Vampire der Nacht

In the small village of Kleinshloss, the locals are scared with a serial killer that is draining the blood of his victims, and the Burgomaster Gustave Schoen (Lionel Belmore) is convinced that a vampire is responsible for the deaths. The skeptical police inspector Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) is reluctant to accept the existence of vampires, but the local doctor Otto Von Newman (Lionel Atwill) shows literature about cases of vampirism inclusive in Amazon. When the apple street vendor Martha Mueller (Rita Carlisle) is murdered, the prime suspect becomes the slow Herman Gleib (Dwight Frye), a man with a mind of child that loves bats. The group of vigilantes chases Herman, while Dr. Von Newman's housemaid Georgiana (Stella Adams) is attacked by the killer.

"The Vampire Bat" is an entertaining low-budget horror movie from the 30's that is visibly inspired in the success of Universal "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" in 1931. There are many analogies in the stories, like the living growing tissue or the innocence of Herman or the raged crowd. The characters are not well developed, and I did not understand the relationship of Ruth Bertin and her annoying hypochondriac aunt Gussie Schnappmann with Dr. Otto Von Newman, or how the doctor hypnotizes or controls his assistant Emile. It is great to see Fay Wray acting in the same year of "Mystery of the Wax Museum" and "King Kong". My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Morcego Vampiro" ("The Vampire Bat")

"The Vampire Bat" is one of those underrated horror films of the early 1930's that seems to impress more with each viewing. I won't go into the details of the plot, as that has been covered multiple times in other reviews, and it's not the story that makes the film shine.

There are three things that make "The Vampire Bat" stand out from the other poverty row films - the cast, the direction, and the comedy.

The Cast - Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Wray get the heavy lifting in the film, and all are excellent. Atwill is perfect for this type of part, as he demonstrated many times. Douglas is sufficiently perplexed as the investigator, and Fay Wray is just gorgeous in distress. The other players add sufficiently, especially Dwight Frye channeling a dimmer version of Renfield from Dracula.

The Direction - Frank Strayer does an admirable job in shooting the film, with creepiness abundant and lots of camera movement. Some shots are just so outstanding (such as the opening scene), that they almost seem out of place in a cheap horror movie. Strayer provides loads of atmosphere and never loses the audience. An excellent job.

The Comedy - As with most horror films of this time, comedy relief was thrown in to lighten the mood of the audience, and in most films, the comedy was misplaced and terribly unfunny. However, in "The Vampire Bat" the comedy, mostly provided by Maude Eburne as Aunt Gussie, is spot on and still funny today. This helps to keep the film watchable.

The Downsides - There is really only a couple of downsides to the film. The first is the editing, which is clumsy and hurried. It sometimes spoils the excellent direction. Cuts are often not matched, and this can distract. Obviously, this was not a big budget film, so the sets and overall production values are not high, but this is mostly glossed over by the efficiency and care shown by the director, but there are a few scenes where the seams showed too much, like the cave scene, parts of which look like it was filmed in a closet.

Overall, "The Vampire Bat" is certainly worth a look for the great direction, a mad Lionel Atwill, and the always lovely Fay Wray.

I saw this for the first time recently. While this film hasnt aged well n it aint no classic but it shud be definitely viewed by fellas who love mystery films with elements of somnambulism, hypnotism, scientist, bats, vampires, etc.

The producers succeeded in making this film almost as good as any Universal Pictures horror film is because they leased the castoffs, the sets left over from Frankenstein and the The Old Dark House. They even succeeded in hiring actor Dwight Frye (Dwight Frye played Renfield in Dracula and as Fritz in Frankenstein and as a reporter in The Invisible Man). In this movie he gave the same act similar to Dracula, of that a lunatic.

Fellas from a small village start dying under mysterious circumstances n the local doc conclude that the deaths r all the same, blood loss, with two punctures in the neck caused by needle-sharp teeth. The villagers suspect of vampires, but the local cop remains skeptical. Fear of the vampire and suspicion of a local lunatic who is fond of bats quickly spread around the town and people start fearing him.

These old time films in black and white hold my interest and especially great actors like Lionel Atwell, (Dr. Otto Von Niemann) along with Fay Wray, (Ruth Bertin) and Melvyn Douglas, (Karl Brellschneider). The local town people are experiences strange deaths in their town where the people all have their blood drained from their bodies and there are two small puncture wounds on their necks. Rumors's start to spread that they are caused by bats and some people think it is a vampire which is attacking all the people. Karl is the local policeman in the area and he sets out to try and solve just what is going on and he seeks the help from a local town doctor named Dr. Otto Von Niemann who thinks it could possibly be a local man who seems to love bats and keeps them as pets and he also keeps them in his home and in his coat. This is a great classic film with some comedy mixed in with all this blood sucking.

Though not a horror film in the traditional sense, this creepy little film delivers the goods. It seems a vampire is loose in a small German town draining its victims of their blood. Police Inspector Karl Brettschneider, Melvyn Douglas in one of his early roles, is skeptical believing a crazed killer not a vampire is running amok. The only one who believes him is Ruth Bertin (Faye Wray) the inspector's girlfriend and lab assistant to Dr. Otto von Niemann (Lionel Atwill) who though apparently an eminent scientist goes along with the vampire theory. The townspeople suspect the weirdo Herman Gleib, played with his usual frenzy by Dwight Frye who seems to be having a lot of fun with his role. The film contains quite a bit of humor which helps relieve some of the intensity involved with all the murders being committed. One funny part has Gussie Schnappmann (Maude Eburne), Ruth Bertin's aunt, thinking weird Herman has turned not into a bat but into a dog. Maude Eburne and Dwight Frye make a good comedy team.

This budget movie brings in elements from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" with Dr. Niemann using the power of suggestion to make a somnambulist carry out his orders, from "Frankenstein" by using the human blood to help create life in the laboratory, and "Dracula" since the murders are believed by everyone except the inspector and his girl to be the work of a bloodsucker. Thses elements are mixed well by director Frank R. Strayer with a little comedy thrown in for good measure. The concoction works. The restored version I viewed used tinting to increase the spooky atmosphere. So try to see the this version if possible.