The Return of the Vampire

Verbose but appealingly tatty little horror movie which is given a facelift by excellent performances (Foch did well enough in this debut to earn a starring role as the splendidly lycanthropic gypsy queen in Cry of the Werewolf). Dracula (Lugosi in his first genuine vampire role since the original Dracula), now known as Armand Tesla since Columbia had filched him from Universal, is unearthed by a bomb during the London blitz, and goes about his usual depredations with the aid of a werewolf (Willis) whose presence was obviously inspired by Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Soon after, monster rallies assembling all the old favourites became two a penny as the ailing horror genre went into almost terminal decline.