The Vampire Bat [Blu-ray]

Director: Frank R. Strayer, Frank Strayer Frank R. Strayer

Overview

When an invasion of bats heralds the beginning of a series of bizarre murders, the townsfolk are convinced that they are being terrorized by a vampire, while the local detective (Melvyn Douglas) searches for a more mundane killer.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/28/2017
UPC:	0818522017723
Original Release:	1933
Source:	Film Detective
Language:	English
Time:	1:03:00
Sales rank:	20,786

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Lionel Atwill	Dr. Otto von Niemann
Fay Wray	Ruth Bertin
Melvyn Douglas	Karl Brettschneider
Maude Eburne	Gussie Schnappmann
George E. Stone	Kringen
Dwight Frye	Herman Gleib
Robert Frazer	Emil Borst
Rita Carlisle	Martha Mueller
Lionel Belmore	Burgermeister Gustave Schoen
William V. Mong	Sauer
Stella Adams	Georgiana
Paul Weigel	Holdstadt
Harrison Greene	Weingarten
William Humphrey	Dr. Haupt
Fern Emmett	Gertrude
Carl Stockdale	Schmidt the Morgue Keeper
Rita Carlyle	Actor

Technical Credits

Edward T. Lowe

Edward T. Lowe Jr.

Frank R. Strayer	Director,Director
Edward T. Lowe	Screenwriter
Phil Goldstone	Producer,Producer
Edward T. Lowe Jr.	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Often cited as the cream of the crop among independently produced chillers of the 1930s, The Vampire Bat does indeed pack a wallop. Perhaps no longer able to frighten a modern, so-called more sophisticated audience, Frank Strayer's compact little horror treatise is nevertheless so well cast and produced with such élan as to consistently entertain. The physical trappings are entirely comparable to the Universal horror films of the era -- in fact, filmed on the studio lot, The Vampire Bat benefits from several of the famous standing sets -- and the cast is perhaps even better than what the larger studio would be willing to provide. Lionel Atwill adds yet another of his patented devilishly calculating Mad Doctors and Fay Wray is as comely as ever, even if she doesn't scream a single time. Add to that a young Melvyn Douglas as the male ingénue (a major improvement over Universal's tepid David Manners) and such grand genre perennials as Dwight Frye, Lionel Belmore, Robert Frazer, and Maude Eburne, and there is nary a dull moment. Eburne, incidentally, as Wray's hypochondriac aunt, becomes the subject of one of filmdom's funnier closing lines.