Dracula's Daughter is a 1936 American vampire film produced by Universal Pictures as a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula. Directed by Lambert Hillyer from a screenplay by Garrett Fort, the film stars Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden in the title role, and Marguerite Churchill, and features, as the only cast member to return from the original, Edward Van Sloan – although his character's name was altered from "Van Helsing" to "Von Helsing".

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 live normally. When this fails, she turns to a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Kruger). The Countess kidnaps Dr. Garth's assistant, Janet (Marguerite Churchill), and takes her to Transylvania, leading to a battle between Dr. Garth and the Countess in an attempt by him to save Janet.

Ostensibly based on an omitted chapter from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula &ndash; published in 1914 as a short story entitled "Dracula's Guest"</small>

Production

thumb|[[Edward Van Sloan as Von Helsing]]

Universal originally did not hold the rights to "Dracula's Guest", a chapter excised from Bram Stoker's original novel, which was published in 1914, after Stoker's death, as a short story, and which was the purported source material for the film. 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 Selznick's contract with Stoker explicitly listed "Dracula's Daughter" as a possible alternative title. The project was code-named "Tarantula" in correspondence. 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. A condition of the sale was that the rights would revert to MGM if Universal did not start production by October 1935, later extended to February 1936. Whale completed work on the film, Remember Last Night?, 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 did, and soon left the studio, so Hillyer came on to direct.

Universal script

A treatment by John L. Balderston was submitted to Universal in January 1934, and may have been presented to MGM earlier. Another short treatment by Kurt Neumann was rejected by Universal.

Universal submitted Sheriff's first draft to the Production Code Administration (PCA) on September 5, 1935, and encountered stronger resistance from PCA head Joseph Breen than it had from the British censors. 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 on the 14th-century scenes in which Dracula himself appeared. Whether this submission was the same submission that the BBFC had previously passed is unclear. A third Sheriff draft was submitted three days later, and Sherriff's fourth and final draft was 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. who submitted a draft in January 1936, and a second draft in February. Asher, Fort, and Universal executive Harry Zehner meet with Production Code officials in February, during which Universal was asked that the scene in which Lili poses for Marya be written so that no suggestion was made that Lili was nude, or that no indication was made of a "perverse sexual desire on the part of Marya or of an attempted sexual attack by her upon Lili".

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 with Lugosi playing Dracula and Wyatt playing Lili, who was eventually played by actress Nan Grey because Grey was a blonde, giving contrast to her and actress Gloria Holden who had black hair. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal had sought Herbert Marshall for the role of Sandor, before casting Pichel. 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. Despite studio orders that the film be shot on a seven-day-per-week schedule,

Dracula's Daughter was the last in the first cycle of Universal Horror films that reached back into the 1920s. Publicly, Universal said 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 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 did not return to the horror genre for three years, when it released Son of Frankenstein in 1939.

Other production aspects

Makeup artist Jack Pierce and special effects supervisor John P. Fulton worked together closely, especially on Holden's make-up design. 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.

Critical response

The New York Times 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 did not have the same box office success as the original.

Later 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.

Influence

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 The Vampire Lestat "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. Universal's 2024 film Abigail was initially mooted as a new version of Dracula's Daughter but bears no similarity to the 1936 film and Dracula is not named on screen.

Lesbian implications

right|thumb|"Save the women of London from Dracula's Daughter!" Countess Zaleska seduces Lili.

thumb|right|Nan Grey

The lesbian vampire has long been a trend in literature, dating back to such works as Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1797 poem Christabel and Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella Carmilla. Dracula's Daughter marked the first time that the trend was incorporated into a film. The lesbian implications of Dracula's Daughter 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:

<blockquote>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. 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 The New York Times, which advised "Be sure to bring the kiddies". 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.

A 1998 article published by Bright Lights Film Journal said "Gloria Holden in the title role almost singlehandedly redefined the '20s movie vamp as an impressive Euro-butch dyke bloodsucker", but 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. 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".

Reboot

In April 2023, it was reported that Universal Pictures was developing a film for Universal Pictures, with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett attached to co-direct, from a script co-written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick. The project was stated to be a modern-day adaptation of an older character, similar in approach to The Invisible Man (2020) or Renfield (2023).

The project was originally titled Dracula's Daughter. It was released as Abigail on April 7, 2024. Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times that in press releases of the film several vampire films were name-checked, with Dracula's Daughter not being among them and that the final film had very little similarity to Hillyer's film.

See also

  • Vampire film

References

Bibliography

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  • The Universal Dracula series