The Vampire Bat

Plot synopsis:
When the villagers of Kleinschloss start dying of blood loss, the town fathers suspect a resurgence of vampirism, but police inspector Karl Breettschneider remains skeptical. Scientist Dr. Otto von Niemann, who cares for the victims, visits a patient who was attacked by a bat, Martha Mueller. Martha is visited by a mentally challenged man named Herman, who claims he likes bats because they are "soft like cat" and "nice". On the doctor's journey home, he meets Kringen, one of the townsfolk, who claims to have been attacked by the vampire in the form of a bat, but withheld his story from the town to not spread fear. Dr. von Niemann encourages Kringen to tell the townsfolk of his story. Kringen becomes suspicious that Herman Glieb may be the vampire due to his obsession with bats. Herman lives with bats and collects them off the street.
Dr. von Niemann returns to his home, which also houses Breettschneider's love Ruth Bertin, Ruth's hypochondriac aunt Gussie Schnappmann, and servants Emil Borst and Gorgiana. Fear of the vampire and suspicion of Glieb quickly spread around the town, and people start fearing him. Ms Mueller is killed that night. The analyses of Dr. von Niemann and another doctor, Dr. Haupt, conclude that the death is the same as all of the previous deaths – blood loss, with two punctures in the neck caused by needle-sharp teeth. Gleib enters the examination, and upon seeing the dead body, runs away screaming.
Next morning, Glieb enters Dr. von Niemann's garden, where Dr. von Niemann, Breettschneider, and Bertin are discussing vampires inside the house. The town fathers enter the house and announce that Kringen is dead and Gleib is missing. An angry mob hunts down Gleib and chases him through the countryside and into a cave, where he falls to his death.
That night, Dr. von Niemann is seen telepathically controlling Emil Borst, as he picks up sleeping Gorgiana and takes her down to Dr. von Niemann's laboratory, where a strange organism is seen. They then drain her blood from her neck.
Schnappmann then discovers Gorgiana's body in her bed. Dr. von Niemann and Breettschneider investigate and find Ms Mueller's crucifix, which Glieb handled the night Dr. von Niemann visited her. Breettschneider is becoming more convinced of the presence of vampires in the village as no other plausible explanations for the deaths can be found. As Glieb was seen in the garden that morning, the two conclude he is guilty.
Upon hearing of Glieb's death, however, Breettschneider's conviction is erased. Dr. von Niemann tells Breettschneider to go home and take sleeping pills, but gives him poison instead, intent on draining his blood. Bertin discovers Dr. von Niemann telepathically controlling Borst, who is at Breettschneider's house. It is revealed that Dr. von Niemann has created life, and is using the blood to fuel his organism. He ties Bertin up in his lab. Borst supposedly enters with Breettschneider's body on a trolley. Dr. von Niemann walks over to Borst, who is revealed to be Breettschneider (who did not take the pills) in costume, with the real Borst on the trolley. Breettschneider pulls a gun on Dr. von Niemann, and walks over to untie Bertin. Dr. von Niemann then wrestles Breettschneider, who drops the gun. As the two fight, Borst picks up the gun and shoots Dr. von Niemann.

Tags: murder

Review:
Maude Eburne and Dwight Frye make a good comedy team.This budget movie brings in elements from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" with Dr. Niemann using the power of suggestion to make a somnambulist carry out his orders, from "Frankenstein" by using the human blood to help create life in the laboratory, and "Dracula" since the murders are believed by everyone except the inspector and his girl to be the work of a bloodsucker.
Mysterious murders in a European village seem the result of THE VAMPIRE BAT horde plaguing the terrified community.This surprisingly effective little thriller was created by Majestic Pictures, one of Hollywood's Poverty Row studios.
The opening sequences of this film (the first 15 minutes or so) is pure vintage horror, with a suspenseful introduction to the story (extended speeches with a detailed description of the killer's modus operandi) and a great use of set pieces and interiors that already proved their effectiveness earlier (the same scenery was used in Universal classics, like "The Old Dark House" for example).
"The Vampire Bat" isn't a very efficient whodunit mystery, but it definitely remains a must for fans of classic horror films since it brings together names like Fay Wray (immortal for her role in "King Kong"), Lionel Atwill ("Mystery of the Wax Museum"), Melvyn Douglas (Polanski's "The Tenant") and Dwight Fry. This latter is my personal favorite cast member here, mainly because he's a very underrated actor who always stood in the shadows of more important horror veterans.
I won't go into the details of the plot, as that has been covered multiple times in other reviews, and it's not the story that makes the film shine.There are three things that make "The Vampire Bat" stand out from the other poverty row films - the cast, the direction, and the comedy.The Cast - Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Wray get the heavy lifting in the film, and all are excellent.
Obviously, this was not a big budget film, so the sets and overall production values are not high, but this is mostly glossed over by the efficiency and care shown by the director, but there are a few scenes where the seams showed too much, like the cave scene, parts of which look like it was filmed in a closet.Overall, "The Vampire Bat" is certainly worth a look for the great direction, a mad Lionel Atwill, and the always lovely Fay Wray..
The title is a misnomer as the evil that bedevils the remote Central European town turns out to be human in origin although the inhabitants of the town firmly believe that the exsanguinated bodies turning up all over the place are the work of vampires .They hound a simple minded young man ,Herman ,( movingly played by Dwight Frye ) to his death claiming he is the culprit while the real villain is unmasked shortly after his death.
Neat performances from Lionel Attwill as the town doctor ,Melvyn Douglas as the sceptical local policeman and the aforementioned Mr Frye compensate for a wan and colourless Fay Wray as the love interest and the tedious comic relief of Maude Elune as a bossy old maiden Aunt prone to fits of the vapours .Its ingredients will be familair to lovers of the vintage horror picture and we get many of the scenes that were a staple of the genre--superstitious villagers wielding torches ,a crazed man of science and the debate between science and folklore  but it is expertly welded together and never oustays its welcome.
"The Vampire Bat" offers some effective moments along with Dwight Frye being his usual kooky self!The film resembles that of a "Universal" horror film but to the best of my knowledge, it wasn't actually filmed at that studio.Worth watching..
I'm not going to spoil matters by revealing the answer, suffice to say that Lionel Atwill DOESN'T play against type.Atwill's Dr. Otto von Niemann is just one of the film's many uninspired stock characters (superstitious burgermeister, sceptical police inspector, sassy female scientist, village idiot, comic relief aunt) who, along with the unimaginative script, routine direction, and predictable outcome, make The Vampire Bat a rather mediocre experience—frustrating since it features a terrific cast worthy of better material, including two-time Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas, King Kong beauty Fay Wray, and Dwight Frye of Dracula fame, who steals the show with his excellent performance as Herman Gleib, a misunderstood simpleton with a love of bats (soft, like cats!)..
These old time films in black and white hold my interest and especially great actors like Lionel Atwell, (Dr. Otto Von Niemann) along with Fay Wray, (Ruth Bertin) and Melvyn Douglas, (Karl Brellschneider).
It is in the public domain so may not be hard to find.Quite a good cast as also starring Faye Wray as the doctor's assistant Ruth Bertin just months before she was to appear in KING KONG and Dwight Frye as the bat-loving off-the-wall lunatic Herman Gleib a couple years after appearing the horror classics DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN..
He and his girlfriend (Fay Wray) begin to snoop around and this leads them to Dr. von Neimann (Lionel Atwill).THE VAMPIRE BAT was just one of many low-budget horror films that were released after the success of Universal's DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN.
Stone, Lionel Belmore and Dwight Frye in small supporting roles.THE VAMPIRE BAT certainly isn't a classic of the genre and on the whole it is a disappointment but at the same time the cast is so great and the running time so short that it's still worth watching..
the suspicions soon start to fall on the village idiot that everyone thinks is weird,, the police begin to investigate, and what they come up with doesn't seem to match,, so the question is did the town weirdo kill the people or did someone that the police overlook do it,, or was it a real vampire,, not a bad little horror lflick,, lot's of elements from different movies in here, that hint at Somnabulist's and the like,, very interesting,, only thing was the picture did drag in spots, and didn't seem like everything was tied together,, otherwise it's definitely worth watching..
With a title capitalizing on the success of "Dracula" (Universal, 1931) starring Bela Lugosi, THE VAMPIRE BAT which doesn't actually deal with vampires, has acquired the source of its "Dracula" co-star, Dwight Frye, in a similar portrayal of insane spider eating character, Mr. Renfield, with that as Herman Glieb, a village half-wit who not only plays with bats but makes pets out of them, thus making others to believe he to be the living image of the vampire theory.Set in small German village of Kleinschloss, the story, opening in true horror form, starts off with the howling of wolves at a distance and the visual view of bats hanging upside down on trees as Kringen (George E.
Karl's in love with Ruth Bertin (Fay Wray), who, along with Emil Borst (Robert Frazer) work as laboratory assistants for diabolical scientist, Doctor Otto Von Niemann (Lionel Atwill), who insists all the women have been victims of a vampire.
They are soon proved wrong of their theory when these ghastly murders continue to occur.While THE VAMPIRE BAT doesn't have the macabre style of Universal's own "Dracula" or "Frankenstein", it can be credited for its fine reproduction of its creepy atmosphere, chilling scenes, along with a pursuit of the killer by an angry mob with lighted torches quite commonly found in many "Frankenstein" sequels, yet, with all that, THE VAMPIRE BAT is at times disappointing due to its slow pacing, lack of background music, low budget production and intrusive comedy relief provided by character actress Maude Eburne as Aunt Gussie Schnappmann.
One scene for amusement purposes  has her fainting at the sight of Herman's bat he takes out from his pocket, only to awaken after-wards with a great dane licking her face, leading her to believe the dog to be Herman, and running for her life.As much as the movie was distributed by a lesser known poverty row studio of Majestic, THE VAMPIRE BAT has turned out to be its best known product solely due to its frequent resurrections on television dating back to the 1950s, and strong marquee names of Atwill, Wray and Douglas.
Its was filmed on the sets of the Old Dark House and Frankenstein and concerns a small Bavarian village where supposedly giant bats are sucking the blood of the villagers.Frankly its a damn good movie that has atmosphere to spare and a cast that won't quit, Lionel Atwill, Dwight Frye, Faye Wray and Melvin Douglas playing a character named Brettschnieder which is of interest to me since that was my great grandmother's maiden name.This is a carefully modulated film that has suspense and witty one liners that slowly builds for its brief running time, only going astray when about ten minutes before the end they realized they had limited time to wrap everything up.
Boy what a dud this mess was.But it only lasts an hour and I only paid a buck for it so I'll live....unlike the entire cast of this 1933 clunker who are all dust by now.So anyway a small village starts having bodies turning up that have been drained of all their blood.The local yokels start talking about vampires ,of course,and a little more loudly after each body is found.The town sheriff or constable or whatever he is,played by awesome actor Melvyn Douglas,tries to tell them otherwise.When he mentions the fact that the dead have one large hole on each side of the neck,instead of two holes close together, the locals simply then say it's a giant vampire bat.The constable insists that vampires do not exist and it must be a human culprit doing the killings.But Melvyn doesn't seem too bothered either way.He spends most of his time trying to get into the pantaloons of his sweetie,played by Faye Wray.Also in this mix is the town simpleton,played by Dwight Frye,who always seemed to have played the same role in every movie he did.He further freaks out the townspeople by catching bats and drinking his own blood.Lionel Atwill plays the town doctor who seemingly is trying to help the constable solve the crimes.And boy does he ever stink as an actor.Atwill is as close to cardboard in this role as he could get.And Lionel Barrymore is also in this thing....lots of big names to be such a pile of guano.Other than the terrible mis-title this movie has,the alternate name,"The Blood Sucker" is much better,this movie is also dull and plodding and just silly.For me the high point of the movie is watching Frye,he nails the freaky town weirdo but other than him this movie didn't offer much.And then when you find out the reason for the strange deaths and see the special effect thing that required all this blood you'll really be let down.Bela Lugosi did a lot of awful pictures but at least he was fun and interesting to watch.Think of this movie as a really bad Lugosi clunker WITHOUT Lugosi and you'll get a feel for how miserably bad this mess was.If you can't make a good 1930's horror film at least put Lugosi in it..
Part of the reason that "The Vampire Bat" looked almost as good as any Universal Pictures horror film is because Majestic leased James Whale's castoffs, the "German Village" backlot sets left over from "Frankenstein" (1931) and the interior sets from his film "The Old Dark House" (1932), plus some location shooting at Bronson Caves.
While the police detective refuses to believe the nonsense about vampires returning to the village, the local doctor treating the victims begins to suspect the truth about the crimes," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.An inappropriately titled, dramatically unsatisfying, vampire mystery.Curiously, the film's second tier easily out-perform the film's lackluster stars: stoic Lionel Atwill (as Otto von Niemann), skeptical Melvyn Douglas (as Karl Brettschneider), and pretty Fay Wray (as Ruth Bertin).
There is a very similar feel to James Whale's 'Frankenstein' and this is compounded by the introduction of Lionel Atwill's Dr Niemann character, complete with his misguided ideas for scientific advancement.The vampire theme is arbitrary and only used as a red-herring by having suspicion fall on bat-loving village simpleton Herman (Dwight Frye), thus providing the excuse for a torch-wielding mob to go on the rampage - as if they needed one.This is one of a trio of early horror films in which Lional Atwill and Fay Wray co-starred (also 'Doctor X' and 'The Mystery of the Wax Museum') and like their other collaborations the film suffers from ill-advised comic relief and a tendency to stray from horror to mainstream thriller elements.
A poverty row outfit called Majestic Pictures produced The Vampire Bat and for a poverty row outfit managed to get a good cast for the film which included Melvyn Douglas as a police inspector, Fay Wray as the girl he's courting and Lionel Atwill as the village doctor.
Everybody suspects crazy Herman (Dwight Frye) of it because he LOVES bats...Pretty good low budget horror film.
Burgermister Gustave Schoen (Lionel Belmore) shouts "It's Vampires" but the local police chief Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) thinks it's a madman who's responsible and he vows to catch him.*****SPOILER ALERT***** The Burgermeister and most of the towns folk think that the local kook Herman Glieb (Dwight Frye) who loves bats and frequently talks to them is the one they are looking for and they chase him until he falls to his death in a cave.
For all of its faults, "The Vampire Bat" is still an enjoyable little film if for no other reason than to enjoy Melvyn Douglas in an early pre-MGM role and Fay Wray just before she found her 15 minutes of fame in "King Kong" the same year..
It looks like the fall guy will be the mentally challenged Herman Glieb (Dwight Frye), who admits to keeping bats as pets and playing with them.What's really going on is that the good doctor Otto Von Niemann (Lionell Atwill), in his quest to create life a la Frankenstein, has developed a mass of living tissue that needs human blood to sustain itself.
IMO, It's not as good as two other horror films with Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray from the same time period 'Doctor X' and 'Mystery of the Wax Museum', still it's fun and well worth watching for sure.
That's the disappointment.We get little more than the formulaic elements of such films but with slow pacing, low budget, not enough of Dwight Frye, the overdone presence of Maude Eburne (Aunt Gussie), and the premise for Lionel Atwill (Dr. von Niemann) to require human blood or how he exhibits mind control over his servant Emil (Robert Frazier) never made very clear.Do not watch the technicolor 'Dr. X' (1932) -- which also stars Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray but as father and daughter -- before watching this the way I did; it's an Oscar winner by comparison.
A top notch cast including Melvyn Douglas, Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill and Dwight Frye try hard to make The Vampire Bat believable, and it has some nice atmospheric touches and ghoulish moments; but it also has a totally ludicrous solution to the mystery and Maude Eburne, who makes Una O'Connor look like someone you'd love to spend an evening with!
The story seems to play on superstitions of the time.I feel, that there could have been more adversary interaction; and perhaps some kind of background score, to increase the suspense.Regardless, I feel that The Vampire Bat; is a good movie, and it should appeal to fans of Dracula and of other classical horror films..
The early 30s were of course the great days of the CLASSIC horror movie - the horror wave (although its beginnings lay back in the silent days, with first and foremost performer Lon Chaney) started in 1931 with "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", both made by Universal Pictures, which took their vampires and monsters seriously, and exploited about every old Eastern European or other superstition, until even the audiences of the time almost started believing in vampires and werewolves...The other 'school' was initiated by Warner Brothers, in 1932 with "Dr. X" and the following year "The Mystery of the Wax Museum" - and with both films starring Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill.
A two-in-one movie, you could almost say - and although we may ask ourselves after a while why the young inspector (Melvyn Douglas' turn to become Fay Wray's rescuer; he'd also had his experiences in the genre in "The Old Dark House") doesn't suspect the sinister scientist for a moment, while all the village is hunting after poor, mentally retarded Herman (another MARVELOUS madman portrayal by Dwight Frye), we're just contented when finally the big light goes on in his head, and he saves his girl from the hands of her mad employer...This movie really makes you go back in time and feel like a cinema-goer in 1933 - a piece of film nostalgia which has got just about everything: romance, horror, crime, and its share of humor; what else could you want for a GREAT late-night entertainment?.
It has one of the best horror casts outside of the Lugosi-Karloff-Chaney circle: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and Dwight Frye, plus leading man Melvyn Douglas.
The Vampire Bat is set in the small German village of Klineschloss where Gustave Schoen (Lionel Belmore) the Burgermeister is holding a meeting with Inspector Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) from the local constabulary about all the recent murders, six victims have been discovered in as many weeks all drained of blood & bearing the same two puncture wounds on their necks.
He also fears for the safety of his beloved Ruth(the lovely Fay Wray who stars for the third time with Atwill after "Doctor X" & "The Mystery of the Wax Museum")who is Niemann's assistant.Dwight Frye steals the film as a rather loony village idiot who collects bats and carries a demented demeanor wherever he goes..it's easy to see why he becomes a suspect as local paranoia is at a fever pitch.