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{{about|the film|the album by Mercyful Fate|Return of the Vampire}}
{{Distinguish|The Return of Dracula}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Return of the Vampire
| image = Returnofthevampire.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Lew Landers]]
| producer = [[Sam White (film producer)|Sam White]]
| writer = {{Plainlist|
* [[Randall Faye]]
* Griffin Jay
* [[Kurt Neumann (director)|Kurt Neumann]]
}}
| starring = {{Plainlist|
* [[Bela Lugosi]]
* [[Frieda Inescort]]
* [[Nina Foch]]
* [[Miles Mander]]
* [[Roland Varno]]
* Matt Willis
}}
| music = [[Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco]]
| cinematography = [[L. William O'Connell]]
| editing = Paul Borofsky
| studio = [[Columbia Pictures]]
| distributor = Columbia Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1943|11|11}}
| runtime = 69 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = 
| gross = 
}}

'''''The Return of the Vampire''''' is a 1943 American [[horror film]] directed by [[Lew Landers]] and starring [[Bela Lugosi]], [[Frieda Inescort]], [[Nina Foch]], [[Miles Mander]], [[Roland Varno]], and Matt Willis. Its plot follows a [[vampire]] named Armand Tesla, who has two encounters with Englishwoman Lady Jane Ainsley, the first taking place during [[World War I]], and the second during [[World War II]].

''The Return of the Vampire'' is not an official sequel to the 1931 [[Universal Pictures]] film ''[[Dracula (1931 English-language film)|Dracula]]'' (which starred Lugosi as [[Count Dracula|the eponymous vampire]]), but the film has been interpreted by cultural historian [[David J. Skal]] as an unofficial follow-up, with Lugosi's character renamed only because the film was not produced by Universal.

==Plot==
During [[World War I]], the vampire Armand Tesla stalks London. His latest victim is admitted to the clinic of Lady Jane Ainsley and her colleague, Professor Walter Saunders. They are baffled by what they regard as a severe case of [[anemia]]. The vampire infiltrates the clinic; unable to finish his previous victim because she had died from shock, he preys on Prof. Saunders' granddaughter Nicki instead. Saunders comes to believe that both patients are victims of a vampire. He shows Lady Jane puncture marks on their necks. He and Lady Jane search a nearby cemetery for the vampire's crypt. Upon finding Armand Tesla in his coffin, a mirror held to his face reveals no reflection---proving to Professor Saunders and Lady Jane that Tesla is indeed a vampire. A werewolf assisting Tesla tries to prevent their intervention but does not succeed. Once the vampire is spiked, the werewolf, Andréas, is cured of his curse. He later becomes Lady Jane's assistant.

Twenty-four years later, Scotland Yard detective Sir Fredrick Fleet reads the deceased Saunders' account of these events. He informs Lady Jane that if the body they staked was alive at the time, she will be charged with murder. Lady Jane explains that the man they staked was an eighteenth-century vampire expert named Armand Tesla. Lady Jane tells her son, John, about the investigation. She is certain that Sir Frederick will find that Tesla's body has not decomposed, proving he was a vampire.  She and John agree to keep this information from John's fiancée, Saunders' granddaughter Nicki, to avoid reawakening the trauma of her previous attack.

After a bombing raid, cemetery workers find Tesla's corpse exposed, with the metal spike still in his chest. Believing the spike to be bomb shrapnel, they remove it and reinter the body. Thus freed from death, the vampire regains power over Andréas and prepares to avenge himself on Lady Jane. Helpless to resist, Andréas murders Hugo Bruckner, a scientist who recently escaped from a concentration camp who had arrived in England to work with Lady Jane. Tesla intends to impersonate Bruckner. With Tesla's body missing, Sir Frederick closes his investigation for lack of evidence.

Lady Jane throws a party to celebrate John and Nicki's engagement. She discourages Sir Frederick from giving Saunders' manuscript to Nicki and locks it in a drawer. Tesla arrives as Bruckner and charms everyone except Sir Frederick. The manuscript is stolen and left in Nicki's room. She begins reading it and falls under Tesla's power. She is found the next morning unconscious with puncture marks on her neck.

Lady Jane questions the gravediggers, who tell her about the spiked body. She relates the story to Sir Frederick, who dismisses vampire stories as fantasy. He assigns two plainclothes men to shadow Andréas. They report seeing him transform into a werewolf, and recover a bundle containing the effects of the real Bruckner. Sir Frederick's suspicions grow when a laboratory analysis of the rifled drawer finds it to be wolf hair.

Tesla preys on John and convinces Nicki that she did it. John is found the next morning unconscious with puncture wounds. Nicki believes she has become a vampire. Sir Frederick corners Andréas for questioning, but as he begins to transform, Andréas escapes. Sir Frederick assigns plainclothes men to follow Tesla, but the vampire eludes them. Tesla threatens to turn Nicki and John into vampires. Lady Jane brandishes a cross, warning Tesla that the "power of goodness" can still destroy him. Tesla vanishes.

When Tesla commands Nicki to leave the house, Lady Jane convinces Sir Frederick that they must follow her. Nicki meets Tesla and Andréas at the cemetery during an air raid and faints. Andréas attempts to carry her to safety, but Sir Frederick shoots him. He and Lady Jane take shelter from the bombing. At the ruins of St. Mathias' church, Tesla abandons Andréas and tells him to die; Andréas crawls into a corner and hearing the words of Jane in his head, grabs a crucifix and is freed of the vampire's power. He attempts to destroy Tesla. A bomb strikes the church and knocks the two out. Andréas recovers and drags Tesla outside, where the rising sun's rays reduce the vampire to bones. Andréas dies of his bullet wound. Nicki tells Sir Frederick and Lady Jane that Andréas saved her life. Lady Jane tries again to convince Sir Frederick that Tesla was a vampire, but he refuses to accept her version of events without physical evidence. He asks his two deputies if they believe, to which they say yes. Astonished, he turns his head and asks, "And do you, people?"

==Cast==
{{Cast list|
* [[Bela Lugosi]] as Armand Tesla
* [[Nina Foch]] as Nicki Saunders
* [[Roland Varno]] as John Ainsley 
* [[Frieda Inescort]] as Lady Jane Ainsley 
* [[Miles Mander]] as Sir Fredrick Fleet  
* Matt Willis as Andreas Obry 
* [[Ottola Nesmith]] as Elsa Walter 
* [[Gilbert Emery]] as Dr. Walter Saunders 
* Leslie Denison as Detective Lynch 
* [[William Austin (actor)|William Austin]] as Detective Gannett
* Sharliee Collier as Nicki as a child (uncredited)
* Donald Dewar as John as a child (uncredited)
* [[Olaf Hytten]] as Ben (uncredited)
* [[Nelson Leigh]] as Assistant (uncredited)
}}

==Production==
Bela Lugosi's scenes were filmed in August and September 1943, prior to his final two [[Monogram Pictures|Monogram]] films. This was also the last time he would receive top billing by a major [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] studio.

In his book ''Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen'', [[David J. Skal]] writes: <blockquote>"[[Columbia Pictures]] hired [[Lugosi]] for ''Return of the Vampire'', in which he played Dracula in all but name; for copyright purposes, the vampire's name was Armand Tesla."{{sfn|Skal|2004|p=244}}</blockquote>

==Release==
''The Return of the Vampire'' was released theatrically in the United States on November 11, 1943.{{sfn|Rhodes|2006|p=130}}

== Reception ==
At the time of the film's release, a critic from ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote that nothing need be said about the film beyond its title and star to determine if one is interested in seeing it.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/01/29/archives/the-screen-any-blood-donors.html|title=The Screen; Any Blood Donors?|author=<!-- probably Bosley Crowther, but the byline is just "B.C." -->|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 29, 1944|access-date=April 21, 2020|archive-date=October 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201007052723/https://www.nytimes.com/1944/01/29/archives/the-screen-any-blood-donors.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''The Return of the Vampire'' has an approval rating of 75% based on eight reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. In 2006, Susan King of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' called the film "underrated".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-oct-22-ca-cinfile22-story.html|title=One bite and you're hooked|last=King|first=Susan|date=October 22, 2006|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=June 22, 2021}}</ref> In 2019, Stuart Galbraith IV of ''[[DVD Talk]]'' wrote, "For all its faults, ''The Return of the Vampire'' is as close as audiences got to see Lugosi reprise [his role as [[Count Dracula]]] (in all but name) in a straight horror film. And, low-budget though it is, the picture is in some respects more ambitious than Universal's sausage factory horrors, at least story-wise, and notable for its imitation-Universal look, a remarkable achievement for such a cheap film."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73689|title=Return of the Vampire, The|last=Galbraith IV|first=Stuart|date=February 19, 2019|website=[[DVD Talk]]|access-date=June 22, 2021|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624203638/https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/73689|url-status=live}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Vampire film]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book|last=Rhodes|first=Gary Don|authorlink=Gary D. Rhodes|year=2006|title=Lugosi: His Life in Films, on Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-0-786-42765-9}}
*{{cite book|last=Skal|first=David J.|authorlink=David Skal|year=2004|title=Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen|location=New York|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn= 978-1-429-99845-1}}

==External links==

* {{AFI film|632|The Return of the Vampire}}
* {{IMDb title|id=0037219}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|id=the_return_of_the_vampire}}

{{Lew Landers}}
{{Dracula}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Return of the Vampire, The}}
[[Category:1943 horror films]]
[[Category:1943 films]]
[[Category:American vampire films]]
[[Category:American werewolf films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Lew Landers]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco]]
[[Category:American gothic horror films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films set in London]]
[[Category:Films set on the United Kingdom home front during World War I]]
[[Category:American World War II films]]
[[Category:World War II films made in wartime]]
[[Category:1943 English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language horror films]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=The Return of the Vampire|access_date=2026-03-07}}