ZC Rating 3 of 7: Good
Bela Lugosi's career didn't fare well after his initial fame with Dracula. Having apparently failed the makeup screen test for Frankenstein--though he wasn't overly found of playing the monster anyway--his reserved and aloof demeanor kept him from ingratiating himself with the Hollywood in-crowd. That, and the rapidly rising stardom of Boris Karloff after his noted portrayal of the Frankenstein Monster, put Lugosi in a deteriorating career position.
Although he created intensely unique and effective characters such as Dracula, Murder Legendre in White Zombie, and Ygor in Son of Frankenstein, he spent much of his time acting in lesser roles. After Dracula, he portrayed a "real" vampire onscreen only two more times; as Armand Tesla in The Return of the Vampire, and as the more comedic count in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Lew Landers' The Return of the Vampire plays like a Brothers Grimm fairytale. You have your evil villain, the occultist turned vampire, Armand Tesla (Bela Lugosi), his reluctant servant, tragically caught between good and evil and lycanthropy, a wartime beleaguered, ruined London as backdrop, and seething revenge creeping along in the foggy night.
