MovieChat Forums > The Return of the Vampire (1943) Discussion > Classy Forties B horror film. However .....

Classy Forties B horror film. However ....

posted 8 years ago by bcstoneb444
2 replies | jump to latest

***this comment contains minor spoilers***
Return of the Vampire is a high quality B horror production typical of Columbia in the 1940s. Lots of atmosphere and of course the great Bela Lugosi as Dracula/Tesla. Good script and cool, fog-drenched London environs. Much credit goes to the fine cast: Bela, of course, but also a young Nina Foch, skeptical Scotland Yard inspector Miles Mander and maybe best of all Frieda Inescort as Prof. Saunders’ assistant and a quarter century later a great lady in science and sometime society matron. However … I have a couple of issues. The werewolf who talks is a little much for me, and besides, he’s not very scary looking. Then there‘s a plot point: wouldn’t Lady Jane Ainsley (Inescort) have recognized ‘Dr. Bruckner’ as the vampire she and Dr. Saunders had dispatched some twenty-three years earlier?

[–] millsey72 (9624) 2 years ago

Yes its a plot hole that Dr Bruckner was not recognized. Also the werewolf was very scary, mainly because he could talk. This was probably the best werewolf ever depicted on screen. This werewolf even beats Teen Wolf

[–] greenbudgie (2355) 2 years ago

I think Columbia even beat Universal for the atmosphere in this. I don't remember seeing a foggy cemetery being so thrilling as in this one.