The Vampire Bat
1933, US, Directed by Frank R. Strayer
Black & White, Running Time: 63 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R1, Alpha Video; Video: 1.30:1, Audio: DD Mono
Taking place in a bat-infested village on the European continent somewhere, in a period probably around the early part of the twentieth century, the residents are in the grip of terror as a series of uncanny attacks results in murder through massive blood loss on multiple occasions. Arguments proliferate between the authorities - on one side the suggestion that a genuine vampire being the perpetrator is substantiated by the evidence, while those with more of a scientific orientation than superstitious scramble for a more plausible explanation. The village idiot - bat-loving Herman - seems to attract unwanted attention when many of the villagers decide that it’s him to blame, and end up chasing him through the countryside with burning torches. Even putting Herman out of action, however, does not bring the attacks on inhabitants of the village to a halt.
Clearly latching on to the success snowballing during the first ever real horror-boom, The Vampire Bat feeds off the thrills audiences derived from the likes of Dracula, having its characters obsess over the blood-draining antics of the antagonist as if they had just seen Tod Browning’s famous movie themselves. The film also represents a clash between science and superstition as the authorities endlessly argue amongst themselves what kind of killer they’re dealing with. In that respect it seems ahead of its time although the dialogues and scenarios are inevitably antiquated by the period in which they’re firmly embedded. Where the film rises above its meagre resources is in the atmosphere forcibly concocted by the direction, cinematography, and sets (famously borrowed from other, bigger films, notably Whale’s Frankenstein and The Old Dark House). Without spending too much money the film-makers manage to scrape together a look and feel for this Majestic Pictures indie not dissimilar to Universal’s early thirties movies. This is aided by the presence of several well-knowns from the period: Fay Wray looks thoroughly lush as Ruth and herself would be synonymous with several other genre movies around the same year (King Kong, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Most Dangerous Game), Lionel Atwill (Mystery… again, as well as a number of the Universal films later on), and Dwight Frye, fresh from Dracula and Frankenstein, here as the ill-fated Herman (village idiots really seemed to get a raw deal in the old days!). Some comedy relief is provided by an old woman who seems destined to be scared out of her wits by anything that moves - an old fashioned touch that doesn’t work as well nowadays, however there is one amusing scene where she is fooled into thinking Herman has transformed into a dog. The Vampire Bat is short and moderately sweet, it injects a touch of originality for the era with its scientific angle while not losing sight of the ambience that’s all so essential to these thirties chillers.
Floating around US DVD under the public domain, the best one would appear to be from Alpha Video. Undoubtedly a ‘cheapo’ release the image is nevertheless reasonable though in need of a restoration of higher proportions. The early shots look terrible and I wasn’t looking forward to viewing the rest as a projected image, but relax because it does settle down to something altogether more stable and defined. Sound-wise it’s also okay, though far from stellar. Extras are unsurprisingly pretty much nonexistent (limited to promotion of the company’s other golden oldies), though I think the colourful cover artwork is actually rather nice for a budget title (having said that I do feel it presents a potential spoiler, a factor indicating that the designers weren‘t too thoughtful in that sense). All in all this is a good buy for fans of B&W chillers.