The Devil Bat
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren
Category: B - Classic
Plot Tags: Monster, Revenge, Mad Scientist
Original release / release date: December, 1940
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Studio: PRC Pictures
So we start off the month with a goofy, oddball picture like The Devil Bat. This was produced at around the time Bela Lugosi was into the second leg of his career or 'comeback' time if you will. His presence is really what sells the film regardless of the fact that his thick old-world type accent doesn't 100% jive with his very Midwestern sounding character name (Dr. Carruthers). I kept thinking, 'I'm from Romania....Romania, Ohio.'
This is essentially a mad scientist story about a put upon chemist (Lugosi) working for a cosmetics company who feels slighted by the owners because they've gotten rich off of his work. He concocts a scheme to genetically alter bats and, by using an infused shaving lotion, sic said super bats on those who have slighted him. Pretty early on he offs the son of the cosmetics company CEO which attracts press attention from the 'big city.' This is kind of where it goes goofy (beyond the obvious...the start of the film) because the reporter and his photographer (the fantastically nicknamed 'One-Shot MaGuirre") sort of become deputies for the local police force. Things progress from there with more victims falling prey to winged mass on a string and wire as the chemist becomes more and more obsessed with exacting justice. I don't know that I would be spoiling anything by saying his undoing is ultimately the shaving lotion itself. The bat(s) don't really have an allegiance to him per se so once he is doused in it, game over.
The effects are very silly, even for 1940s standards and the plotting is pretty thin but there is a genuine pleasure in watching Bela Lugosi do anything. His cat-like smile and voice tone range are just so much fun and so, while is a quite goofy overall and certainly not creepy by any means, it was an enjoyable hour late into the night.
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