Wow! Such a good movie.

Fantastic!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This picture has all of the creepy atmospherics and moody feel of the original 1931 "Dracula", even if Bela Lugosi is a completely different character wearing the vampire cape. I thought this was fairly well done for a Columbia flick, a company that didn't have the experience of producing the type of horror films that established Universal. Joining Lugosi, actor Matt Willis portrays a Wolf Man character, and because I've mentioned it in other reviews, I'll give credit to Columbia here for keeping their budget in line by not bringing in Lon Chaney for the Wolf Man gig. Not that I wouldn't have loved to see him here, but if you need a hairy guy, why not get anyone else who can do the same job at half the price. Seems logical to me.Actually, Lugosi gets to portray two characters here, a scientist by the name of Dr. Hugo Bruckner, summoned to investigate a potential vampire related death, and that of Armand Tesla, who received an iron stake to the heart in an opening scene to potentially eliminate the scourge of vampirism in 1918 England. Revived following a German air raid during World War II when a bomb destroys Priory Cemetery, Tesla once again enjoys the dark of night when an unwitting grave yard worker removes the stake from his chest. I'm fairly up on my vampire lore and have never come across this type of dead vampire reversal, but what the heck, it works for the story if you don't think about it too much. It was actually a pretty nifty idea.The only thing I will quibble about is that scene the morning after Lady Jane Aisley (Frieda Inescort) and Sir Frederick Fleet (Miles Mander) visit the hotel room where Bruckner/Tesla is staying, only to find him missing. Lady Jane speaks to Nicki Saunders (Nina Foch) who was bitten by Tesla in an earlier scene, but the fang marks on her neck were gone! Come on, attention to detail Columbia! How'd they miss that? Better yet, how did Lugosi miss it? An unforced error if ever I saw one.

Released on the heels of Universal's first monster-rally movie, "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943), as well as the third film in the studio's Dracula series, "Son of Dracula" (1943), Columbia decided to make its own monster rally, which could've appropriately been titled, "Dracula Meets the Wolf Man." Adding to the studio and character crossovers, Bela Lugosi, the vampire of this film, "The Return of the Vampire," played the Frankenstein monster in "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man," and the Wolf Man from that film played Dracula in "Son of Dracula." Additionally, director Lew Landers had directed the classic Universal horror film "The Raven," which starred Lugosi. At this point of B-production shockers of the 1940s, no studio was making vampire pictures that had really anything to do with Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," though, and most of them are a far cry from the classic 1930s Universal monster movies, which began with Lugosi's "Dracula" (1931). Columbia's "The Return of the Vampire" is better in some ways than some of the contemporary Universal shockers, though.There are some interesting details for those who follow the genre. Lugosi's face isn't revealed until 23 minutes in--building up suspense in the meantime. In the first scene, we mostly just see his shadow (Stoker's Dracula casts no shadows. "Nosferatu" (1922) added shadows.). The vampire bites a child--something Dracula never did, although the female vampires would (although in film, Hammer's 1958 "Dracula" may've been the first to show one of the female vampires attacking children). The vampire is resurrected by the stake being removed from his heart. Perhaps, Universal wanted to pay Columbia back a bit for their borrowing from Universal's monster movies, and that's why they use this trick to bring Dracula back in the next year's "House of Frankenstein."I like that the second Van Helsing-type doctor, after her originally being a skeptic, is a woman this time. It's possibly the first time a leading actress wasn't a vamp or a victim in a vampire film. I'm less fond of seeing a werewolf fight with his fists and barely escape a scrape with two men, or to see him die from what one assumes is a normal bullet. But, at least, he wrestles with his good human nature and his evil wolfman enslavement, and he's the one who ultimately defeats the vampire, so it's a satisfying monster- rally finish. Plus, this vampire is triply strong; literally, it, apparently, takes three of his usual weaknesses--stakes to the heart, crosses, sunlight--to finish him off.Stylistically, there's a big emphasis on fog. It even follows the vampire inside, and it's constantly spread throughout the frequent graveyard scenes. They use an upward-tilted light to shine in Lugosi's face--reminiscent of Karl Freund's highlighting of Lugosi's eyes in the 1931 "Dracula." The narration is all over the place--beginning with a title card that introduces the milieu, followed by a voice-over that describes the story as based on the notes of a guy who dies after about 15 minutes into the film, which begs the question of who's narrating the rest of the movie. There's also a vampire book, as there had been in other vampire films, such as "Nosferatu," "Vampyr" (1932) and "Son of Dracula." The narrative begins with scientists, but turns to a religious surprise in the final act. There's a constant flow of believers in and skeptics of vampires, with characters changing roles, until, in the final shot, a character turns to the camera and breaks the fourth wall, asking, whether we believe in vampires.Here, vampirism becomes an allegory for German invasion, which is an interesting turn from Stoker's rather xenophobic novel about a foreigner stealing Englishwomen. The film begins with the swift killing of the vampire, coinciding with the end of WWI in 1918. He's resurrected after the Nazis of WW2 bomb the graveyard, among other things, digging up his coffin from its burial. I suppose, then, that when the character at the end turns to the camera, he's asking whether we believe Germans are vampires.(Mirror Note: A small mirror is used to confirm the vampire. Interestingly, the mirror shot shows the vampire's clothes, while not the reflection of his face. Most other movies are content with the confusion of whether vampire's clothes are also vampiric. Not so here.)

While Lugosi's character is not called Dracula in this wartime quickie, he is most definitely Dracula in everything but name. His vampire character is accidentally resurrected during the Blitz, and he picks up where he left off, putting the bite on people and re-enslaving his old werewolf servant (Matt Willis as a poor man's Lon Chaney Jr.). The vampire sets his sights on a young woman who is clearly modeled on Mina Harker from Dracula. No one seems to be able to stop him. Moody and atmospheric and beautifully photographed for a no-budget B flick, although the ending is badly blocked and choreographed. By 1944, Lugosi was a shell of his former self, so the big showdown between vampire and werewolf at the end (obviously inspired by Universal's FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN) is a letdown. However, this minor effort has endured over the decades.

1918: Ruthless and cunning 200-year-old vampire Armand Tesla (a strong performance of subtle menace by Bela Lugosi) terrorizes the countryside. Shrewd, gutsy scientist Lady Jane Aimsley (the excellent Freda Inescort) and Sir John Aimsley (nicely played by Roland Varno) manage to stop Tesla by driving a stake through his heart. Twenty-odd years later Tesla gets revived and plots to get revenge on the family that killed him. Director Lew Landers relates the narrative at a slow, yet steady pace, treats the rather silly story with admirable seriousness, and does an expert job of creating and sustaining a marvelously eerie and brooding midnight-in-the-graveyard fog-shrouded atmosphere. This film further benefits from credible acting by a sturdy cast: the lovely and poised Nina Foch makes for a very attractive victim as the fetching Nicki Saunders, Matt Willis contributes a respectable portrayal of Tesla's tormented talking werewolf servant Andreas Obry, and Miles Mander does well as dour skeptic Sir Frederick Fleet. The elegant black and white cinematography by John Stumar and L. William O'Connell boasts a few nifty wipes and features plenty of striking expressionistic lighting (the image of Tesla's shadow cast on a bedroom wall is especially startling). The special effects are pretty crude, but still effective just the same (Tesla's climactic face-melting disintegration hits the gooey spot). Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's robust, rousing score likewise does the thrilling trick. Moreover, this picture doesn't overstay its welcome because it's a tight 69 minutes long. Although a bit slow and talky, this movie still manages to work thanks to Lugosi's dignified presence, a few amusing novel touches (you gotta love a werewolf that speaks, does his vampire master's laundry, and can transform at any given time of the day), and the supremely spooky'n'misty ooga-booga mood. A fun fright flick.