Wed 29 Jul 2015
Reviewed by Jonathan Lewis: THE RETURN OF DRACULA (1958).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[8] Comments
THE RETURN OF DRACULA. Gramercy Pictures/United Artists, 1958. Francis Lederer, Norma Eberhardt, Ray Stricklyn, John Wengraf, Virginia Vincent, Gage Clarke. Director: Paul Landres.
This one has been on my radar for sometime, but I never got around to watching it until now. Which is surprising, given my general fondness for the Dracula legend, B-horror films, and the late Francis Lederer as an actor.
I’m glad I finally did. Simply put, The Return of Dracula does low-budget horror right.
Directed by Paul Landres, who also directed a movie with the unelaborate title, The Vampire (1957), the storyline of The Return of Dracula is absurd on its face. The infamous Carpathian count flees Eastern Europe for sunny California in order to reboot his vampire empire. So, if you can suspend even more disbelief than you’re ordinarily expend in watching a vampire movie, you will get the chance to see Dracula (Lederer) as he takes on the identity of a man he kills and shacks up with a California suburban family. All the while pretending to be the family’s exotic cousin. Dracula’s naturally got his eye on his supposed second cousin, the beautiful and innocent Rachel Mayberry (Norman Eberhardt). Well, that’s the case until she decides to start wearing a cross around her neck.
So with a plot like this, what’s there to like? The answer: plenty. What the movie lacks in terms of a compelling storyline, it more than makes up in atmosphere and mood. There are numerous camera shots that aren’t particularly elaborate, but work extraordinarily well in creating a general sense of uneasiness for the viewer, provoking an otherworldly sense that something just isn’t right, of a world off kilter.
The film is likewise well served by a minimal and eerie soundtrack that heightens the tension at the right moments. And while Mayberry may not have been the most skilled of actresses, Lederer, in one of his late film roles, more than holds his own in his portrayal of one of literature’s best-known monster villains.
July 30th, 2015 at 3:47 am
This film has been compared to Hitchcock’s SHADOW OF A DOUBT, and while it is nowhere nearly as good, it is a well-delivered “B.”
July 30th, 2015 at 5:06 am
Screenwriter Pat Fielder later admitted she lifted the plot from Hitch.
July 30th, 2015 at 9:22 am
A neat little movie.
July 30th, 2015 at 9:29 am
The story of Gramercy Pictures, is told here, if the link works:
https://books.google.com/books?id=L8PK4jszVDoC&pg=RA1-PA82&dq=Gramercy+pictures+pat+fielder&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAGoVChMI2dj0qoaDxwIVAZINCh0ZFACT#v=onepage&q=Gramercy%20pictures%20pat%20fielder&f=false
Pat Fielder is one of the people that author Tom Weaver is interviewing, and this is the source for that statement that Bill is referring to in Comment #2, about 2/3 of the page down.
The four horror films that Gramercy filmed in the mid to late 60s are THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, THE VAMPIRE, THE RETURN OF DRACULA, and THE FLAME BARRIER, all scripted by Pat Fielder.
These appear to be the only horror films she wrote. Most of the rest of her career was writing for television, with lots of credits there:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276102/reference
July 30th, 2015 at 10:33 am
Steve, It would seen there’s a numerical error between the last two paragraphs in #4. I leave it to you to find it.
July 30th, 2015 at 11:46 am
Randy, For a long time I have been assuming that if nothing else, I could always count on my fingers. Now it seems I can’t even do that any more.
But thanks for catching the error. I’ve fixed it now, and no one else will ever know.
July 30th, 2015 at 1:48 pm
You handled it in just the right way.
August 1st, 2015 at 1:39 pm
This one is much better than it sounds on paper even on Jonathan ‘ s favorable review. Not a gem perhaps, but certainly a well polished pretty stone in an attractive setting.