This film was Tod Browning's second ( the first wasn't horror ) as he tried to claw his way back from the debacle of Freaks. This was a safer bet as it was a remake of his own silent film ( now lost) London After Midnight of 1927.
The film has some atmosphere and makes effective use of animals but it's sunk by a gaping plot hole at the end when the sinister Count Mora and his daughter Luna are revealed to be actors rather than vampires. This cannot be squared with events earlier in the film. They can't be working with the police to trap a murderer since they are on the scene before the murder takes place and if they're giving cover to him which would make more sense they're accomplices who would be banged up with him at the end but they're not.
Bela Lugosi who played Mora protested this ending to no avail. It's hard to understand why he took such an unrewarding role; he has hardly any lines, just walks around in his Dracula cape with an unexplained head injury. I guess it was either friendship or finance that brought him in.
Elisabeth Allan ( as Irina )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Elisabeth was originally from Skegness. She went to Hollywood in 1933 but returned to the UK in 1938 after a number of disappointments. She appeared in a number of British films and was a top TV personality in the fifties. She died in 1990 aged 80.
Carol Borland ( as Luna )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Carol has virtually no lines and is revealed to be merely an actress at the end but nevertheless Luna defined the appearance of the female vampire for decades afterwards. Carol was something of a protege of Lugosi's , having appeared with him in the stage version of Dracula , although she was prone to exaggerate their relationship. She ostentatiously retired in 1953 when she only had this and an uncredited appearance in Flash Gordon to her credit. She made a unexpected comeback in two eighties horror movies. She died in 1994 aged 79.
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