Your usefulness is over
A bomb lands in a cemetery and unearths the tomb of a vampire. Two unsuspecting gravediggers find a corpse in the tomb with a stake in its heart and decide to remove the stake which leads to the body reanimating. The vampire calls upon a former servant that happens to be a werewolf to seek
out a local family that has a beautiful daughter. The vampire hopes to enslave the girl and take her with him to his former home.
"I shall command you and you shall obey."
Lew Landers, director of Hot Rod Gang, The Cruel Tower, Hurricane Island, Thunder Mountain, Chain Gang, Inner Sanctum, The Mask of Diijon, Tokyo Rose, Shadow of Terror, and The Boogey Man Will Get You, delivers The Return of the Vampire. The storyline for this picture was interesting and felt like a classic Monster Mash picture. The acting was wonderful and the cast includes Bela Lugosi, Miles Mander, Frieda Inescort, and Nina Foch.
"Who would go and steal a dead corpse?"
The Return of the Vampire recently aired on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in preparation for this Halloween season. This Lugosi gem was fun and wonderfully entertaining. Yes, there are some cheesy sequences, but Lugosi delivers a marvelous lead character and the vampire genre is definitely his bread and butter. I strongly recommend seeing this picture.
"He turned into a wolf, sir."
Grade: B+
October 26, 2010
