DRACULA'S
DAUGHTER (1936)/SON OF DRACULA (1943)Directors: Lambert Hillyer, Robert Siodmak
Universal
DRACULA'S
DAUGHTER (1936)/SON OF DRACULA (1943)Two of Universal Studio's finest early "monster" flicks grace this five inch disc, offering fans a "Dracula Double Feature" to accompany their "Frankenstein," "Wolf Man" and "Mummy" counterparts.
As a sequel to DRACULA, the opening of DRACULA'S DAUGHTER begins just as Dr. Van Helsing (now re-named VON Helsing, for some careless reason) is discovered at Carfax Abbey by two policemen only seconds after banging a wooden stake through Count Dracula's heart. The professor is taken to Scotland Yard to face a murder charge as he attempts to explain his dealings with un-dead vampires, but to little avail. He reasons that the one person on Earth who may vouch for him is a former pupil of his, the respected psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), but even his good friend questions the doctor's sanity.
Elsewhere, a beautiful seductress in black going by the name of Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden) steals Dracula's corpse and attempts a crude exorcism with the help of her ghoulish assistant, Sandor (Irving Pichel). After burning the Count's remains, this daughter of Dracula rejoices that she now feels free from the curse of the vampire and can live a normal life as an artist in Chelsea. But despite her best efforts, she is unable to resist her supernatural cravings for human blood and the next evening finds herself prowling the night for a fresh victim.
Desperately searching for a way to break the curse, Zaleska vaguely consults with Jeffrey Garth regarding her addiction (though not revealing its specifics) who instructs her to confront whatever "compulsion" she next encounters head on and thus try to overpower it. Later that evening, her assistant Sandor takes in Lili (Nan Grey), a pretty young model, for her to paint. Zaleska is once again stricken with an insatiable bloodlust which she struggles to ignore, yet ultimately attacks the girl, leaving her drained of blood and hospitalized in a state of shock.
As Von Helsing and Garth compare notes, the psychiatrist begins to suspect that Marya Zaleska may in fact be a vampire. The hunch is sealed when Garth hypnotizes the dying Lili and hears for himself her hazey recollections just before she passes on. But before Garth can confront Zaleska, he finds that she and Sandor have kidnapped his secretary/girlfriend Janet (Marguerite Churchill) and smuggled her back to Transylvania. Garth takes a private plane on his own and meets Zaleska at Dracula's castle where he finds Janet weak and dying in a trance. Zaleska informs him that she will kill Janet unless he agrees to join her forever as one of the undead. The doctor is forced to concede, but the jealous Sandor shoots a wooden arrow into Zaleska's heart, just as the police inspector arrives on the scene with Professor Von Helsing. "The woman is beautiful," the inspector admits. "She was beautiful when she died," Von Helsing adds, "a hundred years ago."
DRACULA'S DAUGHTER is a slick improvement over DRACULA, and is easily the best vampire film of the 1930s. The film has precisely the right amounts of mood, atmosphere, comedy relief and chills to make it thoroughly enjoyable. Otto Kruger is first rate as a different kind of leading man for this type of film, but the real jewel is Gloria Holden as Dracula's Daughter. She possesses just the perfect look of nobility, elegance and "other worldliness" to compliment her sympathetic performance as the screen's first of many tragic vampires.
In SON OF DRACULA, Katherine Caldwell (the alluring Louise Allbritton) welcomes a visit from a certain European Count Alucard (Lon Chaney) to her home in America. Her fiancee Frank (Robert Paige) becomes jealous and is appalled to discover that the two have been secretly married behind his back. Taking matters into his own hands, Frank confronts Alucard with a pistol and inexplicably shoots right through his target, killing Kay who instinctively hides behind the Count.
Completely grief stricken, Frank stumbles his way to Dr. Brewster (Frank Craven) and tries to explain what he thinks happened. To ease both their minds, Brewster visits Alucard and Katherine to check it out for himself and finds the woman quite alive though a bit unnatural in appearance. Yet the doctor is taken aback by the fact that Alucard's name is also "Dracula" spelled backwards, and that Alucard is keeping a coffin with earth in his basement. Further confounding to Brewster is when a later search in the family crypt actually produces Kay's body inside its coffin, and Frank is charged with murder and thrown in jail.
Brewster consults an expert in the occult, Professor Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg) and it is gradually deduced that Alucard is actually a vampire, and possibly a descendant of Dracula. Meanwhile, Frank is visited in his prison cell by a bat which transforms into the form of Katherine. She tells him not only that she never loved Alucard, but that she in effect was using him to gain eternal life that she now hopes to share with Frank, her true love. All that remains in her plan is for Frank to find Dracula and destroy him, and to meet Kay later. Blinded by love, Frank agrees.
Locating the vampire's coffin at a swamp drainage tunnel, Frank sets it on fire just before sunrise as a frenzied Alucard attempts in vain to reach it. The Son of Dracula meets his demise via the rays of the morning sun; but the righteous Frank still has one more job to do. He keeps his meeting with Katherine, but upon finding her in her coffin sets flames to it, thus saving her soul.
Despite its middle of the road status, SON OF DRACULA is a fine and satisfying horror film. Many different and interesting ideas were developed, such as Dracula changing into a mist, or gliding over water atop his coffin. Lon Chaney, often lambasted as a chubby and miscast Dracula, is actually acceptable when taken as the SON of Dracula. As Don Glut pointed out one time in his great book plainly titled The Dracula Book, the name Dracula is a surname. This could be why Kay calls him "Dracula" on occasion during the course of the film. Debates have been ensuing for years among fans as to whether or not the vampire is the child of the Count or the King of Vampires himself. For me, the title itself (and some lines in the film as to his being a descendant) say it all.
Now, onto the DVD quality. DRACULA'S DAUGHTER looks sharp and detailed in general, but there is grain noticeable now and then. It seems to vary in this film more than the others I've seen, and is especially conspicuous during the last reel. But it does not interfere with the enjoyment of the movie, and is still a vast improvement over previous releases. SON OF DRACULA, to put it simply, is an absolute stunner. It is consistently free of any dots or marks, and is highly clear and sharply detailed. I couldn't believe its clarity, and it's probably the best-looking transfer of all the Universal Horror classics of the 30s and 40s.
Sound is 2.0 mono for both films, and its quite loud, clear, and crisp with one unfortunate exception -- a 3 or 4 minute duration in SON where a noise sounds like the crumbling of paper during the half hour point. It's at a crucial scene where Frank confesses to Brewster that he thinks he killed Kay, yet the sound disappears at the next scene. Since there is a fireplace crackling in the background, one can pretend it's the flames sizzling. It's the one flaw that mars a nearly perfect transfer, but not one which should discourage anyone from picking this disc up immediately. This sound, by the way, was also present on an old VHS copy I bought in the late 1980s.
Extra features include the Realart trailers for both films, but the joy of having two movies together on one DVD is in many ways enough of a bonus. Sure, I would have liked to see a Still Gallery (the laserdisc for DAUGHTER had a photo of Bela Lugosi on the set with Gloria Holden in its gallery) but at least the fine Production Notes and Cast/Filmmakers Biography is supplied by the very knowledgeable Tom Weaver. We also are treated to subtitles, always a nice extra to have and a help if you've always wanted to decipher the words to an incomprehensible line of dialogue!
So then, it's "Bravo!" to Universal on another fun release in their Classic Monster series. I hope we may Count on many more from their vaults in the months (years?) to come! (Joe Lozowsky)