The Return of the Vampire

Some good stuff here: the premise (a vengeful feud between a vampire & a female scientist); a wolfman servant; having the vampire attack a young girl & then coming back years later to control her; having the female scientist calmly playing the piano in her first showdown w/ the vampire; some funny cop dialogue. BUT there's lots of problems: why doesn't the scientist recognize the returned vampire? How does attacking the fiance help the vamp? & the talking wolfman looks silly. Unused potential.

Haunting when it wants to be, but does have pacing problems. Good to see Bela Lugosi back on form again in a role he was most at home in. While not as iconic as Dracula (1931), The Return of the Vampire (1943) is a nice supplement to the Lugosi-style horror genre.

Really a terrible script, but I just can't slight these old horror flicks that much. Especially when it's about 50-60% (unintentional) comedy and you've got a smoke machine working overtime to make everything spooooooky.

A volta do Vampiro estreava há 80 anos nos EUA. Acho que a alegoria da volta da guerra com os alemães relacionada ao vampirismo é bem clara aqui, não? A última vez que o pseudo Dracula atacara tinha sido na primeira guerra e os air raids nazis de 1940 o despertaram de sua inconsciência. Só essa pegada já faz dele um filme excepcional, mas a atmosfera nebulosa também ajuda. Box Versátil Vampiros no Cinema Volume 6.

Nothing groundbreaking, but a lot of fun.

Oddly entertaining.

Plan 9 wasn't the first time someone used a stand in and other trickery to avoid showing Lugosi as this starts off slowly with an absent Bela. This also has a dopey werewolf which looks and acts more like an obedient dog from Moreau. But it eventually picks up the pace once Lugosi is primed & raring to go and uses some clever plot points to tie it into then current events. The atmosphere is also rich and well suited from Columbia. If you're looking for Lugosi and vampires you could do worse.