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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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4
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Legendary
vampire Count Dracula (Francis
Lederer) leaves Eastern Europe and travels to a small California
town, seeking fresh victims...
The
Return of Dracula is one of those late-'50s American
horror films that make me get down on my knees and thank God
for Britain's Hammer Studios —
and I'm not even religious.
It's not that it's badly made or horribly acted or anything
like that; for a low budget quickie cranked out for drive-in
consumption, technical aspects are actually quite decent. It's
the half-baked ideas behind it that ultimately torpedo
the thing. Fortunately Lederer makes for an acceptably offbeat
Count, even if I do have a slight problem with his physical
appearance. (Dracula should not,
repeat not, have Matt Helm hair.) Also notable is the
gimmicky "shock" insert of color footage —
in this case the staking of Dracula's female victim —
which gives it something in common with William Castle's The
Tingler. The film is a little bit bloodier than most
of its American contemporaries but, unlike Mexican and British
vampire films of the day, it doesn't show a single fang.
Being stuck on the
wrong side of the Iron Curtain has apparently grown wearisome
to the Count. He murders a man named Bellac Gordal, an artist
traveling to the West on a cultural visa, stealing his papers
and assuming his identity. One quick stock footage montage later,
"Bellac" alights at the train station in Carleton,
California, a thoroughly whitebread little town that could be
the Mayberry of the Left Coast. He's warmly greeted by the American
branch of the family, especially college-age Rachel (Norma Eberhardt),
an admirer of his artwork. None of them recognize "Cousin
Bellac" as an impostor because he hasn't been to the States
since he was a little boy (and obviously never sent a photograph
in the interim).
Their new houseguest
is certainly polite but something of an oddball —
he sleeps during the day, doesn't like mirrors, refuses to socialize
with family friends and disappears for days at a time. The Count's
been busy, though, establishing his coffin in an abandoned mine
(Ro-Man's cave in Robot Monster)
and preying on a blind woman (Virginia Vincent) at the local
nursing home. He has plans for Rachel, too, but these coincide
with the arrival of a Van Helsing-like European police official
(John Wengraf) working with the U.S. immigration service. A
vampire hunting posse is hastily formed. Can the dragnet zero
in on Cousin Bellac before it's too late for Rachel? Or will
she and boyfriend Tim (Ray Stricklyn) have to save themselves?
The film is competently directed by TV veteran Paul Landres
and features an interesting, if somewhat bombastic, score by
Gerald Fried (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., original Star
Trek). Plopping Dracula in the middle of Small Town U.S.A.,
however, just didn't work for me. I mean, why would he want
to set up base there?
As the weirdo stranger in town he sticks out like a sore thumb;
among a small populace, where everyone knows everyone else,
people just can't start falling mysteriously ill and dying without
greater notice being taken. Dracula persists in maintaining
the Bellac persona, making him vulnerable to regular document
inspection by the immigration service (which should have
a photo of the real Bellac on file)... The Count's motivations
in this film just don't make any sense. Why didn't he simply
disappear amid the rush and whirl of cosmopolitan New York City
when his boat docked there? Teeming with millions of potential
victims, his anonymity assured... Nah. He'd rather hang
out in Pleasantville.
Despite his Rat Pack
attire and Dean Martin hairstyle (all that's missing is the
cigarette and martini), Lederer effectively projects a sense
of quiet menace, a patient spider waiting calmly for the fat
little flies to enter his web. But it was a bit difficult for
me to accept the much younger Rachel developing a crush of sorts
on him. Supposedly attracted to Bellac's continental sophistication,
she blithely overlooks his aloof, unsocial and downright weird
behavior until it's almost too late. Even more puzzling is our
villain's reciprocation of this attraction. Without, I hope,
being unduly harsh on Ms. Eberhardt, her character is just not
all that and a bag of chips. Rachel is a pleasant, thoroughly
average small town girl who really has nothing special to offer
the Lord of the Undead. What is it about her that gets his motor
running? I just don't see it. She's simply not a hot enough
chick to cross land and sea for.
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| Issued
as part of their recently reactivated Midnite Movies line,
MGM's DVD is a double feature "flipper" disc pairing
Return of Dracula (Side A) with 1957's
The Vampire, another B&W
American horror film from the Eisenhower years. (Sometime in the
near future I hope to cover it in EC's Short
Takes section.) Both films are presented
in anamorphic 1.85, with a choice of either mono or stereo audio
tracks. A/V quality is generally high. Prints are sharp and blemish-free
(Return looks a tad dark in spots,
however); sound, in either mode, is quite good. Neither film is
allotted any extras, not even a trailer. Certainly can't complain
about the low price, though.
(NOTE:
The DVD Rating of "7" factors in the total value
of this double feature disc, which is currently selling for under
$12.) 10/12/07 |
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