rdoyle29 A small town is suffering a rash of deaths that appear to be the work of a vampire ... wounds on the neck, blood drained, etc. Local cop Melvyn Douglas is skeptical, but the townsfolk are convinced and eccentric, bat-loving weirdo Dwight Frye is blamed. How is seemingly benevolent doctor Lionel Atwill connected. An enjoyable, brief little programmer with an impressive cast (Fay Wray is also here as a love interest for Douglas).

binapiraeus 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?

BA_Harrison 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!).

dougdoepke Apparent vampire attacks arouse villagers, causing local doctor to come to the rescue-- or does he.The movie comes across like a combination Dracula and Frankenstein, except we never see the monster. Heavy low-key lighting lends eerie effect, but movie has its creepiest moments with the hunched-over Herman (Frye) whose demented IQ appears capable of darn near anything. Watching him creep around the edges, mumbling some infernal thought makes the usually villainous Atwill seem positively benign. In fact, Atwill hardly changes expression the whole time making us wonder just what his deadpan scientist is really up to. But what guy really cares when we've got the gorgeous Fay Wray to ogle, just a year or two before that big hairy critter kidnapped her to the top of New York. Anyhow, it's a decent enough horror flick that manages a few chills, without being anything special, along with a rather tepid climax that doesn't help. Nonetheless, the very last scene still has me wondering and chuckling-- Epsom salts! Really!