For all intents and purposes, Bela Lugosi is basically playing his most famous role again here. Columbia had wanted this to be a sequel to the 1931 Universal "Dracula", but when Universal threatened legal action, they ended up changing the names.
Bela is in fine form, playing the doomed Armand Tesla, a vampire expert of centuries ago who became a blood sucker himself. A professor (Gilbert Emery) and his female assistant (Frieda Inescort) temporarily put an end to his reign of terror, despite Tesla having his own assistant, a werewolf named Andreas Obry (a very good Matt Willis). The vampire is resurrected during WWII, and he goes about seeking revenge on Inescort, by targeting the professors' granddaughter (a gorgeous young Nina Foch) and Inescorts' son (Roland Varno).
It's the fresh wrinkles in a familiar plot that make this fun. We get a tough and straight-shooting female Van Helsing in the form of Inescort, and some heart and soul thanks to the dilemma facing Andreas. He has to struggle to retain the goodness in his soul, despite the best efforts of the evil Tesla, who has a powerful hold over him.
If it weren't for the Columbia logo up front, you may think you were watching a typical Universal treatment of this sort of material. The atmosphere is as potent as it needs to be, and the wartime setting also helps a great deal. Lew Landers (who was name checked in "The Howling" 38 years later) directs efficiently, and the music by Mario C. Tedesco is excellent. The performances are all enjoyable: Bela is of course in his element, and Inescort is an impressive heroine. Some comedy is derived from the friction between her and Miles Mander, who plays the Scotland Yard inspector; she's come to believe in vampires but he naturally dismisses that sort of idea as fanciful rubbish.
And yet, at the end, he's not so certain anymore. He even closes the picture with an amusing moment of fourth wall breaking, asking us what WE think.
Seven out of 10.
Bela is in fine form, playing the doomed Armand Tesla, a vampire expert of centuries ago who became a blood sucker himself. A professor (Gilbert Emery) and his female assistant (Frieda Inescort) temporarily put an end to his reign of terror, despite Tesla having his own assistant, a werewolf named Andreas Obry (a very good Matt Willis). The vampire is resurrected during WWII, and he goes about seeking revenge on Inescort, by targeting the professors' granddaughter (a gorgeous young Nina Foch) and Inescorts' son (Roland Varno).
It's the fresh wrinkles in a familiar plot that make this fun. We get a tough and straight-shooting female Van Helsing in the form of Inescort, and some heart and soul thanks to the dilemma facing Andreas. He has to struggle to retain the goodness in his soul, despite the best efforts of the evil Tesla, who has a powerful hold over him.
If it weren't for the Columbia logo up front, you may think you were watching a typical Universal treatment of this sort of material. The atmosphere is as potent as it needs to be, and the wartime setting also helps a great deal. Lew Landers (who was name checked in "The Howling" 38 years later) directs efficiently, and the music by Mario C. Tedesco is excellent. The performances are all enjoyable: Bela is of course in his element, and Inescort is an impressive heroine. Some comedy is derived from the friction between her and Miles Mander, who plays the Scotland Yard inspector; she's come to believe in vampires but he naturally dismisses that sort of idea as fanciful rubbish.
And yet, at the end, he's not so certain anymore. He even closes the picture with an amusing moment of fourth wall breaking, asking us what WE think.
Seven out of 10.