Zita Johann - A Better Countess Zaleska?

Lets remember lovely Zita Johan (1904 – 1993), who played Helen Grosvenor, as well as the reincarnation of Princess Ankhesenamon, the female lead in Universal’s 1932 horror classic, The Mummy.

Born Elisabeth Johann in a small city in what was then still the Austro-Hungarian empire, that same town is known as Timisoara in what is now Romania, among the many tourist spots linked to good ol’ Vlad The Impaler, the sorta-kinda- inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. Hmmmm, might Ms. Johann have been a better choice for Universal for the role of the Countess Zaleska in Dracula’s Daughter? Could be.

Johann came to the U.S. and worked on Broadway starting in 1924, and only had a short Hollywood career between 1931 and 1934, returning to the New York stage. At the time, she was much better known for her role in the spicy film The Sin Of Nora Moran that snuck by the still gearing-up Hollywood censors, than her part in The Mummy, which classic horror fans know her best for.