The Return of the Vampire (1943)

A scientist kills a vampire in Britain back in 1918 by stabbing it with a railroad spike, as one does. Twenty five years later Nazi bombs open his coffin, the spike is accidentally removed, and Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi) is on the loose again. I’m starting to think that these Nazi people aren’t all that great.

This was intended to be a direct sequel to the 1941 classic but Universal threatened to sue. Bela is back as Dracula in everything but name. Same costume, same accent, same mannerisms. Fairly little of the story needed to be changed to avoid court.

This movie features perhaps the worst werewolf (Matt Willis) I’ve ever seen. In man-wolf form he is polite, articulate, and completely ineffectual. Wolfie was controlled by Tesla until 1918 when he became a kind and faithful lab assistant for twenty five years without aging a day. When Tesla returns, he goes back to being a mostly useless werewolf.

This was a hard film to find. It’s not in TCM’s regular repertoire nor could I find it streaming. It doesn’t have a great reputation but it is, mostly, Bela being Dracula, and if for nothing else was interesting for that. Turns out it was available on YouTube.

The Return of the Vampire Isn't great but it's not bad by any stretch. Coming in at a brief 69 minutes, some of the dialog seems inexplicably rushed. While it pales compared to the better in the genre, it’s fairly original and very watchable. It’s also nice to see Bela as Dracula, even if by another name. AMRU 3.