Dracula's Daughter on AllMovie

It may be sacrilege to say so, but Dracula's Daughter is an immense improvement over the original 1931 Dracula, despite the absence of Bela Lugosi in the cast. Gloria Holden is first-rate as the title character, alias "Countess Marya Zaleska," who after stealing her father's body from the authorities with the help of her faithful hunchbacked assistant Sandor (Irving Pichel), sets fire to the corpse in hopes of obliterating the family curse of vampirism. Try as she might, though, the "Countess" is unable to resist the temptation to go for the jugular vein; in one of the kinkier plot developments, she seems to favor the blood of female victims. Lest anyone read anything into this, however, it is established that she is hopelessly in love with handsome scientist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), and by film's end she has kidnapped Garth's sweetheart Janet Blake (Marguerite Churchill), hoping to lure him to Transylvania where he will be forced to become her mate throughout Eternity. Edward Van Sloan returns in his Dracula role as tireless vampire hunter Van Helsing, who once again comes to the rescue with a generous supply of garlic necklaces, crucifixes and wooden stakes. Full of clever and often surprising little touches (few other films of the mid-1930s would kill off a comedy-relief character in the second reel!), Dracula's Daughter is among the best of the vintage Universal horror films.