"The Vampire Bat" by small studio Majestic Pictures was a quickie made right after "Mystery of the Wax Museum" by Warner Bros. with two of the same stars - Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill. The townspeople of a German village are being found dead in their beds with two puncture wounds in the neck and their bodies completely drained of blood. The town fathers suspect vampirism. Dr. Otto Von Niemann (Lionel Atwill) is a scientist doubling as a physician for the town and helping in the investigation. No explanation as to why a scientist wants to do research in the middle of nowhere. Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) is the police inspector in love with Von Niemann's assistant (Fay Wray). No explanation as to why a man with such a Teutonic sounding surname would have an accent and demeanor as though he belonged in a corn field in Nebraska.
Dwight Frye plays Herman - his usual creepy character - who likes bats and keeps them as pets. Suspicion slowly begins to settle on him. How much I bet Mr. Frye wished he could for once play a dull salesman who wears a tie to work every day. Maude Eburn is supposed to be comic relief as the hypochondriac aunt of Wray's character. Instead she is just annoying.
What is perfect about this film? - The atmosphere. It looks like they borrowed the extras and the settings right out of a Universal horror film of the era. Also, since there are many medium name actors being employed, the acting is quite good for poverty row. And I didn't even recognize George E. Stone as one of the villagers - his makeup was that good.
But then the last ten minutes just comes at you too quickly and degenerates into nonsense. For example - a bottle of tablets labeled both as poison AND sleeping pills? Will this not make anybody wonder? Faye Wray doesn't give us one dose of that famous scream of hers? And how did just one villain manage to tie up a conscious healthy young woman? There are several physical confrontations the audience is denied seeing and we only see the outcome. Was staging them that big of a bother? And at the end of all of this, the "creature" you are waiting to see is ... a SPONGE???
If you like great atmosphere and good acting ,even if you are denied a satisfactory conclusion, I'd say this is up your alley. I think it really could have used another ten minutes to wrap up loose ends in a satisfying manner.
Dwight Frye plays Herman - his usual creepy character - who likes bats and keeps them as pets. Suspicion slowly begins to settle on him. How much I bet Mr. Frye wished he could for once play a dull salesman who wears a tie to work every day. Maude Eburn is supposed to be comic relief as the hypochondriac aunt of Wray's character. Instead she is just annoying.
What is perfect about this film? - The atmosphere. It looks like they borrowed the extras and the settings right out of a Universal horror film of the era. Also, since there are many medium name actors being employed, the acting is quite good for poverty row. And I didn't even recognize George E. Stone as one of the villagers - his makeup was that good.
But then the last ten minutes just comes at you too quickly and degenerates into nonsense. For example - a bottle of tablets labeled both as poison AND sleeping pills? Will this not make anybody wonder? Faye Wray doesn't give us one dose of that famous scream of hers? And how did just one villain manage to tie up a conscious healthy young woman? There are several physical confrontations the audience is denied seeing and we only see the outcome. Was staging them that big of a bother? And at the end of all of this, the "creature" you are waiting to see is ... a SPONGE???
If you like great atmosphere and good acting ,even if you are denied a satisfactory conclusion, I'd say this is up your alley. I think it really could have used another ten minutes to wrap up loose ends in a satisfying manner.