The Vampire Bat
About The Vampire Bat
In the village of Kleinschloss, bodies turn up drained through two punctures in the neck. The burgomaster talks of vampires. Inspector Karl Brettschneider does not. Suspicion settles on Herman Gleib, who keeps bats and brings apples to Martha Mueller. After Martha dies the same way, a mob chases Herman into a cave and he jumps. The deaths continue. Dr. Otto von Niemann has been hypnotizing his servant Emil Borst and draining blood to feed a creature in his laboratory. He tries to poison Brettschneider. Ruth Bertin finds the lab. Brettschneider, who never took the pills, comes in dressed as Borst. Borst then holds von Niemann at gunpoint. Two shots follow, and both men are dead.
Cast & crew
More about The Vampire Bat
Frank R. Strayer directed Edward T. Lowe Jr.'s script for Majestic. Phil Goldstone and Larry Darmour produced. Production ended November 19, 1932. Majestic hired Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill after they had finished Mystery of the Wax Museum and got this picture into theaters ahead of that Warner release. Charles D. Hall was art director. The AFI catalogue places the cave scene in Beachwood Canyon. Ira H. Morgan photographed it, Otis Garrett cut it, and the sound is RCA Photophone.
Themes
Background
The picture is a pre-Code quickie aimed at the vampire cycle Universal had started with Dracula in 1931. It opened while Warner Bros. was still finishing Mystery of the Wax Museum.
Making
Majestic leased leftover sets: the German village James Whale had used on Frankenstein and interiors from The Old Dark House. Wray plays Ruth Bertin, Atwill plays von Niemann, and Melvyn Douglas plays Brettschneider.
Look
Ira H. Morgan photographed it in black and white. The cave sequence was shot at Beachwood Canyon.
Music
Charles Dunworth supplied the music, including the credit theme "Stealthy Footsteps."
Preservation
Prints at the Film Daily length of 63 minutes survive. A copy is on the Internet Archive as TheVampireBat.
Notes
- The New York opening was January 20, 1933. The Film Daily of January 10, 1933, gives 63 minutes, the length of most surviving prints. The negative is 5,888 feet, seven reels.
- AFI also records running times of 62–63 or 67 minutes.
- In 1952 the film was retitled Blood Sucker and Forced to Sin.
- Dwight Frye, as Herman, had already played Renfield in Dracula and Fritz in Frankenstein.
- Charles Dunworth's stock theme "Stealthy Footsteps" plays over the credits.
- Maude Eburne plays Ruth's aunt Gussie Schnappmann, George E. Stone plays Kringen, and Robert Frazer plays Emil Borst.
Scenes
- The mob drives Herman into the cave, and he jumps.
- Von Niemann feeds the thing in the laboratory with blood taken from the neck.
- Brettschneider enters the lab wearing Borst's clothes.
Influenced by
- Dracula (1931)
- Frankenstein (1931)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheVampireBat)
