The Return of the Vampire

"The Vampire's Prey... a Beautiful Girl! Compelled to follow his commands! The blood of her fiancé on his hands! How can she escape the vampire?"

1943 1h 9m EN

😐

6.1

MID

🍅

86%

FRESH

⭐

6.2

IMDB

★6.1TMDB · 72🍅86%Rotten Tomatoes★6.2IMDB · 2,862

Horror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In 1918, an English family is terrorized by a vampire, until they learn how to deal with it. They think their troubles are over, but German bombs in WWII free the monster. He reclaims the soul of his wolfman ex-servant, and assuming the identity of a scientist who has just escaped from a concentration camp, he starts out on a plan to get revenge upon the family.

“The Vampire's Prey... a Beautiful Girl! Compelled to follow his commands! The blood of her fiancé on his hands! How can she escape the vampire?”

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Cast

Bela Lugosi
Armand Tesla
Nina Foch
Nicki Saunders
Roland Varno
John Ainsley
Matt Willis
Andreas Obry
Frieda Inescort
Lady Jane Ainsley
Miles Mander
Sir Frederick Fleet
Ottola Nesmith
Elsa Walter - Governess
Gilbert Emery
Dr. Walter Saunders

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Lew Landers
Writers: Griffin Jay, Kurt Neumann
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 69-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $1M — a 14.5× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

83 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Lew Landers, shot by L. William O'Connell. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Original score by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Paul Borofsky shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Lew Landers directs. L. William O'Connell behind the camera. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco scores. Paul Borofsky cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 69-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
2Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $1M — a 14.5× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
483 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
5Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
6Directed by Lew Landers, shot by L. William O'Connell. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Paul Borofsky shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Bela Lugosi and Nina Foch and Roland Varno carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "The Vampire's Prey... a Beautiful Girl! Compelled to follow his commands! The blood of her fiancé on his hands! How can she escape the vampire?".
11IMDB entry: tt0037219 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Only 72 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
13Classified under 9 themes, including "vampire", "cemetery", "coffin", "betrayal".