Product: The Devil Bat (1941)
Rating: 3.0
Lugosi is pretty much the whole show
The Devil Bat is clearly a Poverty Row movie with its minimal sets and fairly derisory visual effcts but it remains worth watching if only to see an icon like Lugosi struggling to transmute base metal into gold and to carry some less than adequate supporting players in the processHe plays a scientist working for a cosmetics company whose family members have grown rich on the perfumes and unguents he created .He is embittered and sets out to wreak revenge by breeding a giant bat and training it to attack when smelling his latest prototype aftershave lotion a concotion he is at pains to ensure is worn by the family members he seeks to kill.Ranged against him are an intrepid reporter and that worthy's cameraman -the latter seving as comic relief of the notably irritating typeSympathy is undercut by the fact that the Lugosi figure is largely responsible for his own situation having settled for a flat fee rather than accept an offer of a partnership and is treated well by the family who donot deserve to be slaughters in this cavalier mannerAn interesing curiosity and one for Lugosi completists ,this is enjoyable in its way but is by no stretch of the imagination a good movie