THE VAMPIRE BAT (1933)
Article #327 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 2-5-2002
Posting date: 6-22-2002

Vampire-like murders are being committed in a small village, and the prime suspect is a mad boy with a love for bats.

This movie features Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and Dwight Frye as Herman, the bat-loving boy. It seems like a vampire movie, but without giving too much away, I’ll only say that the plot veers away from the supernatural into science fiction before all is through. I found this one quite enjoyable, with a great role for Frye and another solid performance by Atwill; one thing I like about Atwill is that he played his characters with a good deal of ambiguity; you were never really sure whether he was going to turn out to be the villain or not, and this movie does keep you wondering for quite a bit of the time. There’s lots of fun character work in this movie as well.