Movie Review: The Return of the Vampire (1943)

The movie stars Bela Lugosi, Miles Mander, Frieda Inescort, Nina Foch and Matt Willis

I’ve seen actor Bela Lugosi in a lot of non-Dracula roles. However, this was the first time I came across a movie that had him starring as another vampire, Armand Tesla. And, I have to admit, that, alone, got me interested in watching. Unfortunately, the movie just wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be.

The best way to describe this film is it is, in many ways, a poorly disguised rip off of the much more successful “Dracula.” Lugosi’s vampire character may not have had the same name but his personality, down to his trademark hypnotic eyes would have had me believing it was the same person.  The same was true of some of the other characters. The daughter, Nicki (Foch), was very similar to Lucy in the other film; Sir Frederick (Mander) replaces Dr. Van Helsing and the werewolf assistant (Willis) was a furrier version of Renfield.

Some of the scenes also looked like they were directly out of the other movie too, such as when he lures Nicki out of bed in a trance. In fact, most of the differences between the movies, such as the werewolf, really were just cosmetic.

I did like the idea of this movie being set against the backdrop of World War II because the fact the various players had to avoid Nazi bombs did add a somewhat interesting element to the storyline, both because it was the way the vampire escaped and because it added a new element of danger. Unfortunately, still wasn’t enough to make the movie seem overly different from Lugosi’s “Dracula” film.

To be fair, I do think Lugosi did a fantastic job as the vampire in this movie. He was very believable and, at times, a little scary. However, the film really doesn’t add much in terms of original content and, if you're going to watch him in a vampire movie, “Dracula” would be the better choice.

My Grade: C