I have a fondness for 1950's Sci-Fi and horror films. But there are a few like ' Fiend Without a Face ', ' The Horrors of the Black Museum ' and this one called ' The Fantastic Disappearing Man ' in the UK which I dislike. A friend chose this for Halloween 2020 and I found it deeply unpleasant. It was cut in the UK but I had the uncut American copy, ' The Return of Dracula '. Why did I find it unpleasant ? There is a horrifying concentration on the blindness of a young woman and what happens to her. It is sickening and could have been avoided. There is nothing of the pleasing Gothic in this film, but set in the then modern setting of a Californian town. Some reviewers have compared this to Hitchcock's ' Shadow of a Doubt .' The Hitchcock film is grim but this pushes further and the way it is filmed is realistic, and the chilling use of the ' Dies Irae ' adds to the overall morbidity. This morbidity is so omnipresent that it could overwhelm some viewers. Despite my total dislike Francis Lederer is excellent, and so is the supporting past. The colour sequence and its context is also directed for disgust and exploitation. There is no fun at all in this film unlike many other horror films of the period. If children were allowed to see this in the US when it came out I feel sorry for their psychological health, and it is certainly even now to be avoided by those who are afraid either of blindness or a fear of death.
Review of The Return of Dracula
