Columbia Pictures came out with a rare horror outing during WWII and does a good job overall mixing the Dracula legend(but not Dracula for fear of being sued by Universal) with the blitz going on in England during the war. The film opens in the year 1918 where Lady Jane Ainsley and Dr. Walter Saunders are perplexed over the case of a young woman drained of blood yet having few visible signs to explain the blood loss. Dr. Saunders stays up all night reading the work of an Armand Tesla who writes of vampirism and its effects only to soon discover that a vampire is indeed afoot. With some convincing and his own daughter being bitten by the bloodsucker, Lady Jane and Dr. Saunders find the beast and his human/wolf slave Andreas - only to spike him to death and cleanse the soul of Andreas. He "rests" for 26 years in that dilapidated cemetery only to be awoken again during bombing raids and civil patrols going on where his body with spike are found and he is unspiked and comes back to life and again reclaims Andreas as his slave. His goal is to get his revenge on those responsible for his 26 year hiatus. Now, this film actually is very entertaining. Bela Lugosi is good though not in the film enough in my opinion. He does - and deservedly so - get top-billing. He is still very smooth, very polished, very "continental." The rest of the cast is also very good - Frieda Inescort is excellent as Lady Jane. Saunders was played well by Gilbert Emery(he dies in the hiatus but Miles Mander is a policeman who needs convincing from Lady Jane. Readily takes on the role of a working colleague. Nina Foch is the young girl bitten but now a beauty. Andreas is played in a workmanlike performance by Matt Willis. For many the wolf make-up used on Willis will appear very corny, unbelievable, and even ridiculous. I was able to get passed it. This studio could not use Universal's and did what they could - no argument here that it is not very much either. Forgetting that though, The Return of the Vampire is incredibly atmospheric. Very well-acted. A star turn for Bela, and a whole lot of fun.
Review of The Return of the Vampire
