‘Sharp fanged blood-sucking death dives from midnight skies!’
The Devil Bat is a 1940 sci-fi horror film about a mad scientist who develops an aftershave lotion that causes his gigantic bat to kill anyone who wears it.
The movie was directed by Jean Yarbrough (Hillbillys in a Haunted House; The Creeper; She-Wolf of London; House of Horrors) from a screenplay by John Thomas Neville (The Flying Serpent), based on a story by George Bricker. It was produced by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) and was also released as Killer Bats
In 1946, a sequel titled Devil Bat’s Daughter was released and The Flying Serpent (also 1946), starring George Zucco, reworked elements of the story.
The movie stars Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, Guy Usher, Yolande Mallott, and the comic team of Dave O’Brien and Donald Kerr.
Plot [contains spoilers]:
Foreword:
“All Heathville loved Dr Paul Carruthers…the doctor found time to conduct certain private experiments — weird, terrifying experiments.”
Doctor Paul Carruthers, a chemist and physician in the small town of Heathville, is offered a $5,000 bonus from his employers for his contributions to the company, a pittance compared to the million dollars in income the company earned from his work. His employers argue that he took a buyout early in the company’s history instead of retaining his partnership stake.
Embittered and insulted, he seeks revenge and develops a system in which ordinary bats are enlarged to massive size, training them to be drawn to a new, pungent aftershave he is testing. He then distributes the lotion to his enemies as a “test” product.
Once they have applied the lotion, the chemist then releases his Devil Bats in the night, targeting the families of his employer’s owners. The bats succeed in attacking and killing the owner’s two sons and his partner.
A hot shot reporter from the Chicago Register, Johnny Layton, gets assigned by his editor to cover and help solve the murders. He and his bumbling photographer, “One-Shot” McGuire, begin to unwind the mystery.
Layton dumps a sample of the aftershave on Carruthers, leading the bat to attack and kill its own master. Mary, the last surviving member of her family, runs into Johnny’s arms.
“The Devil Bat easily sizes up as one of the Bela Lugosi’s best low-budget films; it’s almost indisputably better than any of his Monogram movies. The storyline is colorfully lurid, the title creature is a rather exotic movie monster, the bat attacks are well-staged and Lugosi is amusingly intense as the mad doctor.” Tom Weaver, Poverty Row Horrors! book
Buy Poverty Row Horrors! from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Cast and characters:
Bela Lugosi … Doctor Paul Carruthers: Suzanne Kaaren … Mary Heath; Dave O’Brien … Johnny Layton; Guy Usher … Henry Morton; Yolande Donlan … Maxine; Donald Kerr … ‘One-Shot’ McGuire; Edmund Mortimer … Martin Heath; Gene O’Donnell … Don Morton; Alan Baldwin … Tommy Heath; John Ellis … Roy Heath; Arthur Q. Bryan … Joe McGinty; Hal Price … Chief Wilkins; John Davidson … Professor Raines; Wally Rairden … Walter King
Technical specs:
1 hour 8 minutes Mono (RCA Sound System)
Black and white
Aspect ratio: 1.37: 1
Free to watch online on YouTube:
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