Film Flashback: Dracula’s Daughter

There may be a handful of new vampire movies being released every month, but we can’t forget about those old school vamp flicks. So it is film flashback time, and today’s vamptastic film is Dracula’s Daughter. Dracula’s Daughter is a 1936 vampire horror movie that was a sequel to the 1931 film Dracula; it was later followed by the 1943 movie Son of Dracula.

Dracula’s Daughter begins shortly after Dracula ends, when Count Dracula has just been killed by Professor Von Helsing. Von Helsing is then taken by police to Scotland Yard, where he tried to explain that while he did kill Count Dracula, it cannot be considered murder because the count had been undead for over 500 years. But instead of hiring a lawyer to help him, he recruits a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth, who was once one of his best students.

Dr. Garth may be able to defend Von Helsing him in court, but Garth has his own troubles after he meets Countess Marya Zaleska, the daughter of Dracula. The Countess asks Garth to help her overcome her vampirism. She hopes that her will plus Dr. Garth’s science will be strong enough to overcome Dracula’s power over her – but that’s easier said than done. So she steals the corpse of her father, Count Dracula, and burns it thinking that will be enough to free herself, but even with him gone she still craves blood.

Countess Marya then comes to believe that there is no possible cure, and once Garth discovers what she is, she lures him by kidnapping Janet, the woman he loves. She plans on turning the good doctor into her immortal companion, but unfortunately, her plans are foiled by her servant, Sandor.

A favorite quote from this film:

Dr. Garth: “You know, this is the first woman’s flat I’ve been in that didn’t have at least 20 mirrors in it.”

– Moonlight

By Moonlight

Moonlight (aka Amanda) loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to vampires. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of vampire folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and she may bite you (and not in the fun way).

10 comments

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  4. Interestingly, this is not only in most ways the first “sympathetic vampire” in cinema, it is likely the initial example of the “lesbian vampire” trope (vis a vis the famous scene where the Countess feeds from a young waif–with overtones of rape).

    1. I agree- note how longingly Zaleska looks at Lili and the feral expression of her face as she glides suggestively towards her ignoring Lili’s “Please don;t come any closer!”

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  8. Atmospheric film, with more unsympathetic heroine than villainess, albeit the former looked great in that rose-decorated evening-gown, rivaling with Lupita Tovar´s Mina character from 1931 Dracula.

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