"The Vampire Bat"*** (out of ****)
Don't go batty watching "The Vampire Bat" (1933).
Made at the low-rent movie studio, Majestic Pictures, "The Vampire Bat" has a classic mainstream Hollywood horror feel to it comparable to what was being made at Universal Pictures. In fact, I prefer "The Vampire Bat" over many of the movies Universal was releasing after its first major monster movies of the 1930s such as "Dracula" (1931) and "Frankenstein" (1931).
Speaking of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" it is these two movies that "The Vampire Bat" seems most inspired by but in no way should you believe the movie is a cheap imitator.
We are in the small European town of Kleinschloss. Many deaths have been reported. Although there are no clues or evidence, the police believe the deaths were all the result of murders. Each victim had the same two small punctured marks on their neck, which drained the bodies of all their blood. The townsfolk believe it is the work of a vampire terrorizing the town.
One of the police inspectors, Karl (Melvyn Douglas) however simply cannot believe in such superstitions. There are no such thing as vampires. But what is causing the murders? Karl can't explain the loss of blood from the bodies and no a trace of it is found at the murder scenes. But, vampires can't be the answer.
Naturally this part of the story will make some think of "Dracula". Is Karl wrong? Is there really a vampire sucking the blood from the townsfolk? Of course we could also compare it to the silent movie, 'The Bat" about a serial killer that dresses like a bat.
Although he doesn't receive top billing (Lionel Atwill does!) Melvyn Douglas is the hero of the story and gives the best performance in the movie. Mr. Douglas' interpretation of the character is so good I can't think of another actor, during this time period, playing it as well. To me the tonspeople give off an old European 19th century vibe that clashes with Mr. Douglas who plays a young, modern, metropolitan character that has a sarcastic side to him. As the inspector, Karl repeatedly makes remarks about the belief in vampires as ridiculous and sometimes plays along with the townspeople just to get them worked up and scared.
The only two sensible people in the town, according to Karl, are Dr. Niemann (Atwill), who wants to help Karl solve the case and eventually tries to get him to accept the theory a vampire is the cause of the deaths, and Ruth (Fay Wray), Karl's girlfriend and is something of Dr. Niemann's assistant.
Unable to explain the deaths, the townspeople become anxious and start to suspect Herman (Dwight Frye, who was Dr. Frankenstein's assistant in the original movie and Renfield in the original Dracula). Herman is mentally challenged and keeps bats as pets. Mr. Frye plays Herman in the same way he played Renfield, with a certain deranged, lunatic quality.
"The Vampire Bat" is also able to inject a lot of humor in its story though I wouldn't refer to this as a comedy / horror. The humor comes from Karl's remarks about vampires and a character that is a hypochondriac and amateur doctor that believes she has every disease she reads about in medical books.
As much as I like many elements of "The Vampire Bat" there some shortfalls to the movie. One of the issues is the movie's running time. The total running time is approximately 60 minutes. This is essentially a "B" movie and the running time is average for such movies however what was edited out? There is a lot of story here that a longer running time could have benefited. That leads to the second issue with the movie. There are no death scenes. Not to sound morbid but a good horror movie needs a death scene. We never see any characters get killed. All violence is off screen.
Imagine scenes where the victims sees a menacing shadow, we see fear in the eyes of the victims. Music swells to a high pitch. We see the eyes of the murderer and the beginning of the attack while the camera pulls back. It may sound cliche but that's what you see in horror movies. Scenes like this create suspense. Although I have no proof, I'm willing to bet scenes like this were filmed but due to pressures to keep the running time at a particular length were left on the cutting room floor. If true, that would be unfortunate.
What "The Vampire Bat" does right is create a nice sense of community. It has interesting characters played by a fine cast of actors, who give very good performances. The story-line is interesting although its conclusion feels a little rushed and I felt could use more explanation. The villain's motivates will remind you of Dr. Frankenstein's motivates. It leaves us with the same theme as Universal's horror movies, the dangers of science and the far reaching ambitions of scientist.
For years only public domain copies existed of "The Vampire Bat" but thanks to the UCLA a restored version has been released on DVD and Blu-ray. I have not seen this restored version but can only assume it has a better print quality than the version I am familiar with.
"The Vampire Bat" did not reach the level of cultural influence the Universal horror movies during the same period did but this a very good movie that deserves an audience. Interestingly the director, Frank R. Strayer, directed the Blondie and Dagwood movie adaptations of the popular comic strip.
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