During the early 1940s, Bela Lugosi was well into his contract with Sam Katzman at Monogram, and still had the occasional supporting role over at Universal. After the success of Universal's FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (in which Bela played Frankenstein's Monster for the first and only time), Columbia Pictures was quick to realize the potential of mixing monsters together, and the result was THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE. Playing off his enormous popularity as Dracula, Lugosi is here cast as 200-year-old vampire Armand Tesla (Universal owned exclusive movie rights to the Dracula name at the time), with the added attraction of a werewolf assistant.

The film commences in 1918 London, when physician Lady Jane Ainsley (Frieda Inescort, THE AMAZING MRS. HOLLIDAY) is witness to a number of deaths that she suspects are caused by vampirism. With the help of a professor friend, they discover the crypt of vampire Armand Tesla (Lugosi) and drive a spike through his heart. Witness to this is Andreas (Matt Willis, THE MARK OF THE WHISTLER), a poor vagrant who is the vampire's faithful werewolf servant. Now that Tesla has been destroyed, Andreas' soul has been freed — at least for the time being. Years later during WWII, Lady Jane is still a prominent physician with Andreas under her employment. During a Blitz raid, a bomb drops on Tesla's crypt, freeing his body in the process. Two workers remove the spike from his heart, unknowingly unleashing the vampire upon London once again. Tesla enslaves Andreas (who still periodically transforms into a wolf) and poses as a visiting doctor to take revenge by entering the home of Lady Jane. Tesla now has his sights on the beautiful daughter Nicki (Nina Foch, CRY OF THE WEREWOLF) attempting to take control of her soul and make her his own.

THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE contains everything that makes classic horror films of this period so special. It's brimming with atmosphere in the form of foggy graveyards and decaying crypts, with Lugosi's vampiric presence being the highlight of the show. As the speech-gifted werewolf, Matt Willis (who in human form resembles a stocky Buster Crabbe) is fun to watch and is given much screen time (his interaction with Lugosi is most memorable, as is a scene where he transforms right before two bumbling cops and easily overthrows them). Frieda Inescort plays a competent female Van Helsing-type, and a very young Nina Foch (in her first feature film) is nicely cast as the innocent heroine. The film's climax displays some innovative (for the time) special effects that were actually censored when originally shown in Britain.

Previously available on VHS, laserdisc and DVD, your would think THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE’s arrival on the Blu-ray would have been sooner, but it’s certainly in good hands with Sony now licensing the title to Scream Factory. This is a definite improvement over the previous DVD transfer, and although the film will never look perfect, it’s consistently pleasing to the eyes here in 1080p HD. Presented full frame (1:33), the image has tight, well-rendered grain which is completely natural looking and heavier in spots. The contrast is good, supported by a nicely modulated grayscale, while the image remains sharp throughout the presentation. Black levels are perfectly deep and white levels are stable and consistent. The film element contains some minor speckling which is age-related and never in the least bit obtrusive. The audio is presented in an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, and has adequately balanced dialogue, music and background effects. English SDH subtitles are also included. Like with Columbia Tri-Star’s previous DVD release, this Blu-ray maintains the onscreen introduction not seen in previous video versions, the passage that reads: "The imagination of man at times sires the fantastic and the grotesque. That the imagination of man can soar into the stratosphere of fantasy is attested by …" (this is then followed by the film’s title).