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The Vampire Bat, Blu-ray (1933)

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 11, 2017 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

An interesting pre-Code 1933 resurrection starring Melvyn Douglas and Fay Wray. The Vampire Bat, Blu-ray (1933) Cast: Melvyn Douglas, Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill Director: Frank R. Strayer Studio: UCLA/The Film Detective FD0767 (4/25/17) Video: 1:33 B&W & color added for flames Audio: English mono Extras: Featurette on Gregory Hesselberg, son of Melvyn Douglas, Audio commentary by film historian Sam Sherman Length: 63 min. Rating: **** First all, one never even sees a vampire bat in this early film, except for a clearly dead little one in the vest of a troubled man-child they mistakenly peg as the vampire. This macabre feature of vampire attacks in a small German village (but in English) stars the heart-throb of the time, Melvyn Douglas, and King Kong’s Fay Wray. (She was the original “horror chick.”) A featurette attempts to make a documentary of one of the sons of Melvyn Douglas. I did not listen to the film commentary, which I’m sure was fairly interesting. This is a classic horror film with not a great deal of horror in it. The most interesting thing to me was that during the periods when no one spoke, the audio dropped out completely. Guess that’s what they did […]