Modern sources maintain that the film was instead loosely based on Carmilla, an 1872 Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, which is often cited as the first published British work of fiction to deal with lesbian relationships.

[2] The film was first assigned to James Whale, but Universal production head Carl Laemmle Jr. finally hired Hillyer as director.

Van Helsing is taken to Scotland Yard, where he explains to Sir Basil Humphrey that he did indeed destroy Dracula, but because the vampire had already been dead for over 500 years, it cannot be considered murder.

In Whitby, Sergeant Wilkes leaves the jail to meet an officer from Scotland Yard at the train station, placing Constable Albert in charge of the recovered bodies.

The doctor advises her to defeat her cravings by confronting them, and the Countess becomes hopeful that her will, plus Dr. Garth's science, will be strong enough to overcome Dracula's malevolence.

The Countess gives up fighting her urges and accepts that a cure is not possible; she lures Dr. Garth to Transylvania by kidnapping Janet Blake, his secretary, with whom he has a playfully antagonistic relationship, but now realises that he cares for her.

Before he can be transformed, Countess Zaleska is destroyed when Sandor shoots her through the heart with an arrow as revenge for her breaking her promise to make him immortal.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executive David O. Selznick negotiated a contract in 1933 with Stoker's widow, Florence, to buy the rights to the chapter for an advance of $500 against a purchase price of $5,000.

[2] Modern sources report that the film was also loosely based on Carmilla, an 1872 Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu, which is often cited as the first published British work of fiction to deal with lesbian relationships.

The script included scenes that implied that Dracula's daughter enjoyed torturing her male victims, and that while under her control, the men liked it, too.

[5] Horror film scholar David J. Skal theorizes that this was Selznick's actual motivation in buying the rights in the first place, to profit from Universal's desire for a sequel by tying up the only obvious source material.

[2] Universal studio head Carl Laemmle, Jr. (nicknamed "Junior") wanted James Whale, fresh from his great success with Bride of Frankenstein, to direct Dracula's Daughter.

Wary of directing two horror films in a row, Whale instead convinced Laemmle to buy the rights to a mystery novel called The Hangover Murders.

Professor Von Helsing is summoned, and he tracks the missing man to London, where he is in thrall to Dracula's daughter, the Countess Szelinski (sic).

During a violent storm, Von Helsing destroys Dracula's daughter, and with her hold over the men broken, the scenario closes with a double wedding.

This version was submitted on August 28, 1935, to the British Board of Film Censors, which rejected it, saying in part "Dracula's Daughter would require half a dozen ... languages to adequately express its beastliness".

Breen reported back that the script "contains countless offensive stuff which makes the picture utterly impossible for approval under the Production Code".

[2] Fort's February draft, as revised by Charles Belden in March 1936, seems to be the version used to shoot the film, which was viewed and passed by the PCA in April.

Critic Mark Clark believes that, ironically, Holden's disgust for the role may have led to the quality of her performance: "Her disdain for the part translates into a kind of self-loathing that perfectly suits her troubled character".

[14] Shooting on Dracula's Daughter began on February 4, 1936, rushed into production before Fort had completed the script,[16] because of a deadline clause in Universal's option of the property from Selznick.

[citation needed] Makeup artist Jack Pierce and special effects supervisor John P. Fulton worked together closely, especially on Holden's make-up design.

Describing director Hillyer's visuals as "lush, evocative, and suffused with just the right gothic chiaroscuro" and noting that "Gloria Holden, as the reluctant vampire protagonist, absolutely drips patrician eroticism", EW concludes that this film is better than Lugosi's original Dracula.

[27] Ryan Cracknell of Apollo Movie Guide, while echoing the praise for Holden's performance, nonetheless found that the film "doesn't hold up so well today".

[citation needed] Horror author Anne Rice has named Dracula's Daughter as a direct inspiration for her own homoerotic vampire fiction.

[31] Author Ramsey Campbell, under the pseudonym "Carl Dreadstone", wrote a novelization of the film also entitled Dracula's Daughter that was published in 1977.

The lesbian vampire has long been a trend in literature, dating back to such works as Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1797 poem Christabel and Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella Carmilla.

PCA head Breen took special notice of the scene between the Countess and her model, Lili, writing: "This will need very careful handling to avoid any questionable flavor".

[39] Some reviewers of the day picked up on and condemned the lesbian content, including the New York World-Telegram, which noted the Countess's tendency to wander around "giving the eye to sweet young girls".

[25] Entertainment Weekly describes the encounter between the Countess and Lili as "so hot it's impossible to imagine how it ever got past '30s censors"[27] whereas Time Out London finds only a "subtle suggestion" of lesbianism.

[citation needed] A 1998 article published by Bright Lights Film Journal said "Gloria Holden in the title role almost singlehandedly redefined the '20s movie vamp as an impressive Euro-butch dyke bloodsucker", but draws an implicit comparison between Countess Zaleska's seeking to cure her vampirism through psychiatry and the former position of mainstream psychiatry of homosexuality as a mental illness.