The Return of The Vampire - Columbia's Take On Dracula

By Steve D. Stones

In the same year that Columbia Pictures cast Bela Lugosi as a vampire in The Return of The Vampire, Universal Studios cast the stocky, mid-western actor Lon Chaney Jr in Son of Dracula (1943). Chaney's Dracula lacks the old world charm and mannerisms that made Lugosi so famous in the role.

By 1943, Lugosi's star power had faded. Universal Studios would not allow Columbia Pictures to use the name Dracula, so Lugosi's character was named Armand Tesla in The Return of The Vampire.

Armand Tesla is a 200 year old Hungarian vampire who roams the London countryside in 1918 with his werewolf sidekick Andreas (Matt Willis). After Tesla feeds on the necks of young victims from the village, Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort) and Professor Walter Saunders (Gilbert Emery) find Tesla's resting spot and drive a stake through his heart while he is sleeping in his coffin.

Two decades later, a bombing raid during World War II unearths Tesla's grave. Two grave diggers walking through the graveyard notice the stake in Tesla's chest and mistaken it for a bomb splint. They remove the stake from Tesla's chest. Little do they know what they have unleashed. Tesla returns to life.

Like the original Dracula (1931), Tesla becomes obsessed with a beautiful, young blond woman. Nicki, played by Nina Foch, is the ingenue who falls under Tesla's spell. Nicki was bitten in the neck by Tesla in 1918 when she was just a little girl. Tesla returns to seek revenge on Lady Jane for driving a stake through his heart. Professor Saunders dies in a plane crash, which is a curse placed on him by Tesla.

Lady Jane employs Andreas in her research lab as an assistant. Little does Lady Jane know that Andreas has teamed up with Tesla and once again becomes a werewolf. With the help of Andreas, Tesla takes on the identity of a Dr. Hugo Bruckner, a respected scientist.

The graveyard sequences in The Return of The Vampire give the impression that the film is a Universal Studios picture. Lugosi and Andreas walk through a fog-covered ground with twisted trees and eroded tombstones, which look similar to the graveyard scenes in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). Lugosi covering his face with his cape in an opening scene as he walks through the graveyard looks like a sequence that Ed Wood could have easily used in Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959).

The film ends with another bombing raid striking the graveyard, but this time the raid kills Tesla. Andreas is freed of his werewolf curse and returns to normal. Tesla melts into a hot glob of wax. The police commissioner of Scotland Yard, arriving on the scene, looks at the audience and asks if they believe in vampires.

After Dracula in 1931, Lugosi was type-cast to a career of low-budget, bottom of the barrel productions with studios such as Monogram and PRC. Despite his poor salary on many of these films, Lugosi always gave an amazing performance, and was always a true professional in all his work. No actor plays a vampire with as much charm and effectiveness as the great Bela Lugosi.

Happy viewing.

Lederer as the vampire, Return of Dracula

By Doug Gibson

I avoided watching "The Return of Dracula" for a long time, mainly because it always annoyed me that Bela Lugosi was passed over for so any Universal monster rallies (except for Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein). It would have been cool, and a potential career boost for Lugosi to have played his signature role in a real Dracula sequel. But he was long dead by the time Gramercy, not Universal, made this inexpensive $125,000 "sequel" in which Count Dracula, posing as artist Bellac Gordal -- who he kills off on a train in Hungary -- to visit relatives in California who are eager to see him, consider him a dear member of the family, but apparently have never swapped photos with dear Belac!

Eventually, Count Dracula, the faux artist, behaves so oddly (He's never around during the day, you see, and spurns affection, and demands that he not be disturbed in his "room") that family teenager Rachel Mayberry, played by a sexy Norma Eberhardt, begins to suspect that her dear relative may be something more sinister. A game of cat and mouse develops between the old predator and the young teenager, and it eventually leads to a finish to the film, directed by Paul Landres.

If this has started to sound like a pallid "remake-in-everything-but-name" of Alfred Hitchcock's classic "Shadow of a Doubt," give yourself 10 points because you are right. It's not nearly as good, by a mile, as the standoff between Joseph Cotton and Teresa Wright, but as a low-budget 1950s horror flick, it's not too bad. The film moves swiftly and the acting is passable with one positive exception.

The positive exception is Francis Lederer, who is marvelous as Count Dracula. He blends the cold continental manners of a Bela Lugosi with the physical menace of a Christopher Lee to produce -- amazingly -- an unforgettable portrayal of the vampire. I cannot call it iconic because not enough people have seen the film. Lederer is arrogant, merciless and predatory when consumed by a thirst for blood. He is a film monster that may stay in the nightmares of viewers for awhile. It his for his portrayal that I recommend this movie.

There is a lot of hokum in this film, thanks to the low budget. Virginia Vincent, as a victim of Dracula, overacts badly as an ill shut-in, and mediocre writing contributes to a ridiculous scene in which Rachel discovers her vampire guest has painted a picture of her in a coffin! Nevertheless, this is a breezy, corny vampire flick, likely overshadowed by Hammer's Horror of Dracula, that should merit a watch by cult film fans.

Reign of the Vampire a good recap of Lugosi's life

My Facebook friend, and fellow big Lugosi fan, Leo Wiltshire, has written "Reign of the Vampire: A Tribute to the Perseverance of Bela Lugosi." It's an excellent introduction to Bela and his life. It serves the purpose of whetting the appetite to learn more about Lugosi, and there are ample resources from Gary Rhodes, Frank Dello Stritto, Arthur Lennig, Robert Cremer and others.

Wiltshire's book is also a self-help book. Wiltshire has an M.A. in Organizational Leadership and concludes the book detailing how lessons from Bela's life can help us with our challenges.

You can buy the book here. Be aware that Wiltshire occasionally has sales days where the book costs less or the Kindle is free.

Below is my review on the book's Amazon page:

A short recap of Lugosi's life, but nevertheless very thorough.

This is a short volume and is not intended to be an in-depth look at Lugosi's life. However, the author does a thorough, excellent job in providing a short biography of Bela Lugosi's life. He has done his research and readers interested in learning more should pursue the footnotes, which point to excellent Lugosi biographers such as Gary Don Rhodes and Frank Dello Stritto. I recommend this book for those wanting to learn more about the Count and for even more advanced Lugosi fans, as another resource.

-- Doug Gibson

What Becomes Of The Children? - Neglectful Parents Are Bad

By Steve D. Stones

The 1930s was a time full of government sponsored propaganda films that warned of the dangers of drug use and promiscuous sex. Reefer Madness (1936), Cocaine Fiends (1935), Marijuana (1936) and Sex Madness (1938) are just a few of these from the 30s. Today these films have a kitschy, camp quality that humors fans of cult movies. Many are still shown in midnight movie houses today.

What Becomes Of The Children? (1936) warns of the dangers of neglectful parents. It's another 30s propaganda film that stereotypes people who engage in a specific type of behavior and the outcome it has on everyone around them.

Railroad tycoon John Worthington, played by Robert Frazer (who is in Bela Lugosi films "White Zombie" and "Black Dragons")  is so obsessed with money, power and his occupation that he pays little attention to his children. His wife Edith, played by Natalie Moorhead, is a socialite who enjoys spending her husband's money and ignoring both her husband and her children.

Both parents are also very bored of each other and argue frequently, so they decide to get a divorce. John is awarded custody of his son Fred, and Edith is awarded custody of their daughter Marion.  Both siblings have little contact with each other as the years roll on.

It's not until the children grow up to be adults that their upbringing starts to have an impact on their lives. Marion gets mixed up and married to a jewel thief named Daniels. Fred and Marion somehow end up in the same bar one night after not seeing each other for many years, and a fight breaks out between Fred and Daniels. Both siblings end up on a murder trial for the accidental killing of Daniels.

The underlying theme of this film comes from the old saying - Money can't buy you happiness. Worthington has achieved great financial success in his life, but he has failed miserably as a husband and father for being at work all the time. Even his lawyer friend warns him of the dangers of spending so much time achieving financial success and the impact it is having on his family. Worthington does not heed this warning until everything starts to fall apart in his family life.

The message of this film today might seem a bit naive, considering the fact that most American homes have both parents at work full time, and often one of the parents is working two or more jobs to keep food on the table.  Like Reefer Madness (1936), a warning is posted at the beginning of the movie, only this warning is about the selfish nature of parents who neglect their children.

In the end, Marion and Fred are acquited of any murder charge, and the Worthington family gets back together with a much stronger bond in a happy Hollywood ending. Happy viewing.