Funny thing about Lugosi is that he only played Dracula twice in his life on screen, 1931 Dracula and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, took like 16 or 17 years to play Dracula again, for some reason Universal didn't want to exploit him as Dracula, don't know if turning down Frankenstein branded him as uncooperative or appearing in other vampire films for other studios had anything to do with it.
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shareI know Universal weren't happy about the situation with Columbia's The Return of the Vampire. Don't know if you know the story, but Columbia decided to make their own Dracula pic (there was some question over the copyright of Stoker's original book). They even hired Bela Lugosi to play Dracula. Universal got wind of it and threatened to sue. As far as Universal were concerned they had the legal rights for any films based on Stoker's book. And even if there was any basis for that to be challenged they certainly owned their version of Dracula - which they argued was inextricably linked in the public consciousness with Bela Lugosi's portrayal. Columbia backed down - to an extent. They still made the film but changed the vampire's name to 'Armand Tesla'. They also filmed an additional opening sequence showing Tesla being staked 20 years earlier, justifying their retention of the word 'return' in the film's title and giving a valid context to the already scripted scenes showing the removal of the stake allowing Tesla's (formerly Dracula's) resurrection (obviously Columbia ignored Universal's own sequel, Dracula's Daughter (1936), which showed Dracula's body being destroyed by fire in the first 15 minutes).
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