Tonight on MeTV, after the July 4th blasts, we get some very different blasts- that are responsible for the disinterment and restoration of a dangerous vampire thought to have been dealt with years ago! This is the movie that ostensibly returned the great Bela Lugosi to the familiar role of an undead caped menace the grave could not imprison. This time he is seeking revenge against the family that tried to end his practice of making unauthorized transfusions a generation ago in the 1943 chiller “Return of the Vampire” ( but NOT one certain vampire – we’ll explain later)!

Sir Fredrick Fleet of Scotland Yard is mulling over notes written almost a quarter century ago by an Oxford professor- one Walter Saunders-describing an unbelievable incident. It involves a vampire who, aided by a werewolf lackey, was seeking out the whereabouts of one of his victims. She had been taken to the clinic of physician Lady Jane Ainsley, who was baffled by the cause of the female victim’s anemia (though we are not!). Living on the premises of the clinic, unfortunately, were Lady Jane’s son and Professor Saunders’ granddaughter- and when the vampire arrived during the night, finding that he could not get to his original victim since she was not alone- he attacked the vulnerable granddaughter! After the original victim had passed away- Prof. Saunders consulted a detailed treatise about vampires, written some two hundred years ago by one Armand Tesla.

Observing the telltale marks on the deceased woman’s neck that made him believe she was a victim of -a vampire, he has great difficulty getting Lady Jane to believe such a fantastic claim- until they discovered the young grand-daughter Nikki now bore the same marks! They manage to save her and the Prof. and Lady Jane search the cemetery- ready to drive a spike through the vampire’s heart! They succeed- and, with the vampire’s demise, his werewolf assistant returns to his human form, released from the curse by the vampire’s death.

We return to the present- 24 years later- and some grim news; Sir Fredrick of Scotland Yard demands that the body of this alleged vampire must be found. The reason- if things match the descriptions in the notes, since there is no actual proof that the victim in question was a genuine vampire, he has no alternative but to accuse Lady Jane of murder- since she would have killed an ordinary living person! Lady Jane insists that her victim was indeed a two-hundred-year-old vampire- in fact, Armand Tesla himself- whose morbid fascination with vampires was what caused him to become one (not quite the usual vampire lore we’ve learned in previous movies, but…)! The only way to validate her claim is to find the body and see that it hasn’t decomposed. Overhearing their plans is Andreas- the former lycanthrope assistant to Tesla, now human again, and working at the clinic. Hearing the plans to find Tesla’s body, he is truly upset, recalling the horrors of his werewolf past.

In a tragic coincidence, a World War II bombing raid on the area causes some damage at the very cemetery where Tesla is interred- and bizarre circumstances lead to Tesla being revived! That leads to Andreas reverting to his werewolf form and once again doing the vampire’s bidding, with Tesla’s new scheme to take revenge on Lady Jane and her loved ones!

We’ll explain on our program that this film was originally planned as a sort of sequel to Lugosi’s original “Dracula”-and you’ll learn why that had to be changed. We’ll present information about the cast, which, besides Bela, includes the lovely Nina Foch, plus interviews with cast members of a certain more contemporary vampire movie, a song, a visit from Gwengoolie, another visit with a Sven comic book artist and lots of bonus Sven entertainment-including an encore of our visits with such luminaries as two of our talented friends whose voices are very familiar to fans of ‘Pinky and the Brain”- Rob Paulsen and Maurice La Marche- and more!

"Return of the Vampire" awaits you on Me-TV tonight at 8pm eastern/pacific, 7 pm central, or, if unsure of station and time in your area, please check your local listings or at www.metv.com . MeTV encourages you to comment live during the show on Bluesky, or live-Tweet (or X) along with the scores of Sven fans on Twitter/X. As always, use the hashtag #svengoolie in all your posts! Chicago viewers can enjoy a second look-if they can stand it- at the aliens and augmented astronaut face-off in “Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster” at 11 am on WCIU, THE U.

Again, make sure to occasionally check our “appearances” tab here on our website for updates and more info on upcoming events like the San Diego Comic Con at the end of this month, and Flashback Weekend horror convention in August.

We hope you are having a great holiday weekend and enjoy many unhappy returns with us-and Bela- tonight!