A year after Carroll Boland introduced us to a Vampira/Elvira predecessor in "Mark of the Vampire" as Bela Lugosi's vampiress daughter, stage actress Gloria Holden took the spotlight as the unseen Lugosi's daughter in a sequel which gave her one shot at horror film fame. Borland's unspeaking spook looked like a hippie thirty years before her time, but Holden here looks as if she could have been sired by the count and "She who must be obeyed". In fact, a year after Helen Gahagan played the ageless underground queen in "She", Holden played "She who must drink blood to live". Holden's Marya is a Hungarian countess who shows up to destroy her father's body (don't worry, he'd be back....) so she can hopefully escape his curse of an eternal death. So for much of the film, she's a neck biter with a conscience, but when one requires a certain substance to live, one is going to steal or kill to get it, no matter how hard they are trying to get off the stuff....
One thing is certain in this film, and that is the fact that Marya wanted no part of her father's curse. It seems like there was no love lost between them, and it is a shame that the proposed flashback featuring Lugosi in his pre-vampire days ended up being scraped. What remains, however, is a thrilling Gothic melodrama where the often partially hidden Holden makes for certain that if she can't be cured of her vampirism, she's at least going to have love through the presence of doctor Otto Kruger who is in love with somebody else. Of course, a woman scorned (especially one with fangs) is going to use the other woman to get what she wants, even if it means leading Kruger back to Dracula's castle in order to make the decision: His life or his lady love's. Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is back too even if he's more there to explain the background rather than move the plot forward. While it appears that dummies representing Lugosi and Dwight Frye's mad Renfield are the actors themselves, studio documents have shown otherwise. Replacing Frye is Irving Pichel as Sandor, an equally creepy character who follows Holden around like a lost mouse.
The film has a genuine creepy atmosphere, although it seems to be set in more modern times than its predecessor, even though it takes place right afterwords. There's enough fog and slow moving photography to make for a really chilling atmosphere, and the insinuations of Holden's lesbian provocations in one scene are obvious even though it is clear that she wants to make Kruger her love slave. It would take another decade for Lugosi to return to his Count Dracula role on film, but playing cape clad characters in the classic horror films reminded the many fans of what he would ultimately be remembered for. It's just a shame that he didn't end up here and that more family exposition was made, a factor which greatly damaged the next "Dracula" film where his supposed "son" turned the family name around to disguise who he was.
One thing is certain in this film, and that is the fact that Marya wanted no part of her father's curse. It seems like there was no love lost between them, and it is a shame that the proposed flashback featuring Lugosi in his pre-vampire days ended up being scraped. What remains, however, is a thrilling Gothic melodrama where the often partially hidden Holden makes for certain that if she can't be cured of her vampirism, she's at least going to have love through the presence of doctor Otto Kruger who is in love with somebody else. Of course, a woman scorned (especially one with fangs) is going to use the other woman to get what she wants, even if it means leading Kruger back to Dracula's castle in order to make the decision: His life or his lady love's. Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is back too even if he's more there to explain the background rather than move the plot forward. While it appears that dummies representing Lugosi and Dwight Frye's mad Renfield are the actors themselves, studio documents have shown otherwise. Replacing Frye is Irving Pichel as Sandor, an equally creepy character who follows Holden around like a lost mouse.
The film has a genuine creepy atmosphere, although it seems to be set in more modern times than its predecessor, even though it takes place right afterwords. There's enough fog and slow moving photography to make for a really chilling atmosphere, and the insinuations of Holden's lesbian provocations in one scene are obvious even though it is clear that she wants to make Kruger her love slave. It would take another decade for Lugosi to return to his Count Dracula role on film, but playing cape clad characters in the classic horror films reminded the many fans of what he would ultimately be remembered for. It's just a shame that he didn't end up here and that more family exposition was made, a factor which greatly damaged the next "Dracula" film where his supposed "son" turned the family name around to disguise who he was.