Rating: 
Summary: Delightfully cute
Review: "The Devil Bat" is what might be considered a minor, fun horror film. Bela Lugosi is delightful (as usual) as the scheming Dr. Carruthers, who is loved by everyone in his town but is secretly enlarging and training bats to be the killer of anyone who wears his new shaving lotion. The plot is not the material with which great films are made, but this is thoroughly entertaining, not scary in the least. Bela Lugosi is the brightest spot in this movie, but the acting all around does not suffer. It is cute!
Rating: 
Summary: Mennen's Skin Bracer it ain't!
Review: "....Soothing, isn't it?" asks mad doctor Bela Lugosi when his soon-to-be next victim tries his new "shaving lotion". Bela, as disgruntled "Dr Carruthers" wants revenge against his employers, a wealthy cosmetics/pharmaceuticals family, who have short-changed him over the years. The duplicitous doc develops, via glandular extractions and electrical treatments, a "devil bat", which looks like a cross between a veal cutlet and a kite. The deadly creature has been trained to attack anyone who wears the Dr's "shaving lotion", which he gives to the 2 sons and future son-in-law of his employer, and later the "big boss" himself. This ultra-cheap PRC production (did PRC stand for "Poverty Row Cinema"?) is a delight-a one hour guilty pleasure. Bela, as usual, is a magnet-try and take your eyes off him. Whenever he gives a sample of the infamous "shaving lotion" to his intended victims, and they say "Good night, doc" he replies, poker-faced, "Good-bye". When his first bat is shot dead by cop Dave O'Brien (he was the crazed dope fiend in "Reefer Madness"), a distinguished scientist pontificates on the radio, referring to the bat as a "sole survivor of the Stone Age", to which Bela replies, "Imbecile-bombastic ignoramus!" The kindly doc creates a second bat which eventually does him in, after he is doused with his own "shaving lotion". The picture quality of this tape is excellent-crystal clear, so you can really appreciate the cheap sets-I always felt that one good, healthy sneeze would topple them! And the sound quality is a good as you could expect from this cheapie. "The Devil Bat" must have been shown on TV every Saturday on WOR-TV when I was a boy-and I watched it, hypnotized, every time! Bela, I love you-you gave it your all. What you would have done with the role of Hannibal Lecter!
Rating: 
Summary: Best of The Low Budget Lugosi!
Review: "All the town of Heathville loved Dr. Carruthers...."Little did the townspeople know that the good Doc(Lugosi) was up to something sinister(surely not!). He sicks bats on those that have wronged him. This is the best of the poverty-stricken films that were made featuring Lugosi. I remember I first saw this on Beta in 81 that was paired as a double feature with White Zombie! The title on the Beta Box was Killer Bats, and I recently saw The Devil Bat on AMC, but was only able to tape some of it(ran out of tape--Darn!). This film is nothing, but fun. It is campy and silly at times, but it is enjoyable. It is the same as watching Plan 9! Sheer entertainment especially if you are a Lugosi fan like me and others out there. Also check out The Corpse Vanishes.
Rating:
Summary: Delightfully cute
Review: "The Devil Bat" is what might be considered a minor, fun horror film. Bela Lugosi is delightful (as usual) as the scheming Dr. Carruthers, who is loved by everyone in his town but is secretly enlarging and training bats to be the killer of anyone who wears his new shaving lotion. The plot is not the material with which great films are made, but this is thoroughly entertaining, not scary in the least. Bela Lugosi is the brightest spot in this movie, but the acting all around does not suffer. It is cute!
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant Actor - Dull Movie
Review: All too often in his career Bela Lugosi was expected to carry a film all by himself with little or no help from other actors, the director, the script or special effects. The Devil Bat (1941) is such a movie. The sets are cheap, the script is hokey and the "devil bat" is laughably lame. And yet as he always does, Bela makes the movie entertaining. He plays one of his
many mad scientists -- this one a (believe it or not) perfume maker who was monetarily wronged by his partners, now millionaires. These ungrateful boobs rub this in a little too much and so Lugosi creates a giant bat (as perfume makers are so good at doing) that will strike at anyone wearing a certain scent. Predictably the mad doctor ends up wearing his own scent and is killed by the devil bat -- but not before he gets his revenge on several of these boring unknown actors who deserve to die. As expected, Lugosi makes the character sympathetic and yet also fearsome as he tells each of his victims, "goodbye" after they try on his new fragrance. This movie has some of the most hackneyed character acting you have ever seen -- and yet Bela never stops giving it all he's got to make this movie a success -- which is more than the movie deserves!Still for the Bela Lugosi fan, this movie is pleasurable as you watch what one great and talented actor can do in one bad movie. One is left wondering how a Tom Cruise or Will Smith would fare in such a weak vehicle. But Bela -- ever the artist -- rises above it and gives a performance that can be enjoyed in spite of its trappings. That's acting!
Rating:
Summary: A Bela Lugosi Double Feature
Review: As of late there have been many Lugosi movies released on DVD. This double feature is among the best. The Devil Bat (1940) is Lugosi's only movie for Producer's Releasing Corporation, one of Hollywood's many infamous Poverty Row studios. Bela plays Dr. Carruthers, a mad scientist out for revenge against the partners he felt double-crossed him. His instrument of revenge is an electronically enlarged bat, attracted to its intended victims by the odor of a strange perfume Bela has concocted for just this purpose. With a plot such as this, the movie could be simply flat and unwatchable. If not for Bela, that is. Faced with such a prospect and being the dedicated actor he was, Bela plays it up beautifully. Instead of merely being hammy and letting it go at that, he brings certain nuances to his role, using double entendres at times. (Inducing a potential victim to try his shaving lotion, he declares that the victim "will never use anything else.") In fact, he ends up winning our sympathy in a scene with one of his "partners" where it becomes somewhat apparent that poor old Bela was swindled into an inferior deal. No wonder he's mad. Assisting Bela in this wonderful nonsense is Dave O'Brien (Reefer Madness) as the hero, Donald Kerr as the hero's sidekick, and Suzanne Kaaren as the ingénue. Look for Arthur Q. Bryan, more famous as the voice of Elmer Fudd, as O'Brien and Kerr's boss. Scared to Death is Lugosi's only color film, and as such, is a must for Lugosi fans and collectors. It is a tepid story narrated by a recently deceased woman from her slab in the morgue as to how she got that way. Billy Wilder later used a variation of this in Sunset Boulevard, but, of course, he did it much better. Given the almost total lack of any action in this film a more appropriate title might have been Bored to Death. Nat Pendleton and George Zucco offer whatever support they can to the proceedings. A note of interest is that while suffering from a form of dementia in a psychiatric hospital, George Zucco was said to have scared himself to death with visions of ghosts and demons coming after him. It certainly couldn't have been from watching this film. Excellent quality of video transfer and easy to use menus make this a bargain for the price.
Rating:
Summary: How I ordered 'Devil Bat' but got a 'White Zombie'
Review: Bela Lugosi made both good movies (Dracula)and, what some would consider, bad movies (Bride of the Monster). I consider the movies on this disk, somewhere in between. The Devil Bat is a lot of fun to watch. It's definitely the better movie of the two. Scared to Death was Lugosi's only color film, so if for no other reason, it's worth a look. The video and sound quality for both of these movies are surprisingly good. For any fan of Bela Lugosi, this is a must have disk.
Rating:
Summary: For any fan of Bela Lugosi, this is a must have disk!
Review: Bela Lugosi made both good movies (Dracula)and, what some would consider, bad movies (Bride of the Monster). I consider the movies on this disk, somewhere in between. The Devil Bat is a lot of fun to watch. It's definitely the better movie of the two. Scared to Death was Lugosi's only color film, so if for no other reason, it's worth a look. The video and sound quality for both of these movies are surprisingly good. For any fan of Bela Lugosi, this is a must have disk.
Rating:
Summary: A delightfully corny classic of 1940s B horror.
Review: Bela Lugosi, in top form, stars as the beloved Dr. Carruthers, who has invented a new shaving lotion (which he seems to think is as important as a cure for cancer). Little do the townsfolk suspect that it is HE who is responsible for the current rash of bizarre killings in the town. The good doctor has trained his special fleet of enlarged killer bats to zero in on any throat on which his shaving lotion has been applied. These mad scientists are always such sore losers! Great fun.
Rating:
Summary: Bad movies that never looked so good!
Review: I'm like a lot of old horror movie buffs that have purchased 2nd rate copies of the rare classics because that's all that was available. And it wasn't the poor duplication process, it was the poor surviving master tapes that gave us an often fuzzy vision. You could call it horrific for the "Devil Bat" until the Roan group took charge. What you will get is a fantasically remastered version of a Bela "must have". I was taken aback by the quality of the newly mastered version on this DVD. Kudos also for the "Scared to Death" remaster that shows Bela in his colored glory. Although it's not in as good a shape as "Devil Bat", it's not bad and considering the lack of attention to early film preservation. Highly recommended.
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