Did you know Universal made a lesbian vampire movie back in 1936?! It sounds crazy, but I’m not even making it up. It’s got a bit of a cult following, but honestly its following is way too small. Like…I pretty much never hear about this film in the gay community. So that’s weird enough already, especially given that it’s actually a good movie! I’ve heard a little more of it in the horror community, but not nearly enough, especially given that it’s a good movie! Today, we’re talking about Dracula’s Daughter.

Dracula’s Daughter was a Universal horror film released in 1936. It was directed by Lambert Hillyer, who also directed The Invisible Ray. The movie starts right where Dracula left off, it’s a true continuation of the first film. Dracula’s Daughter almost wasn’t a Universal film … kind of. The source material for this movie was likely Dracula’s Guest, which was a chapter removed from Bram Stoker’s original novel. Because of this, while Universal owned the rights to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, they didn’t own the rights to that chapter specifically.

David O. Selznick over at MGM bought the rights, but MGM was rightfully a bit worried about making a movie with Dracula in the title - like maybe they’d get into legal trouble with Universal. So then in 1934, Universal bought the rights from MGM and they started production in 1936. It wasn’t easy getting this movie into production. The first few scripts that were submitted to the Hays Office were rejected for too much sex and horror. The Hays Office was also aware of the lesbian subtext in the film.

Gloria Holden and Nan Grey in Dracula’s Daughter.

They specifically asked for certain scenes to be rewritten to avoid the suggestion of a perverse sexual desire on the part of Marya - Dracula’s Daughter - or of any sexual attack by her upon another woman. I can tell you … the rewrites may have been done, but they did not succeed. There is plenty of suggestion and sexuality. Another hurdle came in finding a director. Uncle Carl and Junior really wanted James Whale to direct - especially coming off his success with Bride of Frankenstein, but James Whale was concerned about doing too many horror films in a row, and he wanted to work on Show Boat instead.

I would have loved to see James Whale’s take on this movie. He was an openly gay director in the 1930s, and it’d be great to get his perspective for that alone, but Dracula’s Daughter also has some comedic moments in it … some that work better than others .. and I would have loved to see how James Whale would have done them.

Dracula’s Daughter was one of my Uncle Carl and Junior’s last films at Universal, and it was the last Universal horror movie that would be made for the next few years. With the Hays Code finally being enforced, and the Legion of Decency threatening boycotts of any film they didn’t approve of, studios couldn’t afford to take those kinds of risks anymore. But Dracula’s Daughter just eked through.

The movie follows Countess Marya Zaleska,the daughter of Count Dracula, who has inherited her father’s thirst for blood, though she doesn’t want it. She hears of her father’s death and believes her curse may be lifted, but when it’s not, she enlists the help of a psychiatrist whom she hopes will cure her. Already, it’s easy to see the parallel to someone contending with their own gay thoughts, thinking they’re wrong or not wanting them anymore. Marya doesn’t want the vampiric urges she’s been cursed with… she talks about being free to live as a woman, to be open. To be normal, and think normal thoughts. A tale as old as time!

Countess Marya is played by Gloria Holden. She is so strong in this role, and she really does have a mesmerizing quality. This is one of her first roles, so I’d love to learn more about how Junior Laemmle found her and hired her … they essentially took a chance on a lesser known actor, and just like they had done with Bela Lugosi in Dracula, it paid off.

Unlike her father, Dracula, who leaned into his identity as a vampire with his big, cobwebbed castle, his animals, his cape, his distinct speech patterns - Marya appears to try to blend in as much as possible. She doesn’t have the Transylvanian accent, her outfits - though dark - are still conventionally beautiful, and her apartment in Chelsea could be anybody’s apartment. Nothing eerie or haunted in sight. If you ask me, that sounds like internalized homophobia … or I guess internalized vampirophobia. Marya hides the parts of her that make her different, assimilating into society around her.

One of my favorite scenes in the film comes about 15 minutes in. Marya is playing piano with her assistant Sandor listening nearby, waiting for night to fall so she’ll know if her curse is truly broken. As she tells him her hopes for a normal life, he counters everything with something dark, contrarian. Notice how he talks in her ear and she never makes eye contact. Is he the outer depiction of her inner demon? Is that the conflict in her mind? When they finally make eye contact, she asks what he sees, and he says, “Death.” In that moment, she understands the truth. The curse isn’t broken, and she’s still the same person.

Marya seeks the help of Dr. Garth to help cure her of her curse after he explains any disease of the mind or obsession can be cured through, what he calls, “sympathetic treatment.” When they meet, he actually encourages Marya not to avoid her temptations but to meet them and fight them. If her mind is strong enough, he thinks she can overcome her urges. We will soon find that maybe she can’t resist temptation.

The movie doesn’t make any effort to hide the fact that women are just as enchanted by Marya as men. At times almost fawning over her. And women who don’t get Marya’s attention seem jealous or upset about it.When Marya goes after a man in the movie, it’s quick. Not much feeling, just necessity. When she goes after women, it’s slow and seductive, and there’s so much more feeling and tension attached to it.

Gloria Holden, Otto Kruger, and Irving Pichel

Soon after meeting with the psychiatrist, Marya’s assistant brings a young woman back to her art studio. In exchange for some food and money, she’ll pose for one of Marya’s paintings. This scene is probably the most overtly sexual and homosexual of them all. The woman is visibly nervous. She is given wine, and some food. As Marya compliments her, she tells the woman she will be painting her head and shoulders and asks her to undress. I honestly don’t know how this made it past the sensors.

The girl emerges with just a lacy undershirt on. She takes the straps down on her top, and the back is pretty much completely open. Marya gives her some more wine and tells her to stand by the fire. As the girl begins to get uneasy, Marya tries to hypnotize her with her ring. Marya slowly closes in on the girl, and the camera pans up as we hear a blood curdling scream.

Marya failed, she couldn’t resist temptation, and she’s becoming increasingly hopeless. I don’t want to give away any major spoilers, so I feel like I can’t talk about what happens at the end, but I really can’t say this enough, GO WATCH THIS MOVIE. As a sequel, it’s incredible, and as a standalone film, it’s incredible.

Actually, I’m changing my mind right now. I’m spoiling this movie a little bit. Spoiler Alert: Marya dies in the end. And in some ways, this is a classic case of the monster dying in the end, but this is also an element of the Hays Code that has become a trope still excessively perpetuated in lesbian media today.

It’s called, Bury Your Gays. It’s this crazy phenomena where more than 1/3 of all lesbian characters on TV or in movies die, and less than 10% get to have a happy ending. And whether or not people realize it, some of that has its roots in the Hays Code where any person considered deviant or immoral couldn’t have a happy ending. So especially in the era when the Code was just starting to be enforced, Marya had to die, as the consequence for her lesbianism. And also for being a monster. But that’s just a thinly veiled metaphor for lesbianism.

In its promotion, Universal played up the sexuality in Dracula’s Daughter. Their tagline said things like, “She gives you that weird feeling,” “Women obeyed her, mean feared her power” and “Save the women of this city!” I expected to see more outrage in reviews of the film - people uncomfortable with the level of sexuality, the lesbian subtext, or even the horror directed predominantly at women - but I found very little. Only one or two reviews seemed to notice the lesbian subtext at all, and I saw more than one review that recommended bringing kids to see the show.

Though most people probably haven’t heard of Dracula’s Daughter, it’s still an important and influential movie. Anne Rice said Dracula’s Daughter was direct inspiration for her own work, and she even named a bar in Queen of the Damned “Dracula’s Daughter.” While Carmilla was the first lesbian vampire, Dracula’s Daughter was the first in film, and all lesbian vampires since owe Dracula’s Daughter for paving the way.

Dracula's Daughter: Universal's 1936 Lesbian Vampire Movie

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