Such a frustrating disappointment

Lack of good storyline.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Lew Landers directed Bela Lugosi as Armand Tesla, an 18th century researcher into occult matters who ended up becoming an evil vampire upon his death. In 1918, he is tracked down and staked by Lady Jane and Professor Saunders, but 23 years later is accidentally resurrected in a German air raid attack, who then goes on a campaign of revenge against Lady Jane and her family by impersonating a refugee(a Dr. Bruckner). Oh yes, he has a talking werewolf named Andreas(played by Matt Willis) in his power as well... Atmospheric but silly and tedious film has good performances by all, but only the settings of both WWI & WWII give the film any novelty; and that talking werewolf was a bad idea!

Do not look upon this film as a horror movie, but as a history lesson.In it you will see the great Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Yes, I know he is not called Dracula, but that is because of a dispute between movie studios. They changed his name to Dr. Tesla to avoid a lawsuit.They also delayed release for two months so as to not compete with another Dracula movie.This is from the golden age of horror, and it has not only a vampire, but a wolf-man, too. Seldom will you see the two in the same film. It is funny that the wolf-man becomes Dracula's servant.The film takes place during the bombing of London during WWII. It is a bomb that opens Dracula's coffin.Here you see the power of the greatest Dracula of all time: "I shall command, and you shall obey,"

One of the more unusual horror flicks of the forties, Return of the Vampire takes place amidst the rubble-strewn streets of wartime London. A bomb has unearthed the coffin of Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi), a blood-sucker whose previous reign of terror struck fear into the hearts of the Ainsley family during World War I. With a helping hand from the Wolf Man (where'd he come from? – Matt Willis), Tesla is once again free to roam the Earth, but chooses to update his image and masquerade as Hugo Bruckner, a German émigré scientist. Can Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort) save daughter Nicki (Nina Foch) from his hypnotic gaze—and will Scotland Yard's Sir Frederick Fleet (Miles Mander) ever admit to the existence of the supernatural? Return of the Vampire is a surprisingly effective and atmospheric feature from Columbia, a studio whose horror output was generally unimpressive, to say the least.

THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (Columbia, 1944), directed by Lew Landers, was the studios contribution to the horror genre made famous by Universal, acquiring many of its ingredients right down to the services of that studio's very own Bela Lugosi, whose legend began with "Dracula" (1931). By this time of this particular release, Lugosi's career had already reached a period of decline, having starred in a series of cheap imitations of classic horror tales for poverty row studios as Monogram and PRC. While THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE could very well be a pale imitation of a good horror film or a "Dracula" sequel featuring his twin brother accompanied by a werewolf instead of Mr. Renfield, this new idea of a vampire tale, though not entirely original, is actually a pleasant surprise. While it can't compare to the Universal products, this edition improves over their current distribution of program quickies and countless sequels.What a great way to start the evening for a Lugosi flick with its introduction during its opening credits consisting of a young girl fearfully walking back into the darkness as a shadowy figure lurks towards her before belting out a big scream through the super-imposed titles: "The imagination of man at times sires the fantastic and the grotesque. That the imagination of man soars into the stratosphere of fantasy is attested by ... "The Return of the Vampire," followed with this narrative: "This is the case of Armand Tesla, Vampire, as compiled from the personal notes of Professor Walter Saunders, King's College, Oxford. The following events took place in the outskirts of London, towards the end of the year 1918, that began on the night of October 15, particularly on a gloomy foggy night that was well-suited for a visitation by the supernatural" .... Enter Andreas, (Matt Willis) a werewolf, walking through the Priory Cemetery, entering the crypt of his master, Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi), a 200 year-old vampire, who rests in his coffin by day, while living off the blood of his victims by night. Lady Jane Angsley (Frieda Inescort), a sanitarium director, and Professor Walter Saunders (Gilbert Emery), are assigned to investigate the latest female victim resting on a hospital bed with two marks on her neck. Learning of the history of Armand Telsa, a Romanian scientist, Saunders comes to realize he's the vampire in question who must be destroyed, especially after making his little girl, Nikki, his latest prey. Upon entering an abandoned cemetery, Saunders and Angsley come to a vault where they find a coffin with a breathing body inside. Saunders rids this rein of terror by striking a metal stake through his heart. The destruction of Armand Tesla immediately frees Andreas of his curse, transforming him from werewolf to human being. Twenty-three years pass where England is under another blitz, World War II. Saunders is killed in an airplane crash, Andreas is assistant for Lady Jane, while her concert pianist son, Johnny (Roland Varno) is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Nicki Saunders (Nina Foch). All's well until the abandoned cemetery is bombed by warplanes, leaving many bodies scattered. Two laborers (Billy Bevan and Harold De Becker) are assigned to rebury the dead. In doing so, they remove the stake from a body of one that resurrects later that night, hence the title. Armand Telsa, under the guise of Dr. Hugo Bruckner, stalks once more, returning poor Andreas back into his werewolf slave ("I shall command and YOU shall obey!") and plans for his next mission to terrorize Lady Jane and have Nikki his future bride of the living dead.A neat little thriller that contains many effective scenes to rank this a truly good horror film of its day, from howling sounds of dogs around the cemetery to the vampire's call to his victims through the echoing of his whispers. The highlight where werewolf combats his evil master surpasses the battle between the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) and the Frankenstein monster (Bela Lugosi of all people) in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (Universal, 1943). While there were further developments with the Universal monsters, THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE contained no sequels, though many imitations from other studios, including Universal itself, continued.Formerly available on video cassette and later placed to DVD, THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE had frequent cable TV broadcasts over the years, ranging from Turner Network Television (1992); American Movie Classics (1998-2000) and Turner Classic Movies (2006-07), usually during the month of October to commemorate Halloween. How appropriate, especially for Bela Lugosi, the Vampire King. (**1/2)