The Vampire Bat (1933)

The early 30s were of course the great days of the CLASSIC horror movie - the horror wave (although its beginnings lay back in the silent days, with first and foremost performer Lon Chaney) started in 1931 with "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", both made by Universal Pictures, which took their vampires and monsters seriously, and exploited about every old Eastern European or other superstition, until even the audiences of the time almost started believing in vampires and werewolves...The other 'school' was initiated by Warner Brothers, in 1932 with "Dr. X" and the following year "The Mystery of the Wax Museum" - and with both films starring Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill. You could call it the 'scientific school', because in those cases there is a real-life explanation for the murders - nothing supernatural about it. And since those two great masterpieces were enormously successful (and expensive: they were the two first Technicolor talkies, the first in 2-color and the second in 3-color; that shows how much the producers believed in their new 'science horror' concept), Wray and Atwill were teamed again, this time by Majestic Pictures - and with a much smaller budget, and in black-and-white, of course.But "The Vampire Bat" develops the concept further: this time, a police inspector is looking for a REAL murderer while all the superstitious villagers believe in vampires; so, from the beginning, the movie mixes crime and horror (a concept that MGM would 'take over' a year later in "Mark of the Vampire", in quite a similar, though not very scientific way) - and, parallel to the good old creepy houses and dark caves which every fan of classic horror movies loves, we've also got a real, neat 'whodunit'. A two-in-one movie, you could almost say - and although we may ask ourselves after a while why the young inspector (Melvyn Douglas' turn to become Fay Wray's rescuer; he'd also had his experiences in the genre in "The Old Dark House") doesn't suspect the sinister scientist for a moment, while all the village is hunting after poor, mentally retarded Herman (another MARVELOUS madman portrayal by Dwight Frye), we're just contented when finally the big light goes on in his head, and he saves his girl from the hands of her mad employer...This movie really makes you go back in time and feel like a cinema-goer in 1933 - a piece of film nostalgia which has got just about everything: romance, horror, crime, and its share of humor; what else could you want for a GREAT late-night entertainment?

The village of Klineschloss is in the grip of fear, several of its inhabitants having recently turned up dead, drained of their blood and with what look suspiciously like bite marks in their necks. Can a vampire be at work, as the locals believe, or is there a less supernatural reason for the steadily rising body count? I'm not going to spoil matters by revealing the answer, suffice to say that Lionel Atwill DOESN'T play against type.Atwill's Dr. Otto von Niemann is just one of the film's many uninspired stock characters (superstitious burgermeister, sceptical police inspector, sassy female scientist, village idiot, comic relief aunt) who, along with the unimaginative script, routine direction, and predictable outcome, make The Vampire Bat a rather mediocre experience—frustrating since it features a terrific cast worthy of better material, including two-time Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas, King Kong beauty Fay Wray, and Dwight Frye of Dracula fame, who steals the show with his excellent performance as Herman Gleib, a misunderstood simpleton with a love of bats (soft, like cats!).

"The Vampire Bat" is one of those underrated horror films of the early 1930's that seems to impress more with each viewing. I won't go into the details of the plot, as that has been covered multiple times in other reviews, and it's not the story that makes the film shine.There are three things that make "The Vampire Bat" stand out from the other poverty row films - the cast, the direction, and the comedy.The Cast - Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Wray get the heavy lifting in the film, and all are excellent. Atwill is perfect for this type of part, as he demonstrated many times. Douglas is sufficiently perplexed as the investigator, and Fay Wray is just gorgeous in distress. The other players add sufficiently, especially Dwight Frye channeling a dimmer version of Renfield from Dracula.The Direction - Frank Strayer does an admirable job in shooting the film, with creepiness abundant and lots of camera movement. Some shots are just so outstanding (such as the opening scene), that they almost seem out of place in a cheap horror movie. Strayer provides loads of atmosphere and never loses the audience. An excellent job.The Comedy - As with most horror films of this time, comedy relief was thrown in to lighten the mood of the audience, and in most films, the comedy was misplaced and terribly unfunny. However, in "The Vampire Bat" the comedy, mostly provided by Maude Eburne as Aunt Gussie, is spot on and still funny today. This helps to keep the film watchable.The Downsides - There is really only a couple of downsides to the film. The first is the editing, which is clumsy and hurried. It sometimes spoils the excellent direction. Cuts are often not matched, and this can distract. Obviously, this was not a big budget film, so the sets and overall production values are not high, but this is mostly glossed over by the efficiency and care shown by the director, but there are a few scenes where the seams showed too much, like the cave scene, parts of which look like it was filmed in a closet.Overall, "The Vampire Bat" is certainly worth a look for the great direction, a mad Lionel Atwill, and the always lovely Fay Wray.

Tod Browning was probably very pleased if he ever saw this movie, as the plot is so similar to his London After Midnight (1927), and later remake The Mark Of The Vampire (1935)he would have been very complimented at such stealing! A top notch cast including Melvyn Douglas, Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill and Dwight Frye try hard to make The Vampire Bat believable, and it has some nice atmospheric touches and ghoulish moments; but it also has a totally ludicrous solution to the mystery and Maude Eburne, who makes Una O'Connor look like someone you'd love to spend an evening with! The story concerns a series of vampire-like murders in the German village of Kleinschloss. The local oddball Herman is a chief suspect due to his penchant for visiting victims the night before they were murdered and making pets from the local bat population. The locals, obviously having just moved from Ingoldstadt near the Frankenstein residence, pursue him to his death, which they hope will solve the problem. Kindly Dr. Otto Von Niemann (Lionel Atwill) even admits that it looks like Herman (Dwight Frye) could be the one responsible. The local police inspector (Douglas) finds himself beginning to agree. You know where this is going, don't you? Atwill can act this sort of stuff on his head, and he's always welcome and value for money. He really needed a better script, as it's not very clear exactly what he's trying to achieve. Frankenstein creates a man-monster, Von Niemann what looks like a bath sponge!The Vampire Bat never gels very well but it does have its moments, notably a medical blood draining session and some shadowy sequences with the murderer leaping across the rooftops near the beginning of the film. I won't go any further into the story other than to say it ends in a rather nasty case of...Epsom Salts! What is of interest is the cast. As well as the horror regulars mentioned above we also have Lionel Belmore (Frankenstein) Robert Frazer (White Zombie) and Rita Carlisle (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) to round things out and its always fun to watch such actors go through their usual routines. A minor entry then in the early 30s horror boom, not without compensation.