Main Cast: Bela Lugosi, Frieda Inescort, Nina Foch, Roland Varno, Miles Mander
Release Year: 1943
Country: US
Run Time: 69 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
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, All Movie Guide
Lionel Banks - Art Director, Lew Landers - Director, Paul Borofsky - Editor, Morris W. Stoloff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Clay Campbell - Makeup, Lewis William O'Connell - Cinematographer, John Stumar - Cinematographer, Sam White - Producer, Louis Diage - Set Designer, Randall H. Faye - Screenwriter, Griffin Jay - Screenwriter
Armand Tesla, a former Romanian scientist who became a vampire because of his obsession with the occult, moves to London. He has a werewolf servant named Andréas (Matt Willis), and preys on one family until he is staked in 1918. When his grave is disturbed by Nazi bombs during World War II, gravediggers who have to rebury the overturned graves decide not to bury Armand with the stake, pulling it out. He then claws out of the ground. He seeks out Andréas, who now, after being turned back by Armand, has the power to change form at will, and sets out to take revenge on the family that had staked him. In the end, Andréas is shot trying to give Nikki (the doctor's daughter) back to Armand. The vampire tells the lycanthrope, "I no longer had need of you." After changing back, Andréas, who finds a cross buried in corner of the church Armand has made a home, pulls it out and starts forcing Armand up the stairs toward the sun. A bomb dropped from a passing German bomber lands in the church causing an explosion, destroying the building. Andréas finishes the job by dragging Armand into the sun, finishing Armand and releasing Nikki of Armand's spell. Then Andréas is finally dead of his bullet wound, resting forever in peace.
This is one of only three films in which Bela Lugosi played a genuine vampire, the other two being Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. In Mark of the Vampire, Lugosi played a supposed vampire who turns out to be a fake. In Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, Lugosi played a mad scientist who has a delusion that he is a vampire.
Actor Matt Willis as the werewolf had a completely different portrayal than Lon Chaney's in Universal Studios' The Wolf Man.
