Vampire Flicks: The Return of Dracula (1958)

Back to The History of Sci-Fi and Horror for my introduction to this one, which featured a slow motion clip from the film of Dracula opening and then rising up from a fog-filled coffin, as Butch Patrick described it as one of two Dracula films released in 1958. The other was the first Hammer film with Christopher Lee, which, needless to say, is infinitely more seminal (not to mention better, but we'll get to that). While it does have some surprisingly gruesome moments, including one that wouldn't seem out of place in a Hammer vampire flick, this low budget, black-and-white B-movie had no chance at all against Hammer's full color, grisly, Gothic aesthetic and Lee's ferocious performance as Dracula. And, truth be told, this is not a case of a really popular movie overshadowing a similar but no less great one that came out around the same time. Like with The Vampire a couple of days ago, I didn't see The Return of Dracula (an irrelevant title, as this isn't a sequel to anything) until I got that Midnight Movies double feature DVD of both of them at McKay's at some point during my 20's. Upon watching them, while The Vampire proved slightly above average, this one is more of what you'd expect from a low budget vampire flick from this period. Like Blood of Dracula yesterday, it's a mostly mediocre film that does feature a fairly good lead performance, as well as some efficient direction and fair attempts at atmosphere, but has little else to offer in regards to many of the other characters. Furthermore, it tends to meander around, with fairly long stretches of little substantial happening, and, as also with yesterday's movie, the ending is sudden and anticlimactic, with Dracula going out in an undignified manner.

In the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe, a group of men track Count Dracula to a specific cemetery and attempt to destroy him as soon as the sun rises. But, when they open the coffin, they find it empty, as Dracula is safely aboard a train elsewhere. As it departs, he's joined in his car by Bellac Gordal, a Czech artist who's traveling to the United States to visit family in the small town of Carleton, California. However, no sooner does he put his luggage away than he's immediately killed by the Count. Later, in Carleton, Bellac's cousin, Cora Mayberry, and her two children, young Mickey and teenage Rachel, hear that his train is coming in earlier than expected. The three of them, along with Rachel's boyfriend, Tim, head to the train station, where they're surprised to learn the train had no passengers, just cargo. However, they're then met by "Bellac," who goes home with Cora and her family, staying in a spare room in their house. They quickly find his behavior to be rather strange, as he comes and goes as he pleases, tending to disappear for the entirety of the day, supposedly to indulge in his art, and when he is around, he comes off as detached and distant. This disappoints Rachel, who feels a kinship with him, due to her own interest in art. She goes to the local parish, where she works as a nurse and tends to Jennie, a blind young woman. Speaking with her, Jennie tells Rachel that she feels as though she's going to die soon, but can't explain why. Later that night, when Jennie has fallen asleep and Rachel has gone home, Bellac pays her a visit, promising to free her soul and allow her to see again. The next day, Rachel gets a call that Jennie's condition has worsened and goes back to the parish. Hysterical and frightened, Jennie gives Rachel a crucifix, and attempts to close the window, despite being told it's already closed, and dies from the strain. After her funeral, Mack Bryant, from the Department of Immigration, arrives at the Mayberry home, explaining that he needs to check Bellac's immigration records. When Bellac returns home, he allows Bryant to do so and speaks with him, but is unaware that he also photographs him with a camera disguised as a cigarette lighter. It turns out Bryant is working with John Meierman, who led the attempt to destroy Dracula back in Europe. Now, Meierman is out to prove that the Count has come to Carleton, while, at the same time, Dracula has his evil eyes set on Rachel.

After bringing to the screen a very unusual type of bloodsucker in The Vampire, director Paul Landres would not only tackle a more traditional vampire story here, but a take on the most famous one of them. This would prove to be his last horror movie (though he would, that same year, direct an episode of the Boris Karloff television show, The Veil), and one of his last feature films as director, period, with his last being a 1959 western called The Miracle of the Hills. He would then spend the rest of his career in television, directing episodes of numerous shows, most of them also westerns, like Death Valley Days, Bonanza, The Rifleman, Maverick, Lawman, and Cheyenne, though he did also work on shows like Flipper. His last directing job was on a 1972 episode of Adam-12, after which he retired. Landres died of cancer in 2001, at the age of 89.

Francis Lederer was a fairly obscure, Czech-born actor who, nonetheless, had a stage and film career that lasted from 1919 to the early 70's. His time in films actually ended the year after The Return of Dracula, after which he appeared sporadically on television, with his very last appearance, ironically, being as Count Dracula in an episode of Night Gallery. I say "ironically" because Lederer admitted late in his life that he hated being in this film, saying his agent tricked him into doing it. He's also not likely to be remembered as one of the best actors to ever play Dracula, that's for sure. But, that said, his portrayal is still a decent one. Having managed to elude a group of people intent on destroying him in the Balkans, Dracula makes his way to America, killing and taking the identity of Bellac Gordal in order to stay with his extended family in Carleton, California. (The scenario is a lot like if you took Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt and put Dracula in place of the psychotic Uncle Charlie.) Once there, he finds that Rachel, the teenage daughter of Bellac's cousin, feels a kinship with him because she also has a passion for art, wanting to be a dress designer, and Dracula, in turn, takes a certain interest in her. He also tells her shortly after arriving that he hopes the family will excuse and simply indulge some of his quirks, saying, "My life has been... confined. That's why I've come here, for freedom. I must have it... Perhaps I will grow to learn your ways in time but, until I do, I may seem strange to you. A recluse." This includes his seemingly being out all day, painting, when, in reality, he's been resting in a coffin in a nearby abandoned mine-shaft, rising once the sun goes down. Upon returning to town, he meets with Rachel as she heads to the parish where she works the night-shift as a nurse, and she tells him about Jennie, the blind girl she often cares for. When she mentions how Jennie feels "alone" and "in the dark" because of her blindness, it seems to pique Dracula's interest, as he tells Rachel, "Well, upon your recommendation, I shall make it a point to visit her some time." He does so that night, appearing in her room after Rachel has gone home, telling her, "I can free your soul, Jennie. I can take you from the blackness, into the light." He then moves in and bites her, beginning the process that leads to her death and eventual resurrection.

After Jennie's funeral, Dracula has to deal with Mac Bryant from the Department of Immigration, allowing him to see the papers he took from the real Bellac. However, when Bryant asks him some personal family questions, he naturally fumbles his answers, and is unaware that Bryant secretly takes his picture. Still, not wanting to take any chances, Dracula then goes to Jennie's crypt and resurrects her, telling her, "We have work to do." He has her go to the train station where Bryant is and lure him to the nearby 

woods where, in the form of a wolf, she mauls him to death. Afterward, when Dracula turns down an invitation to attend a Halloween party at the parish house the following night, Rachel asks him why he continues to be so aloof and distant. Dracula simply says they want him to conform and behave the way they want him to, insisting that they must accept him as he is and not question it. He adds, "If my behavior seems different, perhaps it is because it serves a higher purpose than to... find acceptance in this dull 

and useless world," and promises Rachel that she will understand what he means soon. That's when he sees that she's wearing a crucifix that Jennie gave her before she died. Using his hypnotic influence, he tries to make her remove it, but her boyfriend, Tim, unknowingly intervenes when he calls for her from downstairs. That night, Rachel has what seems to be a dream, where Dracula appears in her room and, again, makes her remove the crucifix. Standing over her at her beside, he tells her, "There is only one reality, Rachel, and that is death. I bring you death.

A living death... I bring you the darkness of centuries past and centuries to come. Eternal life, and eternal death." He leans in to bite her neck, and though it seems to have been a dream when she suddenly awakens, with her younger brother scaring her with a Halloween mask, she finds the crucifix lying on the floor. That night, before the Halloween party, she, again, tries to ask "Cousin Bellac" to join them, only to find a disturbing painting of herself in a coffin in his room, and then run into him down in the

living room, where she sees he has no reflection in a mirror. He doesn't deny this, saying, "The flesh is only an illusion. The heart beats only when it is drunk with blood." Again, because of Tim, he's unable to do what he plans with her, but he now has a firm, hypnotic hold on her mind.

As you can see, while he's never all that menacing or creepy, Lederer does play Dracula's seductive, hypnotic side quite well, and also manages to nicely convey his disdain for the world of the living through his fairly elegant dialogue. Also, while his interest in Jennie may have initially seemed as something of an act of compassion on his part, freeing her from her blindness, when Rachel meets up with him in the mine shaft during the climax and tells him that Jennie is going to be staked, he dismissively says, "She has

fulfilled her purpose." He then makes it clear that Rachel is all he's interested in, telling her, "We shall never be touched. The world shall spin and they all, all shall die. But not we." But, before he can turn her into a vampire, the crucifix, which she's again wearing, stops him and he tells her to remove it. While she does so, Jennie is staked, and Dracula actually feels it, something he clearly didn't expect, given his reaction. It causes him to recoil and slump to the ground, breaking his hold on Rachel, who runs

for it. She meets up with Tim, who shows up at the mine, and they both try to escape, only for Dracula to cut them off. He then attempts to seduce Tim's mind, telling him that Rachel is delirious and needs their help. Rachel gives Tim the crucifix, telling him to keep it lifted up, but Dracula confidently smiles and says, "Her sickness has caused wild imaginings, wild fantasies. I will not harm you. Put down the cross, Tim. We must help Rachel. We must combine our strength for her good, you and I. Our destiny must be fulfilled here. We three are the only ones who will

survive this dying world... That's right. Put down the cross. It is only a burden, huh? And your arm, it feels like a leaden weight." Thanks to Rachel, she snaps Tim out of his momentary trance, and he manages to force Dracula back with the crucifix. Dracula hurls threats at them, telling Tim he will die, only to end up falling down a shaft behind him, where he's impaled through a large, wooden pole. Sure, Christopher Lee's Dracula would go out in some pretty sorry ways over the years, but that was just pathetic.

Instead of the tuxedo and cape that Bela Lugosi made famous, or the Victorian era costume that Lee would wear, Francis Lederer's Dracula always wears a modern day suit and tie, often with an overcoat draped over his shoulders as sort of a modern answer to the cape, and even has a hat sometimes. It may not be as classic, but it does give him something of a memorable visage all his own. Still, this is the first portrayal of a vampire we've seen so far this month that ticks just about all the expected boxes: sleeping 

in a coffin during the daytime, repelled by crosses, casting no reflections in mirrors, needing to be staked through the heart, and able to turn into bats and wolves. Dracula never becomes a bat onscreen but you do hear the fluttering of wings during the climax in the mine shaft, and Jennie becomes a wolf in order to kill Bryant (it's actually a white German shepherd, par for the course in low budget vampire flicks like this). In addition, as was established back in Son of Dracula, the vampires are also able to become a

cloud of mist, as Dracula does when he enters through Jennie's window, and which Jennie also does in order to leave her crypt after she's first resurrected. Speaking of which, during that scene, it's hinted to be something of a painful process, as Jennie grimaces when she takes her first breaths, and Dracula tells her, "That's right. It hurts to breathe again. But only for a moment." Like in both versions of the 1931 film, there are some moments here where Dracula appears to communicate with people telepathically, and he 

seems to be linked with those he turns into other vampires, which, again, even he himself doesn't seem to realize until Jennie is staked. And, besides repelling them, crosses can also immobilize vampires, as Meierman does to Jennie after she returns to her coffin during the climax.

One thing I feel they kind of bungle is the notion that Dracula bites and feeds on Jennie and then Rachel. While it's you'd obviously expect, and the movie's opening narration establishes that this trope is in play with the line, "Feeding on the blood of innocent people, he turned them into his own kind, thus spreading his evil dominion ever wider," you never see any bite marks on Jennie or Rachel's throats, even when the camera gets close on them, and no one else mentions seeing any such marks, nor do the girls 

themselves seem to feel any. It may sound like a strange thing to quibble about, but it makes you wonder if Dracula is indeed biting their necks or doing something else to slowly turn them into vampires. And given how bloody the movie is at a few points, it doesn't seem unreasonable that they could put in a few bite marks here and there.

Though she's not actually related to him, Rachel Mayberry (Norma Eberhardt) is like Charlie Newton in Shadow of a Doubt, in that this "relative" who comes to visit her family in their quaint little town, and with whom she feels a certain kinship, turns out to be a horrible monster (literally, in this case). In fact, even though they've never met before, Rachel has felt a connection to "Cousin Bellac" for a long time. Shortly after he arrives, when the two of them are able to talk alone in his room, she tells him that she read the letters he sent her mother over the years and found she could relate to his situation in the Balkans: "I could feel the pain you felt, how you wanted to express yourself, but couldn't. I know how that is. I feel the same way too, sometimes." She reveals that she dreams about being a dress designer, but figures she'll likely be a nurse, given her night job at the parish. Because of this apparent bond, Rachel wants to show him around town the next day, but finds his room empty, as he's resting in his coffin in the mine-shaft. She runs into him while on her way to the parish that night, and tries to get him to come with her, but he politely refuses. Still, she asks him to come by some time and talk to Jennie, before heading on herself. While sitting and talking with Jennie, Rachel is troubled when she talks about feeling like she's going to die soon, and that she has an unexplained feeling of fear about her. However, Rachel dismisses her fears as just imagination, and after reading to her for a while, heads home when she falls asleep. The next morning, however, she rushes back to the parish when she hears that Jennie's condition has worsened. There, the hysterical girl gives Rachel her crucifix, insisting that she take it, adding, "You know him," before she then dies.

When he turns down the invitation to the Halloween party, Rachel asks "Cousin Bellac" if they've done something to offend him, given how he continues to be so distant and aloof, and adds that he doesn't seem to be giving them a chance to really accept him. He, in turn, says that they must not question his actions, and promises that she will soon understand. That's when he notices she's wearing the crucifix that Jennie gave her, and uses his hypnotic influence to try to make her remove it. She almost does, but her

boyfriend, Tim, yelling for her from downstairs snaps her out of her daze. That night, as she's preparing for bed, Rachel seems troubled by what happened, and seems to vaguely remember Bellac's disdain for the crucifix. After she goes to bed, he appears her room and, this time, succeeds in making her remove the crucifix, before proceeding to bite her. When she awakens the next morning, with her younger brother, Mickey, scaring her with a Halloween mask, she finds the discarded cross on the floor next to her bed, 

suggesting it wasn't a dream as she likely thought. She ends up sleeping for much of the day, and when she finally comes downstairs, she tells Tim about the "dream," the details of which she can't remember. She also momentarily forgets that Jennie is dead, and in general, seems pale and out of it. That night, while her mother and brother leave for the party, Rachel lingers behind to put on her costume. Her mother also tells her to again ask Bellac to come to the party, and she seems really uneasy about it, fiddling with the crucifix, which she's wearing again. Once she has her 

costume on, she goes into Bellac's room, only to find some of his painting canvasses lying against the wall. She looks at them out of curiosity, only to be horrified when she finds one depicting herself lying in a coffin. She runs downstairs and calls Tim, asking him to come over immediately. But when she hangs up, she's faced with Bellac, whom she sees has no reflection, and realizes he's Count Dracula. Once more, she falls under his spell, and when Tim arrives, leaves for the party with him in a state of trance. At the party, the local reverend, Dr. Whitfield, introduces Rachel to

John Meierman, and they tell her that Cousin Bellac may not be who he says he is. Whitman also asks that Rachel and her family stay overnight at the parish house. However, when she then overhears the two of them talking about Jennie, she leaves the party the next time she gets a chance and meets Dracula at the mine-shaft, warning him about their suspicions. But, when Jennie is staked in her crypt at that moment, it causes Dracula to lose his hold on Rachel, giving her the opportunity to try to flee the cave.

Though the movie ends with him being proving to be something of a hero, for much of it, Tim (Ray Stricklyn) is a pretty insignificant character, coming off as little more than Rachel's well-meaning but somewhat temperamental and bone-headed boyfriend. He's one person who isn't taken with Cousin Bellac, whom he often describes as a phony. From the very beginning, when he and Rachel overhear Cora Mayberry tell Bellac how glad she is that he's there and leads him into the house, Tim comments, "Now that's what you call a real snow-job." The young couple also have their first major argument because of him, when Rachel comes down from attempting to invite Bellac to the Halloween party, acting weird and claiming that she's tired. Noting that she wasn't tired when her "phony cousin" came in earlier, right when they starting to make out, Tim storms out in frustration. He apologizes for his behavior the next day, and is clearly concerned at how strange Rachel is looking and acting. Then, that night, she calls him in a panic and tells him to come right over, but when he gets there, she insists there's nothing wrong, that she just wanted him to see her Halloween dress. Regardless, he takes her to the party, but as he dances with her, her mind is obviously somewhere else. When she suddenly leaves later on, Tim runs after her, trying to make her tell him what's going on, but rather harshly rebuffs him and tells him to leave her alone. Somehow, though, during the climax, he figures that she's at the mine-shaft, and arrives right after Dracula has lost his hold on her. He tries to take her to safety, only for Dracula to block their path and use his influence on him, nearly causing him to put down the crucifix that Rachel gives him. But Rachel manages to snap Tim out of his trance, and he ends forcing Dracula back with the cross until he falls through a large hole, and is impaled through his back and heart on a wooden beam down in that pit.

Rachel's little brother, Mickey (Jimmy Baird), is the first one introduced when the film switches to California early on, searching the mine-shaft near town for his cat, Nugget. He finds him at the bottom of the very pit that Dracula falls into at the end, but is unable to get to him. He leaves him there when he hears the train transporting Cousin Bellac approaching, deciding to try to get him later. After they visit the train station and bring Bellac back with them, Mickey then tries to go get Nugget, but his 

mother refuses to let him go in the dark. He does go back the next morning, only to then return home in tears, crying to his mother that he found Nugget dead, ripped apart. But, as devastated as he is, like most kids, he gets over it quickly, and spends the rest of the movie doing little more than annoying Rachel with his little devil Halloween costume. Cora Mayberry (Greta Granstedt) doesn't have much of a role in the long run, either, coming off simply as a kindly mother who is also really happy to have her cousin visiting. Since she hasn't seen him since they were kids, she doesn't realize this person isn't actually Bellac, and also, since she lost her husband some time before, she's really glad to have a man around the house again. However, like Rachel, she wishes that Bellac would be more open with them, which is why she has Rachel invite him to the Halloween party. But unlike her daughter, she never learns the truth about him.

Poor Jennie Blake (Virginia Vincent) can be seen as something of the Lucy Westenra to Rachel's Mina Seward. A really sweet and kind, blind young woman whom Rachel often cares for at the parish, sitting up with and reading stories to her, she tells Rachel when she comes to see her one night that she has an uncomfortable feeling she's going to die soon. Though Rachel tells her it's silly, Jennie doesn't agree, saying, "Some nights... some nights are darker. Some are almost black, Rachel. Like tonight. It seems so dark, and I'm scared. I'm scared of being alone." She then becomes frightened, seemingly at the sound of dogs howling outside, but then says she hears something at the open window. Rachel doesn't see anything when she goes to look and simply closes it, figuring what Jennie heard was just the wind. But later that night, after Rachel has gone home, Jennie learns she had good reason to be afraid, as Dracula appears in her room. She hears him before he materializes, telling her that she could see him in her mind's eye if she tried hard enough. As he promises to free her soul and allow her to see, Jennie says that she is now able to see him, after which he goes in for the bite. The next morning, when Rachel comes back to the parish upon hearing that Jennie's condition has worsened, she becomes hysterical, claiming that she saw "him," and tells Rachel that she herself knows him as well. Giving her a crucifix, Jennie, despite being told that the window is closed, gets out of bed and goes to close it herself, claiming that "he" is outside and will hear them. The strain of this causes her to literally drop dead, and she's laid to rest in a crypt in the town cemetery. 

But, that very night, Dracula resurrects her, and has her kill Mack Bryant of the Department of Immigration after he's come snooping around, asking for "Bellac's" immigration records. Appearing as a white figure in the distance, calling to him, she then takes the form of a wolf and brutally attacks Bryant, mauling him to death. But, unlike Lucy, Jennie doesn't seem to attack anyone else after becoming a vampire, even though she does leave her crypt at night. John Meierman proves this on Halloween night

when he's able to open her coffin, much to the horror of those accompanying him. And when she returns to the cemetery and the crypt later on, Meierman immobilizes her by placing a crucifix on her chest and, after Dr. Whitman says a prayer for her, stakes her, freeing her soul.

Naturally, John Meierman (John Wengraf) is our Dr. Van Helsing equivalent, right down to how he's always believed in the existence of the undead and has spent much of his life trying to prove it. The film begins with him and some men tracking Dracula down to the cemetery in the Balkans, only for them to find that the Count has eluded them when they open his coffin. Determined to find and destroy him, Meierman trails him to the United States and, specifically, to Carleton, where he works with Mack Bryant. He manages to pinpoint Bellac Gordal as a possible suspect, and when Bryant is found dead near the train station after speaking with Bellac and Mayberry family, Meierman is now sure of his suspicions. He discusses the matter with the local sheriff and, through his help, talks with the town doctor, who allows him to look through the records of all the deaths in Carleton over the past few weeks. After pouring over all the information, he goes to Dr. Whitman and tells him what he suspects. To prove it, he shows Whitman the picture that Bryant surreptitiously took of Bellac while talking with him, revealing that his image didn't appear on the film. Also telling him that he believes Jennie was a victim of Dracula, Meierman asks for Whitman's help in opening her crypt to prove it, adding that, if he's correct, her soul must be freed. 

At the Halloween party that night, Meierman and Whitman, unaware that she's under Dracula's influence, tell Rachael that they believe her Cousin Bellac isn't who he claims to be, but don't elaborate any further. They also ask that she and her mother stay at the parish house that night, but after they send Rachel back out, they don't realize that she eavesdrops on their following conversation about Jennie (actually, Meierman proved to be really bad at not coming off as suspicious, as he was fiddling

around with a wooden stake when Whitman brought Rachel into the office). When they, along with the police and some others, go out to the crypt, they find that Jennie isn't in her coffin, confirming Meierman's suspicions. They then wait for her to return to the crypt before sunrise, and when she does, Meierman manages to immobilize and stake her, not only freeing her soul but also unknowingly breaking Dracula's hold on Rachel at the same time.

Even though he works with Meierman, it's unclear whether or not Mack Bryant (Charles Tannen) believes his claims that the person he's attempting to find is a vampire. I say this because Bryant has no reaction when Meierman mentions the different forms that vampires can take and how they must return to their coffins before sunrise; his expression is totally unreadable. In any case, he does what Meierman tasks him with: ask Bellac Gordal for his immigration pictures, and also secretly take his picture with a camera disguised as a cigarette lighter. He hands the film over to Meierman afterward, then goes to the train station to leave town, but as he waits outside, the now undead Jennie calls for him from nearby. She lures him over to a wooded hillside next to the tracks by calling for him like she needs help, and then, when he's close enough, she, in the form of a wolf, attacks and kills him.

Paul Landres must've liked the name of Paul Beecher from The Vampire, as there's another character here with that name, and he also happens to be the town doctor. However, this Dr. Beecher (Robert Lynn) has a very minor role in the story, with his most significant scene being when Meierman meets with him and Beecher allows him to review the records of the deaths that have occurred in Carleton during the previous three weeks. The info that Meierman gleans from these records leads him to speak with Dr. 

Whitman (Gage Clarke), the town reverend. Naturally, Whitman is shocked when Meierman says he wants to open Jennie's crypt, but then, he reminds him of the legend of vampires and Dracula that Whitman himself heard of while studying in the Balkans. Again, he's skeptical when Meierman suggests that Dracula himself is now in Carleton, especially since he also knows the Mayberry family, and has met "Bellac Gordal." Meierman then shows him the photograph that Bryant took of Gordal, and though Whitman initially feels Bryant was simply a bad photographer, when Meierman tells him that Bryant was killed shortly after he took the picture, the reverend is willing to at least listen, especially given his claim that Jennie is likely a vampire now, too. However, he doesn't like the idea of partially deceiving Rachel about it, only telling her that her Cousin Bellac may not be who he claims, and asking that she and her mother remain at the parish that night. When they find Jennie's coffin empty in the crypt, and see her return to get back in it later, Whitman tries to rationalize what he's seeing by insisting that she was merely buried alive. Meierman tells him that he knows that's baloney, and then, before he stakes her, Whitman prays for her soul.

Like he did with The Vampire, Paul Landres' direction of The Return of Dracula is more inspired than you might expect for a movie like this. It starts right with the opening credits, which open on a close-up of a man, obviously meant to be Dracula, in silhouette, and then, when the title appears onscreen, his eyes become illuminated and they stare right into your soul. The camera slowly pulls back as the rest of the credits roll, revealing the shape of Dracula's torso, but his eyes remain the only part of him you can actually see, and it makes for a genuinely eerie image. And 

when it ends on Landres' directing credit, you can just make out several candles burning in front of Dracula. The film's actual opening, where John Meierman and his assistants attempt to destroy Dracula in his crypt, is shot and edited very efficiently, and then, in keeping with the credits' motif, Dracula's face is kept hidden the first couple of times you see him. When Meierman and his group discover that Dracula's coffin is empty, it cuts to him sitting in a train car, his face obscured by a newspaper he's supposedly reading, and when Bellac Gordal joins him in the car, 

you get the briefest glimpse of his eye as he peers over the paper at him. His killing Bellac is only implied, as he menacingly approaches him, only for it to suddenly cut to the train whistle outside at it blows, followed by a POV shot going through a tunnel. It's not until he appears at the train station in Carleton, impersonating Bellac, that you see Dracula's face, as well as his entire form. But, even before he arrives in Carleton, Landres nicely sets up one of the expected vampire tropes by establishing the large mirror in the

Mayberry house's living room, which eventually leads to Rachel realizing who Cousin Bellac really is when she sees he has no reflection. Something that I always remembered from that clip I saw in The History of Sci-Fi and Horror of Dracula rising from his mist-filled coffin was that it was done through a strange, slow-motion effect, and that effect is in the actual film. But the most startling bit of direction and editing comes when Jennie is staked during the climax, as it suddenly cuts to a full color close-up of the stake's

point being driven into her, with vivid red blood gushing out of the wound, not unlike what you would see in a Hammer vampire flick (including their first Dracula that same year). I knew about that going in, as it was mentioned in that documentary, but I can imagine how startling that would be if you're not ready for it.

Landres also does a decent job with instances of atmosphere and mood, such as in the first scene with Jennie, when she tells Rachel about the foreboding feeling she's been having lately. The lack of music as she talks about it is then highlighted by the eerie sound of howling dogs outside, as well as when she says she thought she heard something at the open window. After Rachel goes home for the night once Jennie has fallen asleep, you see her sleeping in her bed, with the room lit in an eerie, shadowy manner, followed by Rachel walking home, with the wind

blowing softly around her, when she seems to feel an unsettling presence. She then hears something that we don't, and is led off into the bushes by it, when Tim drives by and snaps her out of it by honking his horn. And then, after Dr. Whitman leaves the parish, a cloud of mist appears outside Jennie's window, enters the room, and materializes into Dracula, who, like with Rachel just now, initially speaks to Jennie telepathically. Speaking of Jennie, once she's a vampire and lures Mack Bryant to his death, the sight of her in the distance, near the edge of the woods by 

the railroad tracks, calling to him, and then disappearing behind a tree, is rather spooky. The scene where Rachel goes to bed after Dracula has first tried to make her remove Jennie's crucifix is also a bit eerie, due to how strange she seems to feel, followed by her, like before, hearing the dogs howling outside. She looks out the window, then up into the sky, where she sees clouds passing over a full moon, then ducks her head back in, turns out the light, and gets into bed. She reads for a little while, but a dissolve reveals that 

she fell asleep at some point, and the camera pans up from her sleeping, to the open window, and then over to the right, where Dracula is standing, watching her. After he successfully makes her remove the crucifix and goes in to bite her, it suddenly cuts to a closeup of Mickey wearing his devil Halloween mask and growling at Rachel, making for an effective jumpscare. And finally, there is genuine a creepiness to the sequence where she finds the painting of her in the coffin in "Bellac's" room, and panics when she

runs out into the hall, afraid that he might be in the house. It's fairly tense when she makes her way back downstairs and calls Tim, telling him to come over, before she runs into Dracula (however, this suspense is only hurt by her stupidly calling for Cousin Bellac while coming down the stairs).

However, despite Landres' directorial skill, the low budget does become very apparent a few times, particularly in the myriad of day-for-night footage. It actually kind of works during the opening, since it's almost sunrise and they plan on opening Dracula's coffin and exposing him to it, but when he later rises from his coffin in the mine-shaft and heads back to Carleton, it looks as though he's walking around in the middle of the day. Also, while they, thankfully, knew better than to show Dracula in bat form, as you can only imagine how awful that would've looked, 

that "wolf" that Jennie becomes in order to kill Bryant is, as I said before, clearly just a white German shepherd. Again, I can't be too hard on this particular movie about that, as a lot of low budget vampire movies, especially in the 60's and 70's, often tried to pass dogs off as wolves (that'll become very clear as we continue on throughout the month), and, if nothing else, at least, they used a type of German shepherd that's kind of easier to imagine as one.

Though it opens in the Balkans, much like The Vampire, this is another early example of one of these types of movies being set in contemporary times, in a small, white-bread American town. We don't see much of the actual setting in the Balkans, save for the cemetery where they attempt to destroy Dracula, and the train station, but some credit must be given to how it's not depicted in the stereotypical backwards manner, with everyone looking as though they still live in the 1800's. Instead, everybody wears contemporary clothes, and you see modern cars being 

driven, rather than the expected horse-drawn carriages. The town of Carleton is shown to be a typical picture of American life in the 1950's, with the Mayberry family living in a nice, well-furnished, upper-middle class home, while the seemingly nice-looking parish house serves as the town's very modest house of worship. However, once Dracula arrives, both those places, as well as the normally peaceful and picturesque town streets, develop a feeling of menace about them during the nighttime scenes. The town cemetery (the exact same filming location for 

the one in the Balkans), as expected, does naturally have a bit of an ambience about it, and comes off as effectively gloomy on the day of Jennie's funeral, but the day-for-night cinematography keeps it from being as spooky as it could've been. The inside of the mausoleum, however, where Jennie is laid to rest and where Dracula resurrects her, is quite memorable, with the stained glass window and large candelabras inside. And, while it does feel like something of a cheap substitute for the dark tombs of Castle Dracula 

or Carfax Abbey, and the set itself is nothing to write home about, the mine-shaft where Dracula keeps his coffin (the exterior of which is good old Bronson Cave) does still make for an unusual and appropriately dark lair. Finally, unlike the sorry excuse for it we got yesterday in Blood of Dracula, not only does the movie's climax take place on Halloween, but there's more emphasis on the holiday, with people dressed up in various costumes (Rachel

as a peasant girl, Mickey as a devil, etc.) and a lively party set at the parish house, with people dancing, drinking punch, bobbing for apples, and the like. And while it's not decked out to the nines, there are far more decorations here than that one skull and crossbones decal we saw in the girls' dorm.

I've mentioned the similarities between this film and Shadow of a Doubt, but it does also have more in common with the original Bram Stoker novel than you may think. Besides the characters of Rachel, Jennie, and Meierman filling the respective roles of Mina, Lucy, and Van Helsing, the basic story is the same: Dracula leaves his homeland to seek out fresh blood in a new country, but in this case, it's 1950's America instead of Victorian era London. Also, while he doesn't seem to massacre everybody onboard, he does travel from Europe to the United States via ship.

Most notable of all, though, is the scene where Meierman, Dr. Whitman, the sheriff, and some others, upon discovering Jennie's empty coffin, stake out near the mausoleum and eventually see her reenter it, which is quite similar to when Van Helsing and his group wait for Lucy to return to her tomb. And, while the circumstances are very different, like Mina in the novel, Rachel does lead one of the heroes, Tim, to Dracula, resulting in the Count's defeat. Speaking of Dracula himself, unlike the vagueness of it in Blood 

of Dracula, here, his actual existence in this reality is confirmed. At the same time, he's also a well-known, legendary figure, as Dr. Whitman knows of his legend from his studying in the Balkans, and it's likely that others probably know of him as well. And, while it probably wasn't intentional, the movie's opening narration could serve as an early example of the fictional Dracula being tied in with the real Vlad the Impaler: "It is a known fact that there existed in Central Europe a Count Dracula. Though human in appearance and cultured in manner, he was in truth a thing undead... a force of evil... a vampire."

Unfortunately, while I would probably say it's better than Blood of Dracula, The Return of Dracula is still a pretty so-so movie overall. Like Blood, while it does feature a good lead performance in Francis Lederer as Dracula, most of the other characters, while decently-acted for the most part, aren't that memorable. John Meierman does make for a decent authority on vampires in the Van Helsing mold, and I do like the character of Jennie, even if I wish they did more with her after she becomes a vampire, like have her stalk around town each night and prey on people, like Lucy

in the novel of Dracula. The other characters, however, are just kind of there, including Rachel, who's an okay protagonist, but not amazing. Also, despite its nice instances of atmosphere, unlike The Vampire, the film does sometimes feel like it's spinning its wheels, with a number of talky scenes involving these so-so characters that can be hard to get invested in. It's around the same length as The Vampire, and isn't tough to sit through by any means, but it's not as exciting as that movie often was. Like 

Blood, the ending, while final, is not at all climactic: in rapid succession, Dracula loses his hold on Rachel, then has to deal with Tim attempting to rescue her, only for the latter to ultimately force him back with the crucifix until he falls into a hole in the floor and gets impaled on a large wooden post at the bottom of the pit. There's never even a confrontation between Dracula and Meierman, as the last time we see him is when he stakes Jennie, and Cora and Mickey are last seen at the parish Halloween party, never learning 

what's happened or who Cousin Bellac actually was. And finally, while it's nice that the movie doesn't linger around any longer than it needs to once the monster is dead, the way it ends right then and there, after Rachel and Tim leave the mine, still feels abrupt.

As you saw with the sudden burst of color when Jennie was staked, this movie is a bit bloodier than you might expect. That's the most vividly graphic moment, but it's not the only one, as when Mack Bryant's body is found after Jennie mauled him to death in her wolf form, there's a close-up of lying on the ground, with blood all over his shirt. Also, when Dracula is impaled at the end, there's a lot of blood around the spot where the wooden post juts out of his chest. This is then followed by one of the movie's few instances of optical effects, when Dracula's body 

dissolves into a skeleton in a fading effect that's simple, and it looks pretty good for such a low budget. The other instances of these types of effects are whenever Dracula, and Jennie when he resurrects her, materializes out of thin air or the misty form they're able to take: simple, but well done.

If the ominous piece of music you hear during the opening of The Return of Dracula sounds familiar, that's because it's a version of the Latin melody, Dies Irae, which has been featured in other horror films, most notably for the opening of The Shining. It definitely makes for a strong, bombastic way to begin the movie, and composer Gerald Fried often makes use of it throughout the score, in different variations, and often as a leitmotif for Dracula himself. He also uses some more low-key, eerie sounds for scenes such as Rachel's walk home, while Dracula appears in Jennie's room and when Rachel has an eerie feeling about her when she goes to bed in that one scene. I don't like it as much as Fried's score for The Vampire, and I sometimes feel that it's a bit overbearing in some scenes, but if nothing else, it is memorable.

While I'd say it probably has more to recommend it than The Vampire's Ghost or Blood of Dracula, The Return of Dracula is still fairly so-so for the most part. It does benefit from a nice performance by Francis Lederer, as well as some other fine characters in Jennie and John Meierman; some well done and even rather inspired direction, as well as some good moments of atmosphere; the, at the time, unique setting for this kind of story of a small, American town; surprisingly gruesome moments; a memorable, if sometimes over done, music score; and some surprising allusions in the story to not only Shadow of a Doubt but also the original Bram Stoker novel of Dracula. But, on the negative side, many of the other characters, including the female protagonist, are just kind of there and not much to write home about, the low budget does become very apparent in some moments, and it's not as exciting or engrossing as Paul Landres' The Vampire, with many instances where you're waiting for it to get back down to business. It's another one I can only recommend to diehard vampire fans or classic horror completionists.