Less than a decade after his iconic turn as Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi could be found slumming it in poverty row shockers, earning a crust starring in cheap bill-filling movies like this, a rather ridiculous romp in which the Hungarian horror legend plays Paul Carruthers, a mad scientist who holds a grudge against his employees for becoming filthy rich off the back of his hard work. In order to exact his revenge, Carruthers experiments with electricity on bats in his secret laboratory, growing the creatures to massive proportions and training them to attack only those wearing a special aftershave lotion that he has developed. With the police baffled, it is up to intrepid New York reporting duo Johnny Layton (Dave O'Brien) and 'One-Shot' McGuire (Donald Kerr) to solve the mystery.
A seriously daft plot with hammy performances and laughable giant rubber bats suspended on wires, The Devil Bat is, unsurprisingly, utter nonsense, but if you have a hankering for some classic B-movie cheese, then the film should prove entertaining enough for the duration. An over-theatrical Lugosi chews up the scenery with gusto, and O'Brien and Kerr provide some enjoyable comedy relief, but it is the murderous flying mammal which is the real star of the film: an unconvincing inanimate model when seen from a distance, but very much alive in close-ups, it's aerial attacks are absolutely hilarious, the stiff-winged bloodsucker swooping from the sky, shrieking like a demented banshee.
A seriously daft plot with hammy performances and laughable giant rubber bats suspended on wires, The Devil Bat is, unsurprisingly, utter nonsense, but if you have a hankering for some classic B-movie cheese, then the film should prove entertaining enough for the duration. An over-theatrical Lugosi chews up the scenery with gusto, and O'Brien and Kerr provide some enjoyable comedy relief, but it is the murderous flying mammal which is the real star of the film: an unconvincing inanimate model when seen from a distance, but very much alive in close-ups, it's aerial attacks are absolutely hilarious, the stiff-winged bloodsucker swooping from the sky, shrieking like a demented banshee.