The Return of the Vampire (1944)
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60% of critics liked it
(5 reviews) -
34% of users liked it
(200 ratings)
He looks like Dracula, talks like Dracula and dresses like Dracula; but since the movie rights to Dracula were controlled by Universal, Bela Lugosi's character name is Armand Tesla in Columbia's Return of the Vampire. Bringing the Old Legend up to date, the film contrives to have the… More He looks like Dracula, talks like Dracula and dresses like Dracula; but since the movie rights to Dracula were controlled by Universal, Bela Lugosi's character name is Armand Tesla in Columbia's Return of the Vampire. Bringing the Old Legend up to date, the film contrives to have the blood-sucking Tesla rise from his coffin when his tomb is blasted open during the London Blitz. Making up for lost time (he's been interred since WW1), Tesla enlists the aid of talking werewolf Andreas (Matt Willis), who brings him provisions and seeks out new victims. The next soft white neck on Tesla's list belongs to the lovely Nicki Saunders (Nina Foch), but not if Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort), who knows what the mysterious stranger is really up to, has anything to say about it. Incidentally, the girl playing Tesla's victim in the opening credits is an unbilled Jeanne Bates. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Lew Landers
- Genres
- Classics, Horror
Unrated,
- On DVD
- Aug 13, 2002
- Studio
- Sony Pictures Entertainment
Critic Reviews
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Set during WWII, the film tries to combine wartime propaganda and horror.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
One of Bela Lugosi's better later day roles since he played Dracula in the 1930s for Universal.
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Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
A straightforward -- almost by-the-numbers -- vampire movie, and one that stays on something like a high school level of horror, but with a strong Lugosi performance.
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Cast
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Bela Lugosi
as Armand Tesla
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Frieda Inescort
as Lady Jane Ainsley
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Nina Foch
as Nicki Saunders
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Roland Varno
as John Ainsley
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Miles Mander
as Sir Frederick Fleet
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Matt Willis
as Andreas Obry
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Ottola Nesmith
as Elsa
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Gilbert Emery
as Professor Saunders
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Leslie Denison
as Lynch
- William Austin
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Jeanne Bates
as Frightened woman (uncredited)
- Billy Bevan
- Sherlee Collier
- George McKay
- Donald Dewar
