From about 1931 to 1945, Universal Studios produced a rightly-famous run of monster-based horror films which have contributed greatly to the whole genre within the public consciousness. Among them was "Dracula" (1931) with Bela Lugosi in the title role, which forever cemented the image of Bram Stoker's character as an elegant man in a flowing black cape.With the character in the public domain, Columbia Studios apparently wanted to do a sequel of sorts with Lugosi reprising the role but the threat of possible action from Universal led to Columbia shifting their plans somewhat and so the vampire that Lugosi plays in this film is named Armand Tesla. But make no mistake, he is Count Dracula in all but name.Made relatively cheaply, even for the time, it would be a bit of a stretch to label this film a classic, but nevertheless it stands as an effective, solid and occasionally innovative horror flick of its era.The story commences with a prologue sequence set in 1918 which depicts how the vampire, wreaking his accursed evil in London, is put to rest by scientist Dr Saunders and his assistant Lady Jane Ainsley. Fast forward about 25 years to the midst of World War II. Dr Saunders has recently died and Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Frederick Fleet is discussing with Lady Jane his concerns about revelations in the late doctor's private notes concerning driving a stake through the vampire's heart all those years earlier. In spite of Lady Jane's assurances, Fleet is of the opinion a murder may have been committed and is of a mind to exhume the body.However, events move ahead of him. A German bombing raid disturbs the body of the vampire and Tesla wastes no time in picking up where he left off. Developing an unhealthy obsession with Saunders' beautiful daughter Nicki, he resolves to take her back to his homeland and keep her as his eternal bride. But can Lady Jane and a disbelieving Sir Frederick possibly stop him in time?If Bela Lugosi wearied of playing vampires, he doesn't show it here and produces the same type of commanding performance that originally endeared him to the movie-going public in Dracula. Sadly we don't see him bearing his fangs, nor is there any changing into a bat. Instead, Tesla exhibits the power of mind control and, curiously, has the power to not only bring a man under his influence but also to turn him into a werewolf!This means that instead of a deranged sycophant played by Dwight Frye, we have Matt Willis as the rather unwilling henchman to the vampire, Andreas. His werewolf make-up, although elaborate, unfortunately looks more comical than menacing. As might be expected, the transformations are achieved by a rapid series of cross-fades (as with the Lon Chaney Jr Wolf Man films of the same period) but these are generally executed rather better than those witnessed in the Universal films.Quite unusually, it is not the dashing young fiancé of the vampire's victim who is the hero here, nor is it the police commissioner, rather it is Lady Jane, a mature female scientist played by Frieda Inescort. Credit to Columbia for going with a strong, intelligent female lead character at a time when such things were practically unheard of! Being set in London, the majority of the characters speak in overly clipped tones or else exaggerated stone-the-crows-type cockney accents, which hasn't helped the film to age well. And sadly it retreads a lot of familiar ground - you know, teeth marks being found in the victim's neck and all that, but I suppose that's what audiences expected, even wanted. At least we do get to see Lugosi actually rising from his coffin in this film, something that was glaringly avoided back in Dracula. And the backdrop of the war is relevant to the plot rather than serving as mere window dressing.A little more depth wouldn't have gone amiss, and some of the humour tends to undermine the piece but overall the plot hangs together well, the dialogue and imagery are sufficiently strong and the film gives Nina Foch her first big screen role in a career which was to endure for sixty years. There are many worse films to be found, and sadly the great Bela Lugosi would end up starring in some of them.

I am a giant fan of Lugosi. Of course, most classic horror geeks are, so that's not really something new, but far beyond the usual Lugosi classics like Dracula and WHITE ZOMBIE, I even enjoy most of his Poverty Row cheapies like THE CORPSE VANISHES that typically don't garner as much respect. Somehow, though, this movie had always escaped my attention, mostly because it has such a mixed bag reputation. Finally, though, I got my chance to view this movie and pretty much ended up understanding why it was one of the last Lugosi movies I checked off the list.It's pretty much a sequel to Dracula in disguise. Obviously, Columbia didn't have the proper rights to do a direct sequel to the Universal classic, so they changed the vampire's name and went ahead with the plot idea anyways. It's essentially a retread of a huge part of Dracula's plot, but the least interesting part. To me, I love the beginning of Dracula, the scenes in his castle and with Renfield, the ship voyage to England, these are the best moments. Once we get to the love story and his attempts to hypnotize Mina into loving him I lose some interest. That's the part that they imitate here.We start in WWI with Drac...sorry, Armand Tesla up to his old ways. A couple scientists are trying to understand what's happening to the victims and stumble on the vampire and his werewolf assistant. After thinking they've put an end to the evil, Tesla returns during the next World War after his grave is opened in a bombing and attempts to steal our heroine to be his eternal bride.Bela is really the only thing good about this movie. As usual, he puts his absolute best into the role and pulls off another great vampire character. The rest of the cast and crew are just on auto pilot, though. The writing is lazy and boring. They retread plot points from a dozen prior horror films and jumble them together to create a movie that feels like you've been there and done that even if you've never seen the movie. The secondary "human" characters are all just cardboard cutouts of your basic horror archetypes: the pretty victim, the worrying boyfriend, the skeptical cop, the comedy relief bumblers in the graveyard. It's all so paint by numbers.Don't even get me started on the werewolf. I would consider myself to be somewhat of a werewolf aficionado and go to great lengths to find new werewolf movies. This one is bad. It's more akin to TEEN WOLF or I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF. There is almost nothing threatening about the monster, at all, who looks like a terrier and cowers in fear of his master through most of the movie. A shame because the actor does a decent job with his "human parts". The only thing that does stick out is the strong female lead as we get a woman scientist trying to solve this supernatural mystery.If you're in a midnight movie mood and looking for an old horror film that you haven't seen before, this is worth a glance, but it's really just moderately better than most of the stuff on those 100 greatest horror films DVD boxes.

The general concensus seems to be that Return of the Vampire is an inferior "unofficial" sequel to Universal's classic version of Dracula, which of course stands as perhaps the foremost cinematic version of Bram Stoker's famous novel. And indeed, Return of the Vampire does borrow a great deal from the Universal film, not the least being Bela Lugosi himself in a virtual reprisal of his celebrated role. That being said, Return of the Vampire is a very effective film in its own right, one which is cleverly written and creatively directed, and which allows Lugosi to effectively enlarge upon his iconic performance as the Prince of Vampires.Director Lew Anders deserves a lot of the credit for the quality of Return of the Vampire. The plot moves quickly and everything is absolutely saturated in Gothic ambiance. The closed-in atmosphere, centered around a few central sets and principal characters (much like the Tod Browning-directed Dracula), is used to marvelous effect and creates a dream-like quality surpassed by few other films of its day. Produced in 1944, the film incorporates the London Blitz into its narrative, and this element serves to produce a couple of key plot points. There is some humor, mostly of the understated sort, but for the most part the story is straightforwardly told and is admirably sober.The cast does a fine job all-round. Frieda Insescourt takes on the role of a feminine version of Dr. Van Helsing and handles it very well, conveying just the right amount of matronly authority. The extremely lovely Nina Foch captures viewer empathy as the innocent and unsuspecting object of the villain's unholy desires, and the expressiveness of Foch's dramatic performance makes the key scenes where she is under the vampire's spell especially resonant. Also impressive is Matt Willis as the vampire's werewolf henchman, a cursed soul who loathes his master's power over him even as he revels in it. The werewolf's struggle for salvation is one of the story's vital subplots, and one which Willis imbues with all the necessary pathos.But of course the standout performance belongs to Bela Lugosi. Lugosi will be remembered forever for Dracula, but his portrayal of this film's vampire--Armand Tesla--arguably surpasses even that. Lugosi radiates evil almost palpably, yet when Tesla is required to put on the mask of a harmless gentleman the seamless transition is in and of itself rather unsettling. For all practical purposes, Lugosi is playing Dracula again--but this time around his performance is even more nuanced and believable. Lugosi's Tesla is a truly malevolent master vampire, and when Lugosi turns his hypnotic glare upon his victim the actor leaves no doubt in the viewer's mind that resistance is indeed hopeless.Classic horror, especially from the pre-Hammer days, is something of an acquired taste, and many of today's horror fans don't want to watch the old black-and-white gems. That's a pity. These older films are classics for a reason, and the best ones stand the test of time. Return of the Vampire is a fine addition to vampire cinema, and offered Lugosi the chance to basically play Dracula one more time. Thanks to solid direction, a strong plot line, and inspired performances from virtually the entire cast, it remains an entertaining movie that all fans of classic horror should see at least once.

THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (Columbia, 1944), directed by Lew Landers, was the studios contribution to the horror genre made famous by Universal, acquiring many of its ingredients right down to the services of that studio's very own Bela Lugosi, whose legend began with "Dracula" (1931). By this time of this particular release, Lugosi's career had already reached a period of decline, having starred in a series of cheap imitations of classic horror tales for poverty row studios as Monogram and PRC. While THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE could very well be a pale imitation of a good horror film or a "Dracula" sequel featuring his twin brother accompanied by a werewolf instead of Mr. Renfield, this new idea of a vampire tale, though not entirely original, is actually a pleasant surprise. While it can't compare to the Universal products, this edition improves over their current distribution of program quickies and countless sequels.What a great way to start the evening for a Lugosi flick with its introduction during its opening credits consisting of a young girl fearfully walking back into the darkness as a shadowy figure lurks towards her before belting out a big scream through the super-imposed titles: "The imagination of man at times sires the fantastic and the grotesque. That the imagination of man soars into the stratosphere of fantasy is attested by ... "The Return of the Vampire," followed with this narrative: "This is the case of Armand Tesla, Vampire, as compiled from the personal notes of Professor Walter Saunders, King's College, Oxford. The following events took place in the outskirts of London, towards the end of the year 1918, that began on the night of October 15, particularly on a gloomy foggy night that was well-suited for a visitation by the supernatural" .... Enter Andreas, (Matt Willis) a werewolf, walking through the Priory Cemetery, entering the crypt of his master, Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi), a 200 year-old vampire, who rests in his coffin by day, while living off the blood of his victims by night. Lady Jane Angsley (Frieda Inescort), a sanitarium director, and Professor Walter Saunders (Gilbert Emery), are assigned to investigate the latest female victim resting on a hospital bed with two marks on her neck. Learning of the history of Armand Telsa, a Romanian scientist, Saunders comes to realize he's the vampire in question who must be destroyed, especially after making his little girl, Nikki, his latest prey. Upon entering an abandoned cemetery, Saunders and Angsley come to a vault where they find a coffin with a breathing body inside. Saunders rids this rein of terror by striking a metal stake through his heart. The destruction of Armand Tesla immediately frees Andreas of his curse, transforming him from werewolf to human being. Twenty-three years pass where England is under another blitz, World War II. Saunders is killed in an airplane crash, Andreas is assistant for Lady Jane, while her concert pianist son, Johnny (Roland Varno) is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Nicki Saunders (Nina Foch). All's well until the abandoned cemetery is bombed by warplanes, leaving many bodies scattered. Two laborers (Billy Bevan and Harold De Becker) are assigned to rebury the dead. In doing so, they remove the stake from a body of one that resurrects later that night, hence the title. Armand Telsa, under the guise of Dr. Hugo Bruckner, stalks once more, returning poor Andreas back into his werewolf slave ("I shall command and YOU shall obey!") and plans for his next mission to terrorize Lady Jane and have Nikki his future bride of the living dead.A neat little thriller that contains many effective scenes to rank this a truly good horror film of its day, from howling sounds of dogs around the cemetery to the vampire's call to his victims through the echoing of his whispers. The highlight where werewolf combats his evil master surpasses the battle between the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) and the Frankenstein monster (Bela Lugosi of all people) in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (Universal, 1943). While there were further developments with the Universal monsters, THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE contained no sequels, though many imitations from other studios, including Universal itself, continued.Formerly available on video cassette and later placed to DVD, THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE had frequent cable TV broadcasts over the years, ranging from Turner Network Television (1992); American Movie Classics (1998-2000) and Turner Classic Movies (2006-07), usually during the month of October to commemorate Halloween. How appropriate, especially for Bela Lugosi, the Vampire King. (**1/2)