Bela Lugosi is the king of B-horror films. After Dracula he was typecast as the villain and was never really able to step out of the shadow of that one great role. He made almost 100 films in Hollywood; many that were straight up bad, but a rare handful of them were wonderful little gems. The Devil Bat is one of those diamonds in the rough.
Lugosi stars as the mad scientist villain of the film, Dr. Paul Carruthers. Carruthers is makes perfumes and such that made two families, the Mortons and the Heaths, very, very rich. To show their appreciation they offer him a check for $5,000, which just insults him. So he unleashes his secret project.
As well as making perfumes, Carruthers has also been experimenting with enlarging bats with electricity. He’s also trained these bats to hate a new scent he’s been developing. So his convinces those who wronged him to try the scent, then sicks his giant bat after them. He quickly starts knocking off both families.
No B-horror film would be complete without the plucky young reporter determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, and this film as Johnny Layton (Dave O’Brien) and his photographer sidekick, ‘One-Shot’ McGuire (Donald Kerr). Everyone is baffled as to the reason behind the attacks and of course no one even suspects Carruthers because he’s just such a nice guy.
With these elements in place you can probably deduce what happens next so I won’t bore you with it.
Bela wasn’t a superb actor, but he was very underrated. He could say more with his eyes and his smile than he ever could with the crappy dialogue he was forced to spew. And what’s even more impressive is how serious he took those bad, paper-thin roles. When it’s just him talking to a giant rubber bat it’s just as convincing as when he’s talking to the other actors.
If you watch a film like this expecting to be thrilled or scared you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, if you take the film for what it is, I mean it does have a giant rubber bat for crying out loud, and enjoy the campyness, then you’ll have a pretty good time.
Did I mention the giant rubber bat?
The film is presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen and 2.0 Mono sound. The film is presented in its original black and white and a new colorized version. I’d seen this film before and I have to admit I was some what excited to see Lugosi in color as he only made one film that way, and it was pretty bad. So to see one of his better films in color is kind of fun. Still, the black & white one is better.
Trailers You get colorized trailers for Plan 9 From Outer Space, Night Of The Living Dead, Reefer Madness, House On Haunted Hill, Carnival Of Souls and Little Shop Of Horrors.
If you don’t like B-movies then you won’t like this. If you do, then you will. It’s as simple as that. If you’re curious to delve into the wonderful world of b-movies then this is a wonderful place to start.
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Legend Films presents The Devil Bat. Directed by Jean Yarbrough. Starring Bela Lugosi, Dave O’Brien, Donald Kerr and Suzanne Kaaren. Written by John T. Neville. Story by George Bricker. Running time: 68 minutes. Not Rated. Originally released in 1940. Released on DVD: October 21, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.
