THE
RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943)Director: Lew Landers
Columbia TriStar Home Video
THE
RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943)During the early 40s, Bela Lugosi was well into his contract with Sam Katzman at Monogram, and still had the occasional supporting role over at Universal. After the success of Universal's FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (in which Bela played Frankenstein's Monster), Columbia Pictures was quick to realize the potential of mixing monsters together, and the result was RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE. Playing off his enormous popularity as Dracula, Lugosi is here cast as vampire Armand Tesla (Universal owned exclusive movie rights to the Dracula name at the time), with the added attraction of a werewolf assistant.
The film commences in 1918 London,
when physician Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort) is witness to a number of
deaths that she suspects are caused by vampirism. With the help of a professor
friend, they discover the crypt of vampire Armand Tesla (Lugosi) and drive a
spike through his heart. Witness to this is Andreas (Matt Willis), a poor vagrant
who is the vampire's faithful werewolf servant. Now that Tesla has been destroyed,
Andreas' soul has been freed--at least for the time being.
Years later during WWII, Lady Jane is still a prominent physician with Andreas under her employment. During a Blitz raid, a bomb drops on Tesla's crypt, freeing his body in the process. Two workers remove the spike from his heart, unknowingly unleashing the vampire upon London once again. Tesla enslaves Andreas, who still periodically transforms into a wolf, and poses as a visiting doctor to take revenge by entering the home of Lady Jane. Tesla now has his sites on the beautiful daughter Niki (Nina Foch) attempting to take control of her soul and make her his own.
RETURN
OF THE VAMPIRE contains everything that makes classic horror films so special.
It's brimming with atmosphere in the form of foggy graveyards and decaying crypts,
with Lugosi's vampiric presence being the highlight of the show. As the speech-gifted
werewolf, Matt Willis (who in human form resembles a bloated Buster Crabbe)
is fun to watch and is given much screen time (his interaction with Lugosi is
most memorable, as is a scene where he transforms before two bumbling cops and
easily overthrows them). Frieda Inescort plays a competent female Van Helsing-type,
and a young Nina Foch is nicely cast as the innocent heroine. The film's climax
displays some innovative (for the time) special effects that were actually censored
when originally shown in Britain.
Previously available on VHS and
laserdisc, Columbia TriStar has now presented THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE on DVD
in a nice transfer that's true to its 1.37:1 theatrical aspect ratio. There
are some minor nicks and flickering on the black and white print source, as
well as some grain. But the image is well defined with sharp contrast and deep
blacks that put previous video versions to shame. The mono audio track is impressive
for an older film -- dialog sounds clear and distinct, 
with
very little hiss or scratchiness. This DVD print also has an onscreen introduction
not seen in previous video versions. Re-inserted into the film before the opening
credits, the passage reads: "The imagination of man at times sires the
fantastic and the grotesque. That the imagination of man can soar into the stratosphere
of fantasy is attested by …"
Optional English, French, Spanish and Japanese subtitles are also included. The only extras are trailers for BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA and THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (no RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE trailer?). An interview with the still-active Nina Foch would have been wonderful, but I guess we should be thankful that the film is on DVD, and hopefully Columbia TriStar will unleash further 30s and 40s horror classics in the near future. (George R. Reis)