Back when my family moved to America, Universal’s classic horror films were still running in syndication. IIRC, DRACULA’S DAUGHTER (1936) was the first one I ever saw.
Where Universal’s Frankenstein movies had internal continuity, this was the only Dracula film that did so. Following on the events of Dracula, we have Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) busted by the London police for being found near a corpse that’s been stabbed through the heart with a wooden stake. Not only that, Van Helsing (identified as “Von Helsing” for some reason) admits he did it and wait until you hear his reason … The scientist turns to psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger) to be his legal counsel
Fortunately Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden), Dracula’s daughter, has stolen her father’s body, thereby closing the case. Now resuming her own vampiric habits, she meets Garth and asks if psychology can cure someone whose acquired addictive habits from their father. He replies sure — though I’m confident “lock an alcoholic up with a bottle of booze so he develops willpower” is going to work (I am curious if it was considered a legit treatment in that era).
I wish they’d gone on in the vein of psychology vs. supernatural but instead this develops into a more conventional plot with Zaleska doing her best to convert Garth into her eternal mate, much to the disapproval of his Girl Friday, Janet (Marguerite Churchill). It’s still enjoyable, with the distinctive Universal horror aesthetic of the era, though it’s also a mess, plotwise (stealing Dracula’s body wouldn’t close the case) and the relationship between Zaleska and her father needs more exposition. “The strength of the vampire lies in the fact that he is unbelievable.”
As I mentioned yesterday, before interviewing local filmmaker Christine Parker, I watched her BLOOD OF THE MUMMY (2019) streaming on Amazon. Mental patient Louise (Laura Bridges) tells her psychiatrist how her Egyptologist parents opened a mummy’s tomb, bringing down the usual wrath (I don’t believe it’s that easy for Americans to excavate a tomb these days but it’s a classic trope of the genre so I don’t mind). Except the same mummy kept showing up whenever Louise was in trouble, dealing death to her enemies, whether she wanted it to or not, and whether they were a sexual assailant or simply mean girls making fun of her. Gosh, it’s a shame the shrink didn’t take the story seriously instead of subjecting Louise to agonizing electroshock … This is low budget but it’s competently made, decently acted and solidly enjoyable. “Maybe I do know about Egyptian curses but we don’t have the time to talk about it now.”
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (2011) is an amiable Studio Ghibli period piece set in 1963 as a pair of Korean War orphans become friends as they work to preserve a historic building from being torn down, but also worrying their mutual attraction is Forbidden Love (“I think this photo is my father too.”). This was too low key and gentle to hold my attention; I imagine the original Japanese audience might have been moved more by the setting. “The crux of the matter is how we can make archeology cool again.”
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