Diagonaldi Very well executed

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

classicsoncall There aren't many films you could give a '6' rating on IMDb and still call it a great flick, but this is one of them. How could it not be, with Bela Lugosi zapping bats with a combination of electrical jolts to transform them into over-sized killing machines? The scientific basis to all this is non-existent, but what was even funnier was the reaction of that esteemed Professor Raines (John Davidson) who initially gave no credence to the 'Devil Bat' murders. But then after Johnny Layton (Dave O'Brien) shot one, he reversed course and called Dr. Carruthers' (Lugosi) creation a hold over and last survivor from the Neolithic Age! You just have to love this stuff! The thing that gets me is how members of the same family and partners in the same company couldn't make a connection after the first two victims were murdered by the devil bat. Not that Carruthers was very obvious after handing each one a splash of his experimental after shave with a final sounding 'good-bye' before they left. Apparently those couple of checks at five grand a throw weren't enough to buy his acquiescence. Come to think of it, I probably would have gone a little batty myself if the Morton's and the Heath's screwed me out of my share of millions.If you dig down deep and manage to read the newspaper articles concerning the Devil Bat murders, there's an obvious goof in the one by the Chicago Register after Johnny Layton manages to shoot down one of the flying devils. The story calls him 'Henry' Layton while the Springfield Daily correctly mentions his name as Johnny. Seems like someone in charge lost focus for a minute, as the senior Morton was named Henry.If you go for this bat business, there's a couple more cool flicks spanning the decades before and after this one came out. Try 1933's "The Vampire Bat" with Lionel Atwill, or the 1959 Vincent Price picture simply titled "The Bat". They'd make for a very cool line-up on any given Halloween, with each picture's star a notable horror movie icon.

Michael_Elliott The Devil Bat (1940) *** (out of 4)Bela Lugosi plays a scientist who decides to get even against those he feels doubled crossed him. He creates a special cologne like substance that he gives to those he wants to target and then he unleashes a large bat that then attacks them. A newspaper man comes to cover the story and tries to find out who is behind the mysterious killings.Even after delivering a terrific performance in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, the following year Lugosi was back at the budget companies where he made this film for PRC. THE DEVIL BAT certainly isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but if you're a fan of Lugosi or B movies then there's certainly enough here to keep you entertained.I've always enjoyed watching these B movies from Lugosi because you could never tell from his performance that he was appearing in cheap material. In other words, no matter if he was at Universal or someplace like PRC, the actor still gave it his all and delivered a fun performance. He certainly goes over-the-top with his high energy but this just brings life to the picture and I really loved his approach here. I especially loved the way he would say goodbye to all of the victims. Outside of Lugosi's performance, the supporting cast is also good. Dave O'Brien and Guy Usher are entertaining as the reporter and his photographer. More fun comes from the bat attacks themselves. While it's obvious how they were done, the effects are still good enough to see why this film became a pretty good hit back when it was released. At just 68 minutes the movie certainly flies by and it contains a nice mix of horror and comic relief. THE DEVIL BAT isn't Oscar material but it's a fun little film.

arfdawg-1 Low budget B picture with career-faltering Bela Lugosi directed by Jean Yarboro who directed Abbott & Costello movies.Lugosi's workshop has not one, not two, bit THREE secret rooms! What's up with that? By the time this film was made, he was already looking like a mess from his drug habit. But he's able to pull it together for most scenes. The music in this movie is canned and really over the top that sort of adds to the kitchi-ness of the movie. Particularly when the absolutely gigantic bats are in the screen. You've never seen anything so big!The guy from Reefer Madness is in this too. Guess he got around.Is the movie good? No way. But if you are in for a wacky film late at night, this could be your bag.The PlotDr. Carruthers feels bitter at being betrayed by his employers, Heath and Morton, when they became rich as a result of a product he devised. He gains revenge by electrically enlarging bats and sending them out to kill his employers' family members by instilling in the bats a hatred for a particular perfume he has discovered, which he gets his victims to apply before going outdoors. Johnny Layton, a reporter, finally figures out Carruthers is the killer and, after putting the perfume on himself, douses it on Carruthers in the hopes it will get him to give himself away. One of the two is attacked as the giant bat makes one of its screaming, swooping power dives.

BA_Harrison Less than a decade after his iconic turn as Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi could be found slumming it in poverty row shockers, earning a crust starring in cheap bill-filling movies like this, a rather ridiculous romp in which the Hungarian horror legend plays Paul Carruthers, a mad scientist who holds a grudge against his employees for becoming filthy rich off the back of his hard work. In order to exact his revenge, Carruthers experiments with electricity on bats in his secret laboratory, growing the creatures to massive proportions and training them to attack only those wearing a special aftershave lotion that he has developed. With the police baffled, it is up to intrepid New York reporting duo Johnny Layton (Dave O'Brien) and 'One-Shot' McGuire (Donald Kerr) to solve the mystery.A seriously daft plot with hammy performances and laughable giant rubber bats suspended on wires, The Devil Bat is, unsurprisingly, utter nonsense, but if you have a hankering for some classic B-movie cheese, then the film should prove entertaining enough for the duration. An over-theatrical Lugosi chews up the scenery with gusto, and O'Brien and Kerr provide some enjoyable comedy relief, but it is the murderous flying mammal which is the real star of the film: an unconvincing inanimate model when seen from a distance, but very much alive in close-ups, it's aerial attacks are absolutely hilarious, the stiff-winged bloodsucker swooping from the sky, shrieking like a demented banshee.