201) The Return of Dracula (1958)

Son of Halloween 2024's spectacular and not random vampire movie review extravaganza! (Part Five)

"I bring you a death- a living death."

Director

Pat Landes

Cast
Francis Lederer - Bellac Gordal
Norma Eberhardt - Rachel Mayberry
Ray Stricklyn - Tim Hansen
John Wengraf - John Meierman
Virginia Vincent - Jennie Blake
Gage Clarke - Reverend Whitfield
Jimmy Baird - Mickey Mayberry
Greta Granstedt - Cora Mayberry


I've skipped over a few vampire movies released between the 1940s and 1950s to get to this oddity - "The Return of Dracula."

The last movie I posted, "Son of Dracula" spawned the sequel "House of Dracula" in 1945 with John Carradine and Lon Chaney, Jr. 

"The Vampire's Ghost" was released in 1945 as well, from Republic Pictures. It's its own movie, though, and has nothing to do with the previous Dracula movies from Universal. 

The classic horror comedy, "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" came out in 1948 with Béla Lugosi reprising his role as Dracula. That deserves to be included in the Dracula-verse.  

"The Return of Dracula" is a United Artists production. It's not Universal so "Dracula" isn't the same at all to Lugosi's depiction. Plus, it was shadowed by U.K's Hammer Horror masterpiece, "Horror of Dracula" with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Michael Gough. I have a copy of "The Return of Dracula" as part of an MGM double-feature DVD set called "Midnite Movies." I found it on a free DVD shelf at a local library. 

There's several of these individual sets with different double-features, and this is one of a few I own in my library. It's packaged with the 1957 movie "The Vampire" also from United Artists. Both of these movies came out when horror movies were moving away from the shadowy and mysterious monsters, and moving towards the atomic age of the late 1950s and into the 1960s. 

"The Vampire" is a more sci-fi horror take on the vampire horror sub-genre. I was torn which one to post about in this slot.

However, they're both directed by Paul Landres. And as far as I know, the films are unrelated. 

In this movie, John Meierman (John Wengraf) is over in Central Europe investigating Count Dracula and attempting to capture him. 

Francis Lederer as Bellac Gordal, the vampire, in 
"The Return of Dracula."

He and some assistants are out at a cemetery planning on to corner Dracula inside his tomb and drive a steak through his heart. It's the best way to kill a vampire! 

When they open his casket, Dracula isn't inside. 

Little do they know that he's onboard a train heading out of town. 

On board the train. the vampire kills a Czech artist named Bellac Gordal who's heading to Carleton, California to visit some distant family members he hasn't seen since he was young. 

So, Dracula poses as Gordal once he steps off the train in sunny California. It doesn't sound like a safe place for vampires, but that's were he is.  

Gordal's widowed cousin, Cora Mayberry (Greta Granstedt) is fooled and is happy to see whom she thinks is Gordal after all these years. She invites him to stay inside her home with her son, Mickey (Jimmy Baird) and older teenage daughter, Rachel (Norma Eberhardt). 

Rachel is anxious to meet her distant cousin as she, too, has a love for art and is working on being a fashion designer. 

However, "Belloc's" behavior seems very strange. And he sleeps all day. 

Mickey's cat goes missing the day after he arrives, which is rather odd as well. 

Little do they know that he's really a vampire, and that he has taken up his resting place inside a nearby abandoned mineshaft. 

But the truth as a way of inserting itself, and before long Rachel and her boyfriend, Tim Hansen (Ray Stricklyn) begin to suspect Belloc isn't really whom he claims to be. 

"Return of Dracula" has a different setup to the customary Dracula movies, but the general idea remains the same. The vampire is looking to create a brood of vampires. Instead of taking up residence in the dark and sinister cold stone walls of a far-away castle nearly impossible to reach, this vampire takes up residence in Anytown, USA amidst an unwary typical suburban family. It could happen to anyone. 

Despite how much I found this to be a fun movie, I don't understand the title. First, where is Dracula returning from. I initially thought Dracula was returning from "The Vampire" which I mentioned. I actually haven't watched "The Vampire" yet, so I had to look up the synopsis. There is no Count Dracula in "The Vampire." I wonder if the writers of both these Landres movies are using the word "Dracula" as a noun instead of a proper noun. In other words, they think a vampire and Dracula mean the same thing as though Dracula isn't a proper noun. 

"A dracula snuck into my room last night and drank all my blood."

In one scene, Gordal turns Rachel's friend Jennie into a vampire. Later, Jennie is steaked through the heart. 

Norma Eberhardt and Ray Stricklyn.

Though the movie is in black and white, Jennie's quick death scene is colorized with the bright crimson red color of the stage blood grabbing the audiences attention.

The movie surpasses my expectations. I thought it was going to be the most vampiric B-movie so far. While it's certainly a product of its time, it's well executed and I found it satisfying and entertaining. This feels like a classic horror movie which may be why I enjoyed it. It has the feels of a B-horror movie or a long episode of "The Twilight Zone." Despite its obviously dated execution, it keeps it's classic premise sharp and maintains it's sense of horror, eeriness and dread. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Stephen King pulled some inspiration for his vampire tale, "Salem's Lot" from "The Return of Dracula" in that the audience doesn't need to travel off to Transylvania to be in the presence of a vampire. The vampire pops up in their own American neighborhood with all his mysterious foreign mannerisms. 

"The Return of Dracula" keeps a sense of fear and trepidation, perhaps tarnished with age...but it's still there and recognizable. 

It's not a perfect movie, especially considering whatever it has to do with the name of Dracula. In fact, the title would suggest it's a sequel which it's not. It's misleading. The movie is banking on the property of Count Dracula, and mentions the name Dracula only once as lore. But the vampire isn't Count Dracula. No relationship is referenced. It's its own movie. 

This movie might be confused with the 1943 movie "Return of the Vampire" which stars Bela Lugosi once again in the lead role.  

Though this movie comes across as a bit unnecessary, it still manages to leave a humble mark on the legacy of vampire movies. 

For a film from the late 1950s, it's borderline risque. It also utilizes jump scares, shadows and creeps. 
It keeps the suspense and trepidation lasting, and maintains a decent pace. 
Also, the sound track sounds like the theme from "The Shining." That's probably because it's the Dies Irae which can be heard at traditional Catholic funeral masses.