The Devil Bat

1940
Dir. Jean Yarbrough

Dr Paul Carruthers (Bela Lugosi) devises a plan to extract revenge on his employers, the owners of a cosmetics company, whom he believes have exploited and betrayed him, getting rich on a product he created. Concocting a new aftershave (!), he offers it to the sons of his employers and then releases an electrically enlarged bat, trained to hone in on the distinct aftershave (!!), and slaughter its wearer. The series of mysterious deaths sparks the interest of roving reporter Johnny Layton (David O’Brien) and photographer, One-Shot McGuire. The two set out to investigate the murders and put a stop to the diabolical mastermind orchestrating them, before they too become victims of the ‘death-diving’ giant bat.

The Devil Bat was produced by PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation), one of the more modest production studios of Hollywood’s ‘Poverty Row.’ PRC produced mainly low budget B-movies, particularly horror films, westerns and melodramas.

The film comprises of scenes in which Lugosi dips stuff in lotions, stirs potions, cackles evilly to himself, hangs a bat on a coat hanger and through the power of cross-fade editing, enlarges stock-footage bats to gigantic proportions. He then persuades his various victims, the handsome, shockingly dim sons of his employers, to try out his new aftershave. He then releases his giant death-bat to track them down and rip out their throats. Lather, rinse, repeat. This all goes according to plan, strangely enough, until our intrepid reporter Layton catches a whiff of something sinister and jumps on the case. He and his sidekick, One-Shot McGuire, bulk out the rest of the story as they try to solve the case. In one scene they attempt to drum up some interest in the sensational story by faking a photo of a giant bat. Cue a montage of spinning newspaper headlines. They are rumbled by a giant bat-expert on the local radio station, when said expert examines the photo and notices a ‘made-in-Japan’ label on the fake bat…


The Devil Bat is one of the many poverty row films that Bela Lugosi starred in during the latter part of his career, way after the international success of Dracula. The film is competently made, and whilst neither really good nor really bad, hovers (bat-like!) somewhere in the middle, and proves to be an entertaining if somewhat forgettable experience. Which is perfectly fine. The tragic actor obviously relished playing the oddly sympathetic, yet utterly cuckoo Dr Carruthers, and delivers his lines with the sort of fiendish aplomb we know and love him for. Unfortunately, once the murder investigation begins, Lugosi doesn’t feature onscreen much, but when he does, he exudes all the charm, dark elegance and over-zealous melodrama you would expect him to. We are also privy to his inner monologues, as he bitterly waxes lyrical about his disdain and disgust for his employers, who he believes have paid him a measly amount of money for his contribution to their cosmetics company. This serves to vaguely flesh out an otherwise typical ‘mad-doctor’ character and imbue him with the faintest touch of pathos.

Director, Jean Yarbrough - who would later go on to direct the likes of King of the Zombies, She-Wolf of London and several episodes of The Addams Family – handles his duties with rudimentary competence. The film is overtly silly, yet highly enjoyable, and often wanders into bizarre comedic territory – intentional and indeed otherwise. Some viewers may also recognise David O’Brien from Spooks Run Wild (also starring Lugosi) and Reefer Madness (he’s the guy who implores Mae to play her piano ‘faster! Faster!’ and orders her to ‘Bring me some reefers!’). The only moments of genuine creepiness come as the bat is released from its attic dwelling-place and, as some day-for-night stock footage of a large bat flying past the same trees over and over again plays out, the bat omits a chilling scream that proves genuinely unnerving. The scenes featuring the bat ‘death-diving’ its victims have to be seen to be believed: a gaggle of handsome, not very bright young men recoiling in terror as a giant rubber bat falls on them from above. Great stuff.

There is a whisper of a subtle Queer subtext lurking throughout the story. A random, seemingly irrelevant exchange between Johnny Layton and his boss reveals that Johnny is a bachelor, who ‘took a girl out once’ but 'didn’t think much of it'. Johnny and Mary (a sadly underused Suzanne Kaaren), the heroine, who is actually absent for much of time, don't end up together. At the film’s climax, she and Johnny merely hug each other platonically and just as it seems he might give her a playful punch on the arm, the end titles roll. Queer subtext or not, this was a refreshing surprise. Let’s not forget all the dashingly handsome but rather dim (what a combination!) sons of the company owners; all of whom enjoy having free gifts and exotic colognes lavished upon them by Dr Carruthers (albeit so he can dispatch his trained killer bat to rip out their throats). 

The Devil Bat is in the same league as the likes of The Vampire Bat, though it doesn't seem to take itself so seriously. Whilst thoroughly ludicrous, it is also pretty solid entertainment and, at a skimpy 72 minutes, far from outstays its welcome. It is best enjoyed on a Sunday afternoon whilst draped across your couch, surrounded by the remnants of the night before. Endearing hokum.