THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP

Bob Cummings with the three smart girls.

THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP (1939). Director: Henry Koster.

In this inferior sequel to Three Smart Girls, the "girls" are now young ladies with romantic problems. Their parents (Charles Winninger; Nella Walker) are back together and Joan (Nan Grey) is happily affianced to Richard (William Lundigan of Andy Hardy's Double Life). Unfortunately sister Kay (Helen Parrish) has fallen in love with Richard herself, a rather interesting situation that, unfortunately, never becomes entertainingly melodramatic. Sister Penny (Deanna Durbin) keeps throwing Harry Loren (Robert Cummings) in Kay's direction, to take her mind off Richard, but Harry rather rudely makes it clear that his interest is strictly in Penny. Durbin [It Started with Eve], the sole name to appear above the title, showing how her status had grown, gives a good performance, as does Winninger, and the rest are all more than competent.

Verdict: Pleasant if forgettable. **1/2.

THREE SMART GIRLS

THREE SMART GIRLS (1936). Director: Henry Koster.

Dorothy Craig (Nella Walker) has been divorced from her wealthy husband, Judson (Charles Winninger) for years, when she discovers that he's keeping company with a marriage-minded gal named Donna (Binnie Barnes). Her three daughters, who haven't seen their father in ten years, jet from Switzerland to New York City -- along with nanny-maid Martha (Lucile Watson) -- to break Judson and Donna up and reunite their parents. Three Smart Girls sort of glosses over the fact that there's no excuse for a father not to see his own daughters in a decade, but as he's played by the "lovable" Winninger, it's made more palatable, if not quite excusable. You have to wonder why Judson would have the slightest interest in seeing his wife again let alone remarrying her. The three sisters are Joan (Nan Grey of Dracula's Daughter), who falls for her father's associate, Bill (John King of Charlie Chan in Honolulu); mousy Kay (Barbara Read), who is unaccountably pursued by Lord Michael Stuart (Ray Milland); and Penny (Deanna Durbin), who is the youngest and most high-spirited of the bunch. Universal obviously put the publicity push strictly behind Durbin, giving her several song numbers to showcase her glorious voice, and letting the other two gals sink or swim. Grey had quite a few credits before Three Smart Girls, while this was the first picture for Read, who had a few later credits. Except for a short, this was also Durbin's first movie. Whatever its flaws, Three Smart Girls is amusing, entertaining and well-acted by all, with Barnes especially good as Donna, and Alice Brady [Beauty for Sale] scoring as her mother. Mischa Auer is quite funny as a man hired by the girls to romance Donna. Followed by Three Smart Girls Grow Up.

Verdict: Cute picture with a winning Durbin and others. ***.

DRACULA'S DAUGHTER

DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (1936). Director: Lambert Hillyer.

This first sequel to the Bela Lugosi Dracula has Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloane) trying to explain why he drove a stake through Count Dracula's heart and in danger of either being put on trial for murder or institutionalized as insane. [A similar situation occurred in Columbia's entry into the vampire sweepstakes, Return of the Vampire.] Otto Kruger plays Jeffrey Garth, a psychiatrist who tries to help his friend Van Helsing, and Marguerite Churchill is his busy-body secretary. But the main attraction is Countess Marya Zaleska, who claims to be Dracula's daughter, and is played by one of the most fascinating screen presences of the period, Gloria Holden. Holden is very effective as a tormented woman who hopes that Dracula's death means she is free from his curse of vampirism, which turns out (luckily for the audience) not to be the case. Irving Pichel, who also directed many films, plays Sandor, the countess' major domo. Nan Grey is effective as a pretty young would-be suicide, Lily, who becomes a victim of the she-vampire, and Hedda Hopper appears as a high society acquaintance of Garth's.

(Some have seen a supposedly "sapphic" tone to Dracula's Daughter because of the scene in which she hypnotizes Lily and then drinks her blood. But she also hunts and attacks a man earlier in the film, and wants to turn Otto Kruger into one of the undead so that he can spend eternity with her. Besides, in the Lugosi Dracula his victim Lucy, once undead, stalks children, which doesn't necessarily make her a pedophile.) The film doesn't quite make it clear if Holden is actually Dracula's daughter (can the undead impregnate?) or simply someone he turned into a vampire via his curse of blood. In any case, it seems clear that the countess wants to be cured so that she can enter the world of light and laughter, not because she cares about her victims, making her selfish and ultimately unsympathetic. Dracula's Daughter is an entertaining picture, but there's too much comedy and romance in the film, and not enough horror. Even so, it's better than the original. Although Holden appeared in quite a few films after Dracula's Daughter, and played the wife of Emile Zola, her promise was never fulfilled.

Verdict: Flawed but fascinating. ***.