Vampiress Review: "The Return of Dracula"

The Gist: Dracula sneaks into the United States by murdering and taking the place of a man who was moving there to live with his long lost family.

Clarification:  This is easily one of the most trusting families in Cinema considering their new cousin is quite the creepy molester type who is very hands on with the girl who is supposed to be his high school aged cousin.  Of course they just pass his creepiness off as him not being accustomed to the American ways of not being a groping molester (legitimate 1950's logic).

Luckily for them a vampire hunter has followed him to the United States under the guise of a government agent just in time to prevent him from turning her into one of the undead.

Selling Point: Unless you're a completionist as far as Dracula movies go not much.  This isn't a bad movie at all its just that Hammer Horrors first Dracula movie "Horror of Dracula" came out later the same year and was far superior since this film is quite toned down with it's implied horror compared to Hammers graphic horror.

Female Vampire Factor: This film follows the premise of most Dracula films that would come after the 1930's Bella Lugosi film. Dracula has his eyes on one attractive female but for whatever reason goes after a completely unrelated one first.  In the original it was Lucy, in this it would be a young blind girl named Jennie (Virginia Vincent).

  Jennie meets the same fate Lucy does in pretty much the exact same manor. 

The main object of his affection as mentioned is the young daughter of the family he lives with Rachael (Norma Eberhardt).

1958 promotional photo for the film

Unfortunately per usual with these films Dracula takes too long and dies before he can finish his plan. The above promotional still is the closest you get to an undead Rachael which is not in the film other than he does paint a picture of her in this pose.

There is only one piece of graphic horror in this film with the staking of Jenny in her coffin (which is  also the only part of the film in color).  Otherwise no biting or fangs and the worst thing you get is a dog attacking a guy.  I give it Vampire Beauty Rating of 1 out of 5.  It's very easy to see how Hammer Horror became the go to production company for Dracula films in this era.