Review: Return of the Vampire

Return of the Vampire, 1944, B&W, Columbia, 69 minutes. Directed by Lew Landers and Kurt Neumann. Starring Bela Lugosi as Armand Tesla, Frieda Inescort as Lady Jane Ainsley, Nina Foch as Nicki Saunders, Matt Willis as Andreas Obry. Schlock-meter rating: Seven and one-half stars out of 10.

Return of the Vampire was Bela Lugosi's main comeback vehicle in the first half of the 1940s. Lugosi was getting old, and had been relegated to roles in C productions. Columbia was a major studio but Return of the Vampire has a B movie feel to it, and the film failed to revive Lugosi's career. That's not the Hungarian actor's fault though. He's marvelous as Armand Tesla, a vampire trapped by a British family (the Ainsleys) in ruins during World War 1 and freed when his tomb is bombed during World War 2.

Now free, Tesla quickly goes after his revenge. He recruits his one-time werewolf assistant (Willis) and eventually tries to take off with pretty Nicki Saunders (Foch) before his werewolf slave turns on him. The scenes where Lugosi's vampire matches wits with Lady Jaine Ainsley (Inescort), who begins to realize just who he is, are superior moments in the film. The bomb-ravaged, smoky scenes are another highlight of the film, but the script is weak, although Lugosi does the best he can with the hammy dialogue. At the very end, in a heavy-handed attempt at humor, a skeptical police inspector turns to the camera and asks the audience if they believe what just transpired.

Except for a few RKO roles and a great turn as Dracula in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Lugosi's career deteriorated badly after the mid-1940s. Work in even C productions like Monogram and PRC dried up, and it was only a few years before Lugosi was so desperate that he began accepting roles from schlock-meister Ed Wood. In this sense, Return of the Vampire is very important as it shows Lugosi at his best playing his signature role -- surprisingly, he only played a vampire in THREE films! Note: Plans were hatched for a sequel to Return of the Vampire, but were never realized.

-- Doug Gibson