack Pierce

John P. Fulton

Garrett Fort

George Robinson

Kurt Neumann

Otto Lederer

Lambert Hillyer

E.M. Asher

Albert S. D'Agostino

Vera West

Finley Peter Dunne

Edward Ward

Gilbert Kurland

John L. Balderston

Grace Boyd

Sergei Petschnikoff

Joe Lapis

Clifford Vaughan

Bram Stoker

Victor Noerdlinger

Charles S. Belden

Heinz Roemheld

Maurice Pivar

R.C. Sherriff

Myrtle Gibsone

Milton Carruth

Horror

Dracula's Daughter

Universal Pictures

United States of America

Possibly there are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in your psychiatry, Mr. Garth.

Five years after Universal launched a Bela Lugosi inspired Dracula upon the film loving world, the sequel arrived - only not with Lugosi's Count Dracula in it. Pic picks up at the end of the 31 film and finds Von Helsing (yes Von, not Van) under arrest for the slaying of the toothy vampire. Enter Contessa Marya Zeleska, who sets in motion the wheels of vampiric legends and torrid passions about to be exposed.

There's an ethereal low-key mood to Dracula's Daughter, exuding the sort of atmosphere that Val Lewton would hone and trademark within six years. It's a beautifully photographed movie (George Robinson), while there's some neat touches in the screenplay - such as lesbian overtones and the fact our vampire lady is very sympathetic due to her searching for a cure to her ills. However. The play is over talky and very bloodless, it's like the makers forgot to actually put some horror aspects into the piece. There's also an odd blend of humour and drama which never sits right, while the ending is abrupt and disappointing.

It's a nice film, a nice production, but nice is a word that really shouldn't be on your lips given the history of the source materials. 6/10