I don’t have the best memory for faces, but I like to think I’d remember that of somebody whose chest I had helped to drive a spike through.  But not Frieda Inescort.  Even if it had been two decades since she and Gilbert Emery did this to a vampire played by Bela Lugosi in the first few minutes of 1943’s Return of the Vampire, it is shocking she doesn’t recognize the resurrected vampire when she’s face-to-face with him.  She even remembers the ring Lugosi had been wearing when they spiked him. I think that may be the last thing I would have noticed, but maybe she’s really into jewelry.

Admittedly, there was a weird distraction in the mausoleum and that was the vampire’s Renfield is a wolfman (Matt Willis).  The werewolf makeup is quite effective, allowing for a considerable range of expression.  Still, I was very confused by this glimpse into what may be an old-school monster universe I was previously unaware of.  I was waiting to see if another monster, maybe the creature from the black lagoon, is his chauffer. 

It is elements like these that had me occasionally wondering if this was meant to be a comedy. Alas, it otherwise plays it straight.  Even the opening credits were a bit off, as they are superimposed over a still of a vulture.  As soon as the credits wrap, we hear something on the soundtrack that is supposed to a noise the bird is making.  I don’t know if vultures make any sounds (and I’m too lazy to research that), but I’m pretty sure they don’t sound like a peacock, or whatever it is we’re hearing.

Anywho, it was back in the first world war era when Inescort had helped dispatch of Lugosi the first time.  That only happened after the vampire had attacked Emery’s pre-teen daughter, something which doubtlessly pushed the limits of what was acceptable in cinema of the time. 

Then the movie quickly shifts to the era of the next world war.  Willis serves as Inescort’s lab assistant, relived to have been restored to human form once Lugosi no longer has any power over him.  Emery’s daughter has blossomed into an adult played by Nina Foch, who is engaged to Inescort’s son (Roland Varno).  Nobody seems to question that relationship, though I found it deeply icky those two essentially grew up as brother and sister.

A bombing raid disrupts everybody’s lives in more ways than expected, as the destroyed mausoleum exposes to the elements Lugosi’s immaculately preserved corpse.  That’s where he’s found by a couple of old civil defense guys working the literal graveyard shift.  As one of them puts it as he surveys the destruction: “It’s getting so it isn’t even safe to be dead anymore.”  Finding Lugosi’s corpse, they think the spike in his chest is shrapnel, which they remove before reburying him.  Whoops.

The corpse isn’t there when Inescort goes to graveyard with a Scotland Yard detective played by Miles Mander.  I’m a little unclear on the particulars of the case he’s investigating but, two decades after the fact, he’s following through on his belief she killed Lugosi.  She was taking him to see that corpse to, um, clear herself of murder (?).  She believes that, when Mander sees the impossibly preserved body, he will be convinced she had killed a vampire.  But then the body is missing when they arrive and Mander concludes this clears his suspect of murder.  Um…what?!?

She’s soon hosting a formal dinner party where Lugosi appears, impersonating a doctor he had Willis kill.  You see, his former henchman is under his control again.  Curiously, Willis is not always in wolfman form while in his power—it’s like Lugosi can toggle that on and off while still maintaining his hold, which leads me ask why he doesn’t just leave Willis as fully human.  He’d draw a lot less attention that way.

Anywho, the party is where Inescort finds herself having an extensive conversation with Lugosi without realizing anything is amiss.  Lugosi gets an eyeful of the matured Koch and becomes determined to finish the job he started back when she was a child.  Which is…a…thing…

It’s no surprise Lugosi will eventually be defeated, though I was surprised by how he gets his comeuppance.  A character just happens to find a crucifix under an inch or so of dirt while fumbling through rubble.  I will call that development a deus ex deus.  Even weirder is there had been an earlier incident where Inescort’s son is bitten but, at the end of the film, she doesn’t bother to ask where he might be or if he’s even still alive.  It’s like she forgot she had a son.

Return of the Vampire is an odd entry into the canon of vampire cinema.  It’s good to see Lugosi as what is essentially Dracula once again, if not in name.  This is a better made film than much of the fare the actor would be reduced to doing in coming years, though the production is not up to the level of Universal, the studio which held the rights to Dracula.  I’m not sure if the film is better or worse for its quirks, but they do make it memorable.

Dir: Lew Landers

Starring Bela Lugosi, Frida Inescort, Nina Foch, Matt Willis

Watched on Shout Factory blu-ray