DRACULA'S DAUGHTER

After the death of Count Dracula, Van Helsing is arrested for murder. Meanwhile, a series of mysterious deaths continues to bloodstain the streets of London: the culprit is Countess Marya Zaleska, daughter of the legendary vampire count. Marya is torn about her condition and doesn't know whether to give in to her diabolical nature, as her butler Sandor advises, or try to be cured by psychiatrist Jeffrey Grath. After the great success of Tod Browning's "Dracula," Universal tries its hand at a sequel and entrusts Lambert Hillyer with the direction of "Dracula's Daughter." Hillyer had already worked for Universal with the science fiction film "The Invisible Ray" (starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) and in the future will be remembered for numerous Hollywood golden age westerns and for bringing Batman to the screen for the first time, with a 1943 serial. Hillyer's film presents itself as a solid horror that unfolds between mystery and gothic, continuing with good imagination the story of Count Dracula, never falling into the banal or the easy naivety of some products of the time. Much of the credit goes to the screenplay of veteran Garrett Fort ("Dracula," "Frankenstein") who has the good idea of starting the story right where the first film ended, giving the two films a good sense of continuity. Among the old characters, only Professor Van Helsing remains, played once again by Edward Van Sloan, who here has a very marginal role, leaving the scene to Otto Kruger ("Duello al sole;" "Mezzogiorno di fuoco") who plays the psychiatrist Grath, a man of science open to the paranormal, just like his friend Van Helsing. Grath has a love/disrespect relationship with the capricious Janet (Margherite Churchill), the classic girl in danger sketched differently from the usual beauties to be saved, since she is given a strong and emancipated character, certainly unusual for the horrors of that period. Certainly unusual is also the treatment of some "adult" themes, taboo for 1930s America; thus, many clues of the ambiguous sexual nature of Countess Marya will be scattered, even showing the vampire in action as she is about to engage in a sapphic relationship with her victim. The character of the vampire Marya Zaleska is very well sketched, thus providing the portrait of a tormented being who is undecided whether to follow her bloodsucking nature or eliminate every trace of her evil side (in a significant scene, in fact, the woman sets fire to the corpse of her father). Vampirism is treated here as a disease, anticipating films of the caliber of "Martin" and "The Addiction," so much so that only a man of science like Grath is considered capable of curing her. Countess Zaleska is magnificently played by Gloria Holden, who manages to make the suffering and inner conflict of her character truly credible, certainly the most in-part of the entire film, flanked by the classic assistant/butler with the unpleasant appearance, and here subtly manipulative as well as the true negative character of the film, played by the very active Irving Pichel. "Dracula's Daughter" therefore represents an example of an excellent sequel, even more mature and original than its predecessor, certainly capable of captivating and fully satisfying all vintage horror enthusiasts.