The Devil Bat

Dir. Jean Yarbrough

68 Minutes

USA 1940

Starring: Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, Dave O'brien, Guy Usher, Yolande Dolan

***/*****

Wonderfully corny B-science fiction/horror picture about mad scientist Lugosi injecting a bat with a serum to made it thirsty for human blood in an effort to knock off the group of pharmaceutical businessmen who got rich off of a formula that he created. The film is of predictably poor quality on a film making level, but is a veritable checklist of delightfully awful B-movie tropes: repeated footage of the giant bat being thrown through a window, bats flying around on strings, a spooky bat-shaped silhouette on expository newspaper clippings, close-ups with wooden actress giving off bloodcurdling screams, cobwebbed filled secret passageways. But something about this particular film always seemed a bit more playfully self-aware of its place within the genre, and instead of feelings like a dreary cheap misfire it gives the impression of possibly being playful and very knowing of its Poverty Row trappings. The film remains a good time even if it offers absolutely nothing beyond the surface.

​October 21st, 2019