There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

When the villagers of Klineschloss start dying of blood loss, the town fathers suspect a resurgence of vampirism. While police inspector Karl remains skeptical, scientist Dr. von Niemann cares for the vampire's victims one by one, and suspicion falls on simple-minded Herman Gleib because of his fondness for bats.Majestic Pictures had lower overheads than the larger studios, who were struggling at the time during the Great Depression. Part of the reason that "The Vampire Bat" looked almost as good as any Universal Pictures horror film is because Majestic leased James Whale's castoffs, the "German Village" backlot sets left over from "Frankenstein" (1931) and the interior sets from his film "The Old Dark House" (1932), plus some location shooting at Bronson Caves. Completing the illusion that this was a film from a much bigger studio, Majestic hired actor Dwight Frye to populate scenes with Wray and Atwill.While the film has fallen into public domain and thus has some rather shoddy versions floating around, it is not by any means a bad film. Fay Wray is at her best here, and really ought to be known for more than being "King Kong's girlfriend". Lionel Atwill is also good, and Dwight Frye steals the show with his shtick. His role here is not too far removed from his turn as Renfield, which is unfortunate for him in that it made him typecast, but definitely resonated with fans of "Dracula".If a decent version does not exist, it ought to. With a new transfer and a decent historian on the audio commentary (Steve Haberman?) this would make a great companion to the Universal films. It is, after all, more or less a Universal knockoff anyway.

There have been a rash of killings in a German village. The victims have all been found drained of their blood. The villagers believe a local weirdo named Herman Gleib (Dwight Frye), who has an unnatural affinity for vampire bats, is responsible. However, as the story progresses, it looks like a scientist engaged in disturbing experiments might really be the culprit.This is a good little vampire/mad scientist mash-up horror film from the early '30s. Helped by a cast of greats, including Frye, Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and Melvyn Douglas. Made by Poverty Row studio Majestic, it looks pretty good since they were able to use leftover Universal sets. Majestic rushed the film into production in order to release it before Mystery of the Wax Museum, Warner Bros' big hit starring Atwill & Wray.

German people in a German village in Germany (or Austria maybe) are turning up dead in their beds, with two puncture marks on their neck. The local big wigs are beginning to think that a vampire is stalking the town, but the local policeman thinks that's a load of superstitious crap. His case is not help by all the actual vampire bats in the area, and someone spotting a guy clambering about the roofs. Suspicion falls upon village idiot Hermann, who wanders about town at night, fondles bats, and generally doesn't do himself any favours. Thrown into the mix are the local doctor and his servant Emil, who start off by dismissing the vampire theory and then believing it, plus his lovely assistant (who's girlfriend with the cop) and her Aunt, who is a hypochondriac to say the least. The cop's main problem, besides the murders, is that the locals are gearing up to lynching Hermann, so he better move fast. It takes a while to get going, this one, but picks up roughly around the halfway mark. It's easy to spot who's really doing the murders, but that doesn't detract from enjoying the film. There's plenty of humour in here too, from the Aunt to Hermann himself, and mostly everything is wrapped up neatly at the end, although unless I missed it the presence of the bats isn't explained. As with most of these old films, this one is quite short and you shouldn't begrudge it too much, even if you don't like it.

"The Vampire Bat" is one of those underrated horror films of the early 1930's that seems to impress more with each viewing. I won't go into the details of the plot, as that has been covered multiple times in other reviews, and it's not the story that makes the film shine.There are three things that make "The Vampire Bat" stand out from the other poverty row films - the cast, the direction, and the comedy.The Cast - Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Wray get the heavy lifting in the film, and all are excellent. Atwill is perfect for this type of part, as he demonstrated many times. Douglas is sufficiently perplexed as the investigator, and Fay Wray is just gorgeous in distress. The other players add sufficiently, especially Dwight Frye channeling a dimmer version of Renfield from Dracula.The Direction - Frank Strayer does an admirable job in shooting the film, with creepiness abundant and lots of camera movement. Some shots are just so outstanding (such as the opening scene), that they almost seem out of place in a cheap horror movie. Strayer provides loads of atmosphere and never loses the audience. An excellent job.The Comedy - As with most horror films of this time, comedy relief was thrown in to lighten the mood of the audience, and in most films, the comedy was misplaced and terribly unfunny. However, in "The Vampire Bat" the comedy, mostly provided by Maude Eburne as Aunt Gussie, is spot on and still funny today. This helps to keep the film watchable.The Downsides - There is really only a couple of downsides to the film. The first is the editing, which is clumsy and hurried. It sometimes spoils the excellent direction. Cuts are often not matched, and this can distract. Obviously, this was not a big budget film, so the sets and overall production values are not high, but this is mostly glossed over by the efficiency and care shown by the director, but there are a few scenes where the seams showed too much, like the cave scene, parts of which look like it was filmed in a closet.Overall, "The Vampire Bat" is certainly worth a look for the great direction, a mad Lionel Atwill, and the always lovely Fay Wray.