Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The Return of Dracula (1958)


"The Return of Dracula" is a very good Dracula film heavily influenced by Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt".

Dracula is posing as a long lost relative of a family and living with them.  His purpose for arriving to California and living with this family is so he can start a new race of vampires on this side of the world.

Francis Lederer plays Dracula and he does a very good job.  He is charming, yet very threatening.  Dracula turns a blind girl into a vampire and she is pretty scary herself.  There are frightening shots of the female vampire running in the graveyard to get back to her coffin before the sun rises.

While I was watching "The Return of Dracula" something struck me about the music in the film.  It sounded very familiar.  I was finally able to figure out that it is the same theme as "The Shining".  I later researched it and found out that it is an old tune that many horror movies use.  

"The Return of Dracula" is a very good monster movie.  I was surprised how well shot and directed the film was.  I was expecting a cheap Monogram type film, but instead it seemed to be closer to an "A" type picture.  It is up there as one of the better vampire films.  

B  I recommend it.

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