The movie business can be an unforgiving hustle. A case in point is The Vampire Bat, the 1933 release from Majestic Pictures. According to the internet, so it must be true, stars Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill had finished filming Mystery of the Wax Museum for Warner Bros., and that film had entered post-production. Majestic seized on this, signing Wray and Atwill to be in another horror flick with quick turnaround, getting a jump on Warner Bros. in both the industry trades and in theatrical release. It worked. The Vampire Bat was a winner for Majestic. It helps that it’s also a decent little horror flick.
An example of gothic horror American style, The Vampire Bat tells the story of a village in Eastern Europe that is being plagued by murders. All the victims are killed in the night, with what looks to be a minimum of struggle, and all the dead are drained of blood. Of course, there are also the telltale marks of the vampire on all the victims’ necks. The village elders are convinced that a vampire stalks the streets, but police inspector Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) is not. Continue reading “October Horrorshow: The Vampire Bat”