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Creepy Classics Spotlight Movie Last Weekend - THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943)
Every week, readers here are selecting a movie to view...then we all try to watch it together utilizing our DVD/video library. This past Saturday night, many of us watched THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943). This was suggested by by David Nelson, Des Plaines, IL. Details about movie nights to come are HERE. Please include your name and location after your comments, so we can see how we're all joining together from diffeent locals around the globe! Let's all Synch-Up Saturday nights at 7:30PM, or catch it sometime over the weekend!
  This movie was (and is) a real treat for people that wanted more DRACULA! It's Bela as a real vampire. Plus, I was thrilled as a kid, when I fiirst saw that the vampire's assisant is a werewolf in this one! Befor ever seeing this movie, I saw a picure of it in an old movie book that my grandfather had taken out from a library for me to look at. There was a picture of Bela in hos coffin with the werewolf standing next o the rising count! Wow! A great little vampire movie that really delivers the goods. Scary fun.
The scene that scared me the most was the music scene, With Bela appearing as the organ played.
I could swear that I saw more of the melting scene on TV when I was a kid, than what's on the DVD. Weird.
Loved THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE!
-Ron Adams, Ligonier, PA.
Hey Synchers!
Here is my commentary on what is my third lifetime viewing of Return of the Vampire. The first time was many moons ago, and what I remember most was the werewolf, always one of my favorite monsters. I watched it again recently after reading an excellent article on it in Scary Monsters, which mentioned how it reflected the war time year it was filmed. So here we go with my third viewing.
Mmmm, a monster movie or Three Stooges? Used to seeing the Columbia lady in the latter.
We are going into the stratosphere of fantasy...
Eerie graveyard.
 The werewolf! He is often criticized, but I like him, I think the makeup is well done, and the fact he talks original. If you have to have a henchman for your vampire, why not a talking werewolf?
Bela! They are really showing off that harlequin ring.
Shades of Plan 9, is it Bela or a stand in?
This is a much better vehicle for him than Mark of the Vampire was.
This movie was interesting because a woman ends up being the hero, a sign of the times, with the men at war, more ladies were in the movies.
They declared her dead awfully quick, compare that with the lengths they go to today to revive someone.
The vampire going after a little girl, subversive, creepy and perverse! How did they get away with that?
It would take hours to drink blood from them little incisions.
creepy mirror shot!
Werewolf as UPS guy.
Cool reverse werewolf transformation, must have been uncomfortable for the actor.
It was all a prologue. Now the story begins.
Here come the jerrys! Vampires and bombing raids, which is scarier?
Cool rising from the grave shot.
You are a fool Andreas, a complete and utter fool...with that great accent, what a great line.
Another cool werewolf transformation, seems longer than Lon Chaney´s.
Only problem with this werewolf, the bare neck.
The hairy UPS man returns, what is he carrying in that parcel?
He must be a queer sort of a duck.
Bela retuns! Elegant, charming, sinister, all at the same time.
I like the fog on the floor, cool effect.
I shall command and you shall obey.
UPS man again! Quick transformation! Like the instant werewolves of Twilight (I confess, I have seen them, terrible movies!)
 I love the delayed reaction of the inspector.
Andreas hands didn´t transform back...interesting werewolf indeed.
The confrontation - Great low angle and creepy lighting on Bela.
The power of faith and goodness, with that you shall be destroyed!
vampires werewolves and the blitz! The ultimate in terror!!!
The old cross lost in the dirt trick...works every time.
Another way to destroy a vampire...A jerry bomb!
Somewhat gruesome melting scene, was it cut? Deemed too Gruesome by the Production code?
How about you, do you believe in this vampire business?
Great 40s film, Columbia did good. Some original ideas, literate script, topical, good acting. Great choice Rock, though I had seen it a short time ago, it moves and is interesting enough to see again.
Next week, one of my supernatural favorites, Night of the Demon, see you then!
-Ken Blose, Mexico
Another simply wonderful film starring Bela Lugosi as a vampire who has a werewolf servant that talks. Released by Columbia who neede to fill a horror "void" at theaters during that time.
Nina Foch looks lovely as always and the plot moves along pretty briskly. A great film and a great way to spend 70 minutes.
-Kevin Coon, Twin Falls, ID
0f course love this movie, like the part where Lady Jane asks the Gravedigger (Bilie Bevan) where he got that ring, and after she tells him it came off the corpse, he quickly returns it! ha,ha. Bela thought he was really the man, when he was threatening Lady Jane when she was playing the organ, but then he got the end of it, when she showed him the 'higher power' and he quickly is put in his place, grand... J...50s mk. (Monster Kid)
good idea this group showing.
-Jay Maggio, Kingman,AZ
Ron,
Here are my thoughts and observations on The Return Of The Vampire.
1. Lew Landers (aka Louis Friedlander) - Directed Bela Lugosi previously in The Raven.
2. I love the backdrop of this film: War-torn London.
3. The film had atmosphere to burn almost to it's detriment. I know London is supposed to be foggy, but this film alone had enough
fog for twenty Londons.
 4. I know a lot of people have a problem with the talking werewolf in this film. The fact that he talked wasn't the problem with me. The
problem, for me, was the make-up. It's got to be the most un-scary werewolf I've ever seen. He looks like a dog. Specifically, a
schnauzer.
5. The introduction of Tesla (Bela Lugosi) is great. We start out by seeing brief outlines of him than it slowly builds to his face being
covered and ends with his cape outstretched bat-like in the fog-enshrouded cemetery.
6. As the professor and his assistant are walking through the cemetery in dense fog, the professor states, "There's nothing to fear as
long as we have the sunlight."
7. The professor's assistant was always being called Lady Jane. Was I the only one who kept thinking of The Rolling Stones when
that happened?
8. Was it a coincidence that the small dog in the film and Andreas the dog-like werewolf in the film were never in a scene together?
I smell a conspiracy.
9. I may be mistaken, but it seemed to me that a lot of the supporting actors in this film were in a lot of the Universal Sherlock
Holmes' movies.
 10. The hand coming out of the ground was a creepy shot.
11. When Tesla encounters Nicki Saunders (Nina Foch), the professor's daughter, the room is covered in a mist. It's a neat effect.
There's a lot of scenes where Tesla turns into a mist and also seems to control the fog. It's an aspect of vampirism that's rarely
shown in films.
12. There is a great scene between Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort) and Tesla. He mocks her faith in humanity and she scolds
him for his lack of humanity. It ends with her forcing a crucifix on him and he disappearing in a mist. All the time, while this scene
was playing out, she was playing the organ. It was a wonderful verbal sparring scene.
13. When the Germans bombed the building that Tesla, Andreas, and Nicki Saunders was in, Tesla was knocked out along with the
others. Can a vampire be knocked out?
14. Andreas has a mole that can't seem to find a resting place on his face. In some scenes, it's on the right. In others, it's on the left.
15. When the inspector looks into the camera and asks "us" if we believe in vampires, it ruined an otherwise good ending.
The Return Of The Vampire is a lot better than I remember it to be. It also could have been a lot better than it was. The character Andreas should have been eliminated. More scenes should have been added involving Lady Jane and Tesla. A vampire with a female adversary is a very unique concept and should have been explored more fully. Oh well, in telling tales about the undead, we all live and learn.
Kirk Smith
Manito, Illinois
  Hey David "The Rock" Nelson, Ron, Kirk and all other fellow Synchmates out there, I just watched "Return Of The Vampire" for the THIRD time this past week and you know what?---This film is like fine wine- it just gets better with age!!-- In my opinion this is one of Bela Lugosi`s most UNDERRATED horror films- and contains one of his best performances as a horror icon. He is given some really nice, juicy lines to speak throughout the film`s 70 minute running time and emotes a sense of foreboding evil (much like he did in director Tod Browning`s "Dracula" {1931} As far as certain scenes go, the ones that stand out to me are when he (Armand Tesla) attacks little Nicki in bed at night (with waifs of mist shrouding the room!)
AND of course, the scene when Lady Jane Ainsley (wonderfully played by Frieda Inescort) is playing the organ when Tesla interrupts her and confronts her in a war of words and wills until Lady Jane surprises him with a crucifix and the vampire disappears in a cloud of smoke.......only to attack her beautiful daughter yet again (This time potrayed by the lovely Nina Foch- who does a nice job as the "damsel in distress" in this picture) and hypnotize her to come under his control until he can permanently vampirize her for all of eternity....Of course Lady Jane and eventually Andreas (Matt Willis) the werewolf have other plans for Armand Tesla......The actors in this film are all supported by GOOD set designs (love the graveyard set!) and a nice little music score.
Lastly folks, I LOVE the ending of this one! (Name ONE other horror movie folks where the werewolf turns back into a human being and then proceeds to kill his master {a vampire} by dragging him into the sunlight and then staking him in the heart!!) WOW! - I remember catching this film on "Superhost`s Mad Theatre" when I was a kid and this monster movie has held up very well- It is very well paced and is NEVER boring. So that being said and all things being equal -My rating for this favorite of mine (This is my 2nd favorite Bela Lugosi vampire flick- after "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) ----is 3.25/5 stars!-- and with that fellow film fiends I am ready to disappear into the night!
---So until next time, folks, when we watch, analyze and discuss the British supernatural classic "Night Of The Demon" (also known as "Curse Of The Demon") I bid all of you "GOOD EVENING" !! ----Dan Brenneis- Strongsville,Ohio- Monster Bash Staff Member And LifeTime FilmFan Extroadinairre.
 You can get the Columbia DVD of THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943) in the Complete DVD Catalog in-line at Creepy Classics.
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