Movie Review: The Return of the Vampire (1943)
Synopsis: Lady Jane Ainsley hunts down vampire Armand Tesla in London during World War I and successfully stakes him, freeing his werewolf assistant from his curse. Twenty-four years later, with London under threat of bombing because of a new World War, Scotland Yard, not believing her vampire explanation, wants to charge her with murder. However, before that can happen, a bomb reopens Tesla's tomb and workers remove the stake, freeing him to regain control over his former assistant and seek revenge against the woman who defeated him.
Who's in it? The movie stars Bela Lugosi, Frieda Inescort, Nina Foch, Roland Varno and Miles Manner.
Review: My wife needed to take my daughter to a friend's house this evening (about a two-hour drive there and back) so, since I had some free time while waiting for her to safely return, I filled it with a movie. As far as I'm concerned, you can't go wrong with a Bela Lugosi vampire movie, so I ended up watching The Return of the Vampire.
I had watched this movie before, but it had been more than a decade, and I didn't remember a whole lot about it. One thing I did remember though is I thought it was an OK movie and that opinion didn't change on the re-watch.
The best way to describe this movie is it is basically Dracula but set against the backdrop of World War II. In fact, a lot of the characters, including Lugosi's Armand Tesla, were clearly based off characters from that story. The werewolf, Andreas (Matt Willis), for example was basically just a jazzed-up version of Renfield.
That said, there were still things I thought made this film unique enough to still be enjoyable in its own right. For one, that WWII backdrop created quite a few additional challenges for Lady Jane (Inescort) as she attempted to stop Tesla again before he killed her and the people she cared about. A vampire is one thing. A German bomb falling from the sky is a completely different (and much more deadly) thing.
In addition, I did think it was about time someone faced murder charges for staking a vampire. Just from a logic standpoint, it is something that honestly should happen more often in movies like this. I mean, we're supposed to believe vampires like Dracula/Tesla are successful because most people don't believe they exist but, at the same time, nobody questions it when one is stabbed in the heart. Yes, she does get her name cleared a bit too early and easily (no body, no crime) but it was still a nice touch.
Final Opinion: There is a lot of familiarity with the characters, to the point it made me wonder why they didn't just pay for the rights to make this an official Dracula sequel. However, as far as classic vampire films go, it's worth watching. As I said before, it's hard to go wrong when it's Lugosi wearing that cape.
My Grade: B
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Here are some reviews of other vampire movies:
Movie Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
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