''The Devil Bat'' is a 1940

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

American

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

produced by

Producers Releasing Corporation Producers Releasing Corporation (generally known as PRC) was the smallest and least prestigious of the 11 Hollywood film companies of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called " Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower St ...

(PRC) and directed by

Jean Yarborough Jean Yarbrough (August 22, 1900 – August 2, 1975) was an American film director. Biography Jean Yarbrough was born in Marianna, Arkansas on August 22, 1900. He attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. In 1922, Yarbroug ...

. The film stars

Bela Lugosi Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by the stage name Bela Lugosi ( ; ), was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (19 ...

along with

Suzanne Kaaren Suzanne Kaaren (March 21, 1912 – August 27, 2004) was an American B-movie actress and dancer who starred in stock film genres of the 1930s and 1940s: horror films, Western movie, westerns, comedy, comedies, and romance film, romances. Early ...

Guy Usher James Guy Usher (May 9, 1883 – June 16, 1944) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 190 films between 1932 and 1943. Born in Mason City, Iowa, Usher acted on stage before venturing into films. Billed as James Guy Usher, h ...

, Yolande Mallott and the comic team of Dave O'Brien and Donald Kerr as the protagonists. It was the first horror film from PRC.''The Devil Bat''
at TCM

Plot

;Foreword Dr. Paul Carruthers (

), a chemist and physician in the small town of Heathville, is offered a $5,000 bonus from his employers for his contributions to the company, a pittance compared to the million dollars in income the company earned from his work. (His employers argue that he took a buyout early in the company's history instead of retaining his partnership stake.) Embittered and insulted, he seeks revenge and develops a system in which ordinary

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s are enlarged to massive size, training them to be drawn to a new, pungent

aftershave Aftershave is a product applied to skin after shaving. Traditionally, it is an alcohol-based liquid (splash), but it can be a lotion, gel, or even a paste. It often contains an antiseptic agent such as denatured alcohol, stearate citrate o ...

he is testing. He then 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, targeting the families of his employer's owners. The bats succeed in attacking and killing the owner's two sons and his partner. A hot shot reporter from the ''Chicago Register'', Johnny Layton ( Dave O'Brien) gets assigned by his editor (

Arthur Q. Bryan Arthur Quirk Bryan (May 8, 1899 – November 30, 1959) was an American actor and radio personality. He is best remembered for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr. Gamble on the radio comedy ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' and f ...

) to cover and help solve the murders. He and his bumbling photographer "One-Shot" McGuire (Donald Kerr) begin to unwind the mystery with some comic sidelights. In the climactic closing scene, Layton dumps a sample of the aftershave on Carruthers, leading the bat to attack and kill its own master. Mary, the last surviving member of her family, runs into Johnny's arms.

Cast

as Dr. Paul Carruthers *

as Mary Heath * Dave O'Brien as Johnny Layton *

as Henry Morton * Yolande Mallott as Maxine * Donald Kerr as "One-Shot" McGuire *

Edward Mortimer Edward Mortimer (22 December 1943 – 18 June 2021) was a UN civil servant, journalist, author and academic. He was Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, from 2013. From 2001 to 2006, he was the Director of Communications in the ...

as Martin Heath * Gene O'Donnell as Don Morton * Alan Baldwin as Tommy Heath * John Ellis as Roy Heath *

as Joe McGinty *

Hal Price Harry Franklin "Hal" Price (June 24, 1886 – April 15, 1964) was an American film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 260 films between 1930 and 1952. He is the father of character actress and comedian Lu Leonard. On stage, Price ...

as Chief Wilkins * John Davidson as Prof. Raines * Billy Griffith as Coroner * 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 comeback 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.Weaver (1993). p. 15. The shooting of the film began a little more than one week later. PRC was known for shooting its films quickly and cheaply, but for endowing them with a plentiful amount of horror, and ''The Devil Bat'' established this ''modus operandi''.

Current status

Following its theatrical release, ''The Devil Bat'' fell into

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

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 Legend Films is a San Diego–based company founded in August 2001 which originally provided restoration and colorization of classic black-and-white films for TV, theatrical and home video release via Legend Films Home Entertainment Distribution. ...

, which performed a new restoration and also created a computer-

colorized Film colorization (American English; or colourisation/colorisation [both British English], or colourization [Canadian English and Oxford English]) is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia, or other monochrome m ...

version. Both the restored black-and-white and colorized versions were subsequently released on DVD. In 2013, ''The Devil Bat'' was released on Blu-ray by

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art film, art ho ...

under its Kino Classics label.

Reception

The film was re-released in 1945 on a double bill with ''

Man Made Monster ''Man-Made Monster'' is a 1941 American science-fiction horror film directed by George Waggner and produced by Jack Bernhard for Universal Pictures. Filmed in black-and-white, it stars Lon Chaney Jr. (in his horror film debut) and Lionel Atwil ...

''. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' described the duo as "two of the scariest features on the market." In the book ''Poverty Row Horrors!'' (1993), Tom Weaver judges ''The Devil Bat'' as one of Lugosi's best films for the poverty row studios.

Sequels

PRC's 1946 film '' Devil Bat's Daughter'' starred

Rosemary LaPlanche Rosemary E. LaPlanche (October 11, 1923 – May 6, 1979) was an American beauty queen and actress. She won Miss California three years in a row (1939–1941), and won Miss America in 1941. Early life LaPlanche moved to southern California ...

as Paul Carruthers's daughter. Neither Lugosi nor any other actors reprise their roles; Carruthers is an

unseen character An unseen character in theatre, comics, film or television, or a silent character in radio or literature, is a character who is mentioned but not directly known to the audience, but who advances the action of the plot in a significant way, and w ...

in the latter film. In contrast to the horror elements of the original, ''Devil Bat's Daughter'' was mainly a

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...

. In 2015

Indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...

filmmaker Ted Moehring directed the sequel '' Revenge of the Devil Bat'', which stars

Lynn Lowry Linda Kay "Lynn" Lowry (born October 15, 1947) is an American actress, screenwriter and producer. She is known for her work in horror films, having appeared in the cult films '' I Drink Your Blood'' (1970), George A. Romero's '' The Crazies'' ...

, Ruby Larocca and veteran actors

Gary Kent Gary Kent (June 7, 1933 – May 25, 2023) was an American film director, actor, and stuntman notable for his appearances in various independent and exploitation films. A native of Washington, Kent studied at the University of Washington before ...

, John Link,

Dick Dyszel Richard E. Dyszel, known professionally as Dick Dyszel, is an American television personality, known for his television alter-egos Count Gore De Vol and Captain 20. Background The Chicago native attended Southern Illinois University and gradua ...

George Stover George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgi ...

, and

Conrad Brooks Conrad Brooks (born Conrad Biedrzycki; January 3, 1931 – December 6, 2017) was an American actor. He was known for his many appearances in the 1950s films of cult director Ed Wood. Career Born Conrad Biedrzycki on January 3, 1931, in Baltimore, ...

.Revenge of the Devil Bat, Sequel to the 1940 horror movie The Devil Bat.
/ref>

References

External links

* * * * * at You Call Yourself a Scientist
''The Devil Bats'', a band influenced by the movie and Rock N Roll!

IMDB link to ''Devil Bat's Daughter'', a sequel of sorts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devil Bat, The 1940s English-language films 1940 horror films 1940 films 1940s science fiction horror films American black-and-white films American science fiction horror films Articles containing video clips Films directed by Jean Yarbrough Producers Releasing Corporation films American films about revenge American mad scientist films American monster movies American natural horror films Films about bats American exploitation films 1940s American films English-language science fiction horror films Films about journalists Films about mutants