THE DEVIL BAT’S DAUGHTER (1946)

In the small town of Wardsley, a young woman is found in the street, unconscious. She had just come to town and a cab driver took her to the Carruthers house, which is empty after the death of Dr. Carruthers years ago. It turns out she is Nina, the doc's daughter. Years ago, Carruthers was accused of being a vampire, having bred gigantic bats which attacked and killed a number of townspeople before they turned on him. With Nina still unresponsive, Dr. Elliot gets Dr. Morris, a psychiatrist, to attend to her. Nina wakes up but becomes hysterical as she has visions of giant bats, and of turning into a bar along with her father. Morris's wife Ellen insists on Nina staying with them, and we soon discover that Ellen's marriage is on the rocks, with Morris having an affair with Myra, an old friend of Ellen's. Ted, Ellen's son from a previous marriage, arrives for a visit and mild romantic sparks begin between him and Nina. However, Nina's condition worsens and Ted's dog is found dead in Nina's room, with Nina insisting that she must have killed it while possessed by her evil father. As plans are made to institutionalize Nina, Ellen is found dead in her bedroom, with Nina passed out in the hallway. It seems obvious that Nina is the killer, but Ted doesn't think so and with help from Dr. Elliot, Ted visits the Carruthers house and finds evidence that points to someone else as the killer. Can Ted clear Nina's name, and maybe even her father's name as well?

In theory, this is a sequel to a 1940 B-horror film called THE DEVIL BAT which featured Bela Lugosi as Carruthers, though the connections don't quite work. In the original film, the doctor is indeed a madman (with no daughter in sight) murdering people with bats for revenge. But this movie concludes with Carruthers being exonerated—it's not explained in detail except that the killings were not his fault—so I guess PRC, the Poverty Row studio that made both movies, assumed that no one would remember the details of the first film. The screenwriter, Griffin Jay, pulled similar rewriting moves when he scripted some of the Mummy sequels for Universal. The earlier Lugosi film is straight up horror, but this, despite flirting with a spooky atmosphere, is really more a psychological thriller akin to GASLIGHT. Everything about the film screams B-movie (or B-minus movie): cheap production values, scattershot writing, and bottom of the barrel acting. The actors seem to have been hired for their blandness. Rosemary LaPlanche is pretty bad as Nina—she can handle the catatonia at the beginning, but any emotions are beyond her reach. There is zero chemistry between her and John James (Ted), who himself is just mildly better than LaPlanche. The other actors aren't even worth mentioning. At some point, poor LaPlanche actually has to say the cliche line, "What’s to become of me?" The fact that we don't care shows how weak this movie is. Pictured is LaPlante with Michael Hale. [YouTube]

CHARLIE CHAN IN PANAMA (1940)

A group of travelers leave their ship, which is about to go through the Panama Canal, and instead take a sea plane that will get them to Panama City more quickly. It's 1940 and the U.S. wasn't officially in WWII yet, but the American naval fleet is about to pass through into the Pacific Ocean and the city is filled with spies. One of the passengers, Godley, visits Fu Yuen's hat shop, but Fu Yuen is actually Charlie Chan and Godley is a government agent asking for his help in tracking down a mysterious spy named Ryner who might be about to pull off a major act of sabotage. But Godley drops dead in the shop, victim of a poisoned cigarette that was planted on him by one of the sea plane passengers. Chan, with his son Jimmy, investigates. Among the suspects: Compton, an English novelist; Miss Finch, a maiden schoolteacher; Manolo, owner of a cabaret in the city; Dr. Grosser, an unfriendly research scientist; Cabot, an American engineer; and Kathi Lenesch, a woman with a mysterious past who is going to sing at Manolo's cabaret. Jimmy, who engages in his usual bumbling antics, actually discovers something potentially helpful: Grosser has a cage of rats that he has injected with bubonic plague; could that be part of a sabotage act? Or could it involve the liquid explosive that is discovered in a burial vault? This is one of several WWII Chan films in which Charlie worked for the government, using his detective skills to catch spies. This is a particularly strong entry in the series, packed with action scenes and a solid supporting cast which includes Lionel Atwill (Compton) who was equally at home as a villain or a red herring; the handsome and sturdy Kane Richmond (Cabot) who was usually a hero but not always; Jean Rogers (Kathi) who was best known as Dale Arden in the first two Flash Gordon serials; Mary Nash (Miss Finch) who was Katherine Hepburn's mother in The Philadelphia Story; and Jack La Rue (Manolo), frequent portrayer of gangsters. Victor Sen Yung (pictured) is quite appealing as Jimmy, coming off a little less bombastically than he sometimes does, and Sidney Toler is near the top of his game as Chan. Even though it's not quite a traditional mystery story, this would be a good place for Chan novice to start. [DVD]