The Devil Bat
| The Devil Bat | |
|---|---|
| File:Devilbatposter.jpg | |
| Directed by | Jean Yarbrough |
| Written by | George Bricker John T. Neville |
| Starring | Béla Lugosi Suzanne Kaaren Dave O'Brien Guy Usher |
| Distributed by | Producers Releasing Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 68 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Devil Bat (1940) is a black-and-white comedy-horror movie produced by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) and directed by Jean Yarbrough. The film stars horror actor Bela Lugosi, along with Suzanne Kaaren, Guy Usher, Yolande Mallott, and the comic team of Dave O'Brien and Donald Kerr as the protagonists. The film later had a 1946 sequel titled Devil Bat's Daughter.
Plot
The story involves a small town cosmetic company chemist (Lugosi) who is upset at his wealthy employers, because he feels they have denied him his due share of company success. To get revenge, he breeds giant bats. He then conditions them to kill those wearing a special after-shave lotion he has concocted. He cleverly 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, which kill his two former partners and three members of their families. A hot shot big city reporter gets assigned by his editor to cover and help solve the murders. He (O'Brien) and his bumbling photographer (Kerr) begin to unwind the mystery with some comic sidelights. The mad chemist is, predictably, done in by his own shaving lotion, and by his own creation—the dreaded Devil Bat.
Cast[1]
- Béla Lugosi as Dr. Paul Carruthers
- Suzanne Kaaren as Mary Heath
- Dave O'Brien as Johnny Layden
- Guy Usher as Henry Morton
- Yolande Donlan (credited as Yolande Mallott) as Maxine
- Donald Kerr as "One-Shot" McGuire
- Edward Mortimer as Martin Heath
- Gene O'Donnell as Don Morton
- Alan Baldwin as Tommy Heath
- John Ellis as Roy Heath
- Arthur Q. Bryan as Joe McGinty
- Hal Price as Police Chief Wilkins
- John Davidson as Prof. Percival Garland Raines
- Wally Rairdon as Walter King
Production
PRC was a young studio when it planned to enter the horror film genre, which had been neglected by the major studios during 1937 and 1938. Lugosi was beginning a come-back when he signed a contract on October 19, 1940, with PRC's Sigmund Neufeld to star in the poverty row studio's first horror film.[2] The shooting of the film began a little more than one week later.[3] PRC was known for shooting its films quickly and cheaply, but for endowing them with a plentiful amount of horror,[4] and The Devil Bat established this modus operandi.[2]
Current status
Following its theatrical release, The Devil Bat fell into public domain and since the advent of home video, has been released in countless truncated, poorly edited video and DVD editions.
In 1990, the film was restored from original 35mm elements by Bob Furmanek and released on laserdisc by Lumivision.
In 2008, Furmanek supplied his original elements to Legend Films, who performed a new restoration and also created a computer-colorized version. Both the restored black-and-white and colorized versions were subsequently released on DVD.[5]
Reception
In the 1993 book Poverty Row Horrors!, Tom Weaver judges The Devil Bat as one of Lugosi's best films for the poverty row studios.[6]
Sequel
2015 the Indie filmmaker Ted Moehring, directed the sequel Revenge of the Devil Bat,[7] which stars Lynn Lowry, Ruby Larocca and the veteran actorys Gary Kent, John Link, Dick Dyszel, George Stover and Conrad Brooks.[8]
See also
Further reading
- Weaver, Tom (1993). "The Devil Bat (PRC, 1940)" in Poverty Row Horrors! Monogram, PRC and Republic Horror Films of the Forties. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-89950-756-5. pp. 14–25.
References
- ^ a b Weaver, Tom (1993). "The Devil Bat (PRC, 1940)" in Poverty Row Horrors! Monogram, PRC and Republic Horror Films of the Forties. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-89950-756-5. p. 14.
- ^ a b Weaver (1993). p. 15.
- ^ Weaver (1993). p. 17.
- ^ Weaver, Tom (1993). "Introduction" in Poverty Row Horrors! Monogram, PRC and Republic Horror Films of the Forties. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-89950-756-5. p. xiii-xiv.
- ^ Footnote, DVD Talk review
- ^ Weaver (1993). p. 19.
- ^ Revenge of the Devil Bat Winging its Way to Fans
- ^ Revenge of the Devil Bat, Sequel to the 1940 horror movie The Devil Bat.
External links
- The Devil Bat at IMDb
- The Devil Bat is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- The Devil Bat at AllMovie
- The Devil Bats, a band influenced by the movie and Rock N Roll!
- IMDB link to Devil Bat's Daughter, a sequel of sorts