Time was short last night and I needed to select a film quickly and with a brief running time so I went for Universal’s sequel to their hit film Dracula, Dracula’s Daughter.

Dracula’s Daughter opens where Dracula ended, Van Helsing in the ruins of Carfax Abbey having just finished driving a stake through the vampire’s heart when the scene is discovered by a pair of patrolling bobbies. Reinfield is dead on the floor with a broken neck – undoubtedly played by a fake Shemp – and Van Helsing confesses to the destroying Dracula. London is not so forward thinking as to accept the ‘he was a vampire’ defense and the good doctor is arrested for murder.

Van Helsin calls on an old student, Dr Garth to help him prove the truth. However before things can get really rolling Dracula’s corpse is stolen from police custody by a mysterious woman who cremates the remains while her man servant watches with a cynical expression.

The woman is the titular character, and like her father she is a vampire but she is an unwilling one and hopes to find a way out of her life of darkness, blood, and death. Soon there is another spate of blood draining deaths and the police are forced to accept that Van Helsing may not be as insane as his defense.

As a sequel this is a very odd duck. There is no trace of the original characters save for the already mentioned Van Helsing. Dracula makes no appearance and the story while continuing on from the previous events is truly its own beast. Dracula’s daughter is presented in an interesting and conflicting manner. She is like an addict, trapped by a need she cannot deny but one that also repulses here. She has her mostly faithful manservant Sandor but his loyalty comes from the promise of an eternal life and when Dr. Garth becomes the center of her attention Sandor’s loylaty is tested.

This is a short film, just over seventy minutes in running time, and very light on the mayhem. The production code had come into effect by 1936 and between the code and Universal’s owner still hesitant nature toward the gruesome this movie is very sparse of the horrific elements. For example we still are not shown a vampire climbing out of their casket, such an image was deemed too macabre by Carl Laemmle. Surprisingly though some subversive elements survive in the subtext including a fairly strong hint that Dracula’s daughter either likes the ladies or enjoys both sides of the street.

This is not a film you have to see, but I don;t regret seeing it twice in ten years or having it included in my DVD set.