How surprising, Dracula himself (Francis Lederer) does not like life behind the Iron Curtain. (Probably state-sponsored) people there trying to stake him could probably be part of the reason for that. Barely escaping a staking, the vampire takes the place of a certain Bellac Gordal, a painter on his way to emigrate to America and live there with distant relatives. Living with a widow (Greta Granstedt), her annoying son Mickey (Jimmy Baird) and family daughter Rachel (Norma Eberhardt) who isn't all that happy with life in small town America and very much wishes her "cousin" to be her savior from dreariness sounds like a fine change of pace for Drac. He's just starting out to have a little fun creating a new group of minions when his old enemy, the communist vampire hunter Meiermann (John Wengraf) comes to town, and if someone would have bothered to write an ending of some real dramatic impact, they would most certainly be bound for a final confrontation.
The Return of Dracula is very atypical for vampire movies of its day in putting the vampire into the contemporary world. For the first half of the movie, it looks as if director Paul Landres is willing to do some rather surprising (for an American film of 1958) things with this setting as well as with some interesting aspects of the film's subtext (the vampire as person who won't conform to society on one side, a priest and a communist agent protecting America on the other), but the last half hour or so forgets mostly about being interesting and sees the film turning into a bog standard vampire story that might as well take place in Victorian England or anywhere else, until the film just stops dead in its tracks.
I'd still recommend the movie for its many moments of striking black and white photography (Landres knew a lot about framing, it seems) and for the interesting beginning. You just shouldn't expect any kind of thematic pay-off or a well constructed ending.
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2 comments:
I can't remember if I've seen this one, but the premise does sound so promising. Like Shadow of a Doubt with a vampire in it.
Yes, the premise is great and it's also quite the looker.
The ending is quite prophetic for the way Hammer would later handle most Dracula deaths. Although it is not as bad as "death by bush".
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