The Vampire Bat (1933) starring Lionel Atwill, Fay
Wray, Melvyn Douglas. Directed by Frank Stayer. Screenplay by Edward T. Lowe.
Produced by Phil Goldstone Run time: 63 minutes. Black and White. USA.
Pre-code. Horror.
While most of Hollywood history revolves around the releases
from the majors (MGM, Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros, Fox, Columbia, RKO),
there were several smaller studios known as poverty row studio. One of those
was Majestic Pictures, which was in business in the early 1930’s. Studios like
Majestic were always on the look for what they hoped would be a break out film.
And with The Vampire Bat they thought they had one.
To give a little background, Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray had been paired together in Warner Bros’ Dr. X (1932), a horror film directed by Michael Curtiz, and had completed work on The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), a follow up horror film, also directed by Curtiz. The latter was a large-scale release and would have a lengthy post-production process before it was released.
