The Vampire Bat *** (1933, Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas) – Classic Movie Review 3159

‘These are the TALONS of The Vampire Bat’

Director Frank Strayer’s deliciously dated 1933 horror movie stars Lionel Atwill as Dr Otto von Niemann, a batty scientist who sends his hapless helpers Ruth Bertin (Fay Wray) and Emil Borst (Robert Frazer) out to get blood for an amorphous chunk of living flesh he keeps in a tank.

The rash of local victims dying of blood loss in the village of Kleinschloss and the sudden appearance of lots of bats bring magistrate Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) to investigate the mysterious case as the town bosses suspect a resurgence of vampirism. Niemann hypnotises Borst into killing the maid Georgiana (Stella Adams), then simple-minded chief suspect Herman Gleib (Dwight Frye) is found dead too after a blood-thirsty mob hounds him to his death because of his fondness for bats. More vampire attacks follow.

The movie’s highlights are the delirious performances from the four stars – lip-smackingly dotty Atwill, plodding representative of law and order Douglas, super screamer Wray, idiot bat-keeper Frye – plus the sets that Majestic Studios borrowed from Universal Studios that add a touch of class in Daniel Hall’s set designs to this big hit for little studio Majestic.

Also in the cast are Maude Eburne, George E Stone, Lionel Belmore as Bürgermeister Gustave Schoen, Rita Carlyle (billed as Rita Carlisle) and William V Mong.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3159

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