By STACI LAYNE WILSON

Dracula's Daughter (1936, 71 min., B&W, Director: Lambert Hillyer, Cinematographer: George Robinson, From a story by Bram Stoker; Cast (partial): Gloria Holden as Countess Marya Zaleska, Otto Kruger as Dr. Jeffrey Garth, Marguerite Churchill as Janet Blake, Irving Pichel as Sandor, Edward Van Sloan as Dr. Von Helsing, Bela Lugosi cameo (the masked doctor’s assistant)).

Any movie that opens up on a dead body is okay by me Dracula’s Daughter, the sequel to Dracula, does just that. It grabs your attention right away with the sleek, shrouded, Gothic/Hinduesque figure of Gloria Holden in the title role as she spirits her father’s heart-staked body from Scotland Yard in order to burn it. As she watches dear old (and I mean really old) dad’s earthly remains vaporize, we can see the pain in her strangely lovely, enigmatic face. Dracula’s daughter has a conscience, and she wants to end the curse on her family. In watching that scene, it is easyto see how this reluctant vampire was a model for Anne Rice’s Louis character in her Vampire Chronicles.

Destroying dad doesn’t do it though, and the Countess must hunt again to satisfy her cursed blood lust. For her first onscreen victim, she chooses a top-hatted dandy in the misty streets of Chelsea. In a shadowy corner, she mesmerizes the man with a combination of her dark eyes and her strangely alluring ring. The man swoons, and the image fades as she bends to sample his life-giving blood. Her second victim, a streetwalker contemplating suicide at the brink of London Bridge, is collected by the Countesses’ own Renfield (freaky manservant Sandor, played to the hilt by Irving Pichel) and brought to her lair. The young blonde is taken to the studio apartment on the pretense of posing topless for the eerie artiste.

I understand Dracula’s Daughter has been banned on occasion for its "obvious lesbian overtones." Personally, I did not get that impression from this movie — to me, it is clear the vampire lusts for blood, not sex.

The countess tastes victims from X and Y chromosomes with equal aplomb. And when she falls in love, it is with a man — the man she thinks can save her from the curse of the Draculas. He is a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), and unfortunately for her, he is also a close friend of Professor Van Helsing.

Unlike Van Helsing, whom most of the characters regard as though he’s one neuron short of a synapse, the object of the Countess’ afflicted affection is a scholarly sort with a scientific approach, genuinely interested in learning what makes the vampire tick. That detached curiosity only lasts so long, though — when the Countess demands that Garth join her in eternal life, he starts to show some real signs of life (i.e., a hearty desire to preserve his).

The film comes to its creepy climax when the cunning Countess counters by kidnapping Garth’s sweetheart and whisking her back to the Castle Dracula, forcing Garth to follow. The Countess gives Garth the ultimate ultimatum: "Your life for hers," as his supine sweetie dreams on in a hypnotic fugue, unaware of her precarious position.

Dracula’s Daughter is dark, sleek, stylish and atmospheric — it’s got howling wolves, London fog, black capes, and brooding cello music. No fangs, though which I found somewhat disappointing. But, real chills are felt when the Countess asks Sandor, "What do you see in my eyes?" and he answers, "Death." There is lots of atmospheric gloom, tempered with sly, fun dialog such as, "My guests are dying to meet you!" and, "I never drink… wine." These treats are somewhat marred by an at-times ponderous plot, but all in all I give Dracula’s Daughter two fangs up.

* * *

I Married A Witch (1942, 77 min., B&W, Director: René Clair, Cinematographer: Ted Tetzlaff, From a book by Norman Matson (The Passionate Witch), Cast (partial): Frederic March as Wallace Wooley, Veronica Lake as Jennifer, Robert Benchley as Dr. Dudley White, Susan Hayward as Estelle Masterson).

If you’re looking for horror, you won’t find it here. This is pure comedy that just happens to be about a witch in love with a mortal. If you liked the TV series Bewitched, you’ll love I Married A Witch (rumored, but never proven to be, the inspiration for that program). The film stars Frederick March as the mortal, and Veronica Lake as the witch.

Lake possessed an exceptional comedic quality and kittenish playfulness, which was later proven to perfection in her standout role, Sullivan’s Travels. Previous to I Married A Witch, she was seen only as a film noir siren (The Blue Dahlia is a must-see) and known as "the girl with the peek-a-boo bang" (you can take that however you like!). I have long considered Lake to be one of the most beautiful, alluring and talented actresses of the silver screen — the shortness of her career and the fact that she ended up a pizza waitress, are facts that I have always found rather sad. But watching Lake in her playful prime in I Married A Witch makes one forget all that.

The film opens up in Puritan times on a crowd gathered to watch the latest human-bonfire. The Reverend Woolley (March) is the overseer of the death of witchy-woman, Jennifer (Lake), who apparently turned the cows pink and did all kinds of mischief on his farm. Spurned in life by the Reverend, Jennifer, in death, blight the Woolley men of all generations to follow. Their curse is to marry the wrong woman.

Next we are brought up to 1942. A bolt of lightning strikes the tree where Jennifer had been barbecued three centuries earlier, thereby freeing the spirits of she and her warlock uncle.

The disembodied puffs of smoke find their way to the nearby Woolley ancestral home, where they come upon a party. They are mystified by the scanty clothing, the close dancing, and most of all the bizarre change in language (teen slang used to delightful distraction — Boy: "What’s knittin', kitten? Like to cut a rug?" Girl: "Let’s ditch these ickies and go to Heaven in your jalopy!" Boy: "That’s solid, Jackson! Now you’re cooking on the front burner!")

The modern-day edition of Woolley (March, again) is a gubernatorial candidate, preparing to wed a snooty socialite (Susan Hayward). Woolley meets Jennifer when she materializes in a burning building, obliging him to save her life. The fact that she has no clothes on only adds to the man’s discomfiture and when stripped sorceress does everything in her power to force March to fall in love with her, so that she can make his life miserable, the results are hilarious. This is a very naughty movie heroine for the time — she rides nude in taxi cabs, she waits for Woolley in his bed while he kisses his fiancée goodnight at the door, she likes a nip of the spirits; in short, she happily heeds her uncle’s advice to "Be a bad girl!"

While there are boiling cauldrons, flying broomsticks, black cats, and hooded capes abound, this movie is played for laughs, not chills. When Jennifer casts a spell of love that backfires on her, the ensuing results are sheer screwball.