Dracula's Daughter

Dracula's Daughter more or less picks up where the original Dracula ended. Police arrest Von Helsing after finding him standing over the corpse of Count Dracula. Since nobody believes in vampires, Von Helsing is charged with murder and forced to prepare a defense. To represent him in court, Von Helsing enlists the aid of his friend and former pupil, Dr. Jeffrey Garth. Garth agrees to help Von Helsing despite the fact that he is a psychiatrist and not a lawyer. While all of that is going on, we're introduced to Countess Marya Zaleska, Dracula's titular daughter. The Countess steals and destroys Dracula's body, believing that it will cure her of the curse of vampirism. When that fails she turns to Dr. Garth, under the assumption that the Doctor can cure her of Dracula's influence. And when that fails, she kidnaps the Doctor's assistant in order to force Garth into joining her forever as a member of the undead. Dracula's Daughter is probably best remembered today because of its hints of lesbianism. Being that they appear in a movie from the 1930s, these hints of lesbianism are not particularly progressive. Overall, the movie is talky and slow and it fails to live up to the gothic moodiness of its predecessor.

Rating: 60%

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The Invisible Man

A lot of the Universal Monsters inspire sympathy, not the Invisible Man. He's a straight-up murderous asshole. He's the kind of guy who can calmly sit in a study and say to someone, "we'll begin with a reign of terror." He goes from zero to murder in no time at all. Having been driven mad by the chemicals in his formula, the Invisible Man spends most of his time lashing out at colleagues and simple townsfolk. At one point, he even knocks over a baby carriage. A baby carriage, for God's sake.

Rating: 69%

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Bride of Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein is one of those rare sequels that might be better than the original. And that is, by no means, a slight to the original. Bride takes everything that was good about the first film and elevates it. James Whale, the director, never wanted to make a sequel to the original Frankenstein. Universal wanted to cash in on the success of the first film right away, but Whale refused. They made several attempts to get a sequel off the ground without him, but came up short after a number of attempts. It was only after Whale was given a considerable amount of creative freedom that he agreed to direct the film. Jack Pierce, the special effects makeup artist returned as well, improving on the iconic makeup designs he created for the first film. Sadly, censors cut several minutes from the film and the cut footage remains lost. What remains, however, is a stone cold classic.

Rating: 95%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Drácula

There was a brief period of time when it was cheaper to shoot a movie multiple times in multiple languages rather than to dub a single film into another language for a foreign territory. That's how we ended up with a version of Dracula shot on the same sets as the Bela Lugosi version only with a different cast speaking in Spanish. It's almost the exact same movie, except for a few different camera setups, some slinkier costumes for the ladies, and a couple of scenes that got mentioned but not shown in the English language version. Some hipsters might try to convince you that this version is better than the Bela Lugosi version but they're full of shit. The truth is, they're both good. The Spanish language version is actually a great companion piece to the English language version. It might even be fun to see the two versions spliced together.

Rating: Muy bien%

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Dracula

It's the granddaddy of all vampire movies y'all. Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Count Dracula would go on to be the archetypal depiction of a vampire. The accent, the cape, the medal, the brooding sexuality. Yes, people in the '30s thought Bela Lugosi was sexy. Despite not being as popular as Frankenstein, released a few months later, Dracula was not only a success but a launching pad for the first wave of Universal's monster movies.

Rating: 77%

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A Night at the Opera

Released in 1935, A Night at the Opera is a musical comedy featuring Groucho, Chico and Harpo of the Marx Brothers. The plot of the movie revolves around the Brothers' attempts to assist and unite two opera singers whilst also wreaking havoc on a number of snooty socialites. Despite being called A Night at the Opera, the movie is not overly bogged down by musical numbers (though there is a piano routine by Chico and a harp routine by Harpo). The movie contains a number of good gags, including the stateroom scene, the contract negotiation between Groucho and Chico and the sabotage of the opera at the film's climax. Though entertaining, the movie has some problems with pacing (due in part to WWII-era censors removing scenes and dialogue that referenced Italy). Also, those unfamiliar with the works of the Marx Brothers are likely to find that the impact of their gags and style has been lessened by decades of homages and reinterpretations.

Rating: 72%

(Image from amazon.ca)