Rating: 
Summary: Break out the shaving lotion!
Review: Ok, it may not be the best classic but i still think that it's one of Bela Lugosi's better films. I like this one more than many of his films. This movie stands out as a good low budget film with Bela in great form. If you are a Bela fan, this one has to be in your collection! As for the so called sequel to The Devil Bat being "Devil Bats Daughter" it in my opinion is not very good but this movie The Devil Bat is one worth watching . If you haven't been exposed to Lugosi, then get it and just enjoy!
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!
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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: 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: Just a few drops on the neck, where the skin is tender
Review: OK. The plot of Devil Bat doesn't sound that impressive, but Bela Lugosi's performance earns the movie five stars from this reviewer. Lugosi plays Dr. Carruthers, a doctor and scientist beloved by everyone in the village of Heathville; he is the last person anyone suspects when a series of strange murders take place. The first three victims are all sons of the rich and powerful Heath and Morgan families. These two families made their fortunes, it turns out, on one of Dr. Carruthers' formulas, and all the doctor got out of the deal was a measly ten thousand dollars compared to their millions. Ah, yes, we have a motive. Of course, these are no ordinary murders; they seem to have been made by some type of unknown wild animal. It couldn't be a bat, of course, because the killer was definitely a pretty large specimen. Carruthers' plan is hokey but brilliant. He still works for the cosmetics firm, and he has just come up with an experimental new aftershave formula. Naturally, he wants the Heaths and Morgans to try the product out themselves before marketing it-just a few drops spread across the neck, where the skin is always tender. He doesn't bother to tell his victims that bats really, really hate the smell of the formula's secret ingredient, nor does he mention the fact that he has figured out a way to use electrical stimulation to turn a normal bat into a Devil Bat. Everything is going according to plan until a nosy reporter shows up and starts snooping around. Lugosi is great in this movie. By 1940, he had the whole mad scientist act down to a science, and his secret scowls are enhanced by just the right touch of madness in his eyes. Best of all is the way he tells his victims "Goodbye" in a sinister voice once he has them in the soon-to-be clutches of his Devil Bat. One thing that bothers me about great old horror movies like this is the fact the moviemakers always felt compelled to provide some comic relief in the form of a goofy character-this time around, we have the newspaper photographer "One Shot" McGuire who is more interested in shooting pictures of the Heath's French maid than any silly old bat. The Devil Bat itself isn't very impressive; without the grainy, far from perfect black and white print, I am sure it would look quite ridiculous. It never even moves when Carruthers is handling it, it looks more like a hawk or eagle to me when it is flying, and its swoop attacks on unsuspecting victims make me think of the scene in Naked Gun where Frank Drebbin struggles against a towel thrown in his face. None of that matters, though, because Lugosi is just so much fun to watch.
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Summary: How I ordered 'Devil Bat' but got a 'White Zombie'
Review: What a pleasant suprise I got one Sunday when I put my Bela Lugosi Collection Vol.1 in to watch Devil Bat and it turns out my DVD isn't what I expected. No Devil Bat or Scared to Death. What you get and it is a FAR FAR Superior DVD is 'The Apeman'(Monkey scientist hokum set during WW2, so all the male actors are draft dodgers or something),Bela Lugosi meets the Brooklyn Gorilla(More monkey scientist shenanigans - only watch on a wet Sunday it is of a time that humour forgot) and Halperin Brothers finest nay THE Finest Gothic Fairy Tale EVER "WHITE ZOMBIE". All I can add to the vitriol of comments said about this film is IT IS THAT GOOD...unlike Tod Brownings Dracula for example. Buy it cry a little and tremble with fear at Bela in his finest role. Not bad for a phonetic actor
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: 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: Lugosi's Best
Review: This movie, Starring Bela Lugosi, is what I consider to be one of his best. You can laugh at the giant rubber bats (which probably inspired the 1950's giant insect genre). Note of Advice: Avoid the cheap video version by Front Row Entertainment version, taped in SLP mode. The plot: Lugosi plays the town doctor, who everybody likes. But in his house, out of the public eye, he is creating giant bats and a shaving cream they are attracted to. He gives the shaving cream to victims for them to sample, and the bats sense it and eliminate the victims. The film can be tedious at times because of the sometimes dark picture, but it's a short flick (70 minutes) and can easily be sat through. Extremely watchable and worth buying, if the price is moderately reasonable.
Rating:
Summary: Bela Lugosi and the Killer After-shave
Review: People in this movie frequently say to kindly Dr. Carruthers (Bela Lugosi), "Good night, Doctor." To which the good doctor sadly replies, "Goodbye." Why he is sad is puzzling. After all, he is the one who is sending everybody out into the night wearing his deadly fragrance invention that lures a huge killer bat. Our furry nocturnal friend just hates the shaving lotion, and attacks anything that carries the scent. Bela is mad at his employers because they are making money out the spray bottle on his lab work in their cosmetics and fragrance business. His resentment has unhinged his mind, and the kindly doctor has become the mad scientist. Bela changes a common bat into an uncommon monster with Frankenstein-like shock treatments. As Bela Lugosi's poverty row films go, this one is tolerable. The special effects consist of a huge rubber bat that swoops through the air and attacks victims as if it was a "Charlie Brown" type kite with an attitude. The acting, dialogue, casting, etc. are typically low budget. Don't expect great cinematic art, and you will do fine with this chiller-thriller. ;-)
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