The Bat
August. 09,1959Mystery writer Cornelia Van Gorder has rented a country house called "The Oaks", which not long ago was the scene of some murders committed by a strange and violent criminal known as "The Bat". Meanwhile, the house's owner, bank president John Fleming, has recently embezzled one million dollars in securities and has hidden the proceeds in the house, but is killed before he can retrieve it.
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Reviews
From my favorite movies..
Fresh and Exciting
Best movie ever!
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
Okay,so it isn't really scary,but it is well made.Agnes Morehead and Vinny Price are the stars,but there are so many great supporting actors.John Sutton as the chauffeur promoted to butler,Gavin Gordon as the cop,Lenita Lane as Lizzie the companion to Cornelia.Price is as much the star as Morehead and I loved every second he was on screen!Knew right away who was The Bat,but watching this film unfold was a great experience.Have the DowHour Of Great Mystery version with Helen Hays,so will have to watch,but what little I saw of that version didn't compare.Will also look at the 1941 film The Black Cat again,as this reminds me of that LOL film.
CAUTION: Plot spoilers present.Mystery writer Cornelia Van Gorder rents a mansion known as The Oaks in the countryside in order to commence work on a new novel. But what she doesn't know is that the Oaks' owner has stolen a million dollars' worth of bonds & hidden it in the mansion. But before he can retrieve it, he is killed by his good friend Dr. Malcolm Wells, who now must try to locate the loot & flee the area. But at the same time, a masked killer known only as the Bat has been seen in the area. Van Gorder has the suspicion that the Bat could be one of her guests staying at the Oaks. As they attempt to find the stolen bonds, Wells & the Bat both try to outwit each other & get to the loot first.The Bat was based on an old play that has been around since the dawn of the film age. It is also the last of the adaptations to have been done on the play. It has on board writer-director Crane Wilbur, who had done some thirty films, mostly unmemorable, & star & later horror icon Vincent Price.Like I mentioned above, The Bat was the last adaptation made on the play to date – and for good reason. The plotting is routine & the style made as if Wilbur was making a static play instead of a movie – the camera positions are static & there is rudimentary suspense. Some of the plotting leaves a bit to be desired – if you were to track the plot, there is a poorly implemented device where the Bat is hit on the head, only for both Price & the butler to be wounded – but not the real Bat. Indeed the scene where the Bat encounters Vincent Price in his lab is a bit of a disappointment, given that Price would have been a better villain than some usurper with a clawed glove & black gangster suit. Oh well Having said that, The Bat does have a slight glimmer of hope in it & has aged slightly reasonably better for today's audiences. Agnes Moorhead gives another of her classical performances, which has a certain amusement factor while Vincent Price is his usual self – all sinister & friendly at the same time, something that befits a horror icon such as he. If you dig old mystery thrillers from the 1950s, this one could be a safe bet for an interesting evening with friends. Remember to check your doors & windows.
In the opening scene, Agnes Moorehead and her staff have moved into a large house, but the servants are muttering about the threat of rabid bats. When I lived in Philadelphia there was a similar warning on television. "Look out for bats behaving oddly." The warning was of course futile because everything a bat does is odd. I suppose they could get REALLY odd by sitting down at the piano and hammering out "C Jam Blues" while grinning at you, but short of that, how could you know something was up? The story is too complicated to go into in detail. Some nonsense about a bank's founder stealing a million dollars from the bank, being murdered by Vincent Price (a doctor), four or five ladies ensconced in Agnes Moorehead's mansion and being threatened by somebody in a black mask and wearing gloves with claws, a snoopy detective, a grandfather clock, cut telephone lines, an uppity maid, a clumsy director, 1959 bouffant skirts (nice), the shadow of a villainous hand cast on the wall by a flash of lightning, that million bucks hidden somewhere under the floorboards or behind a secret panel in the wall or something.The budget was low. Few outdoor shots, no extras. And the tale, suitably tweaked, might have made a good hour-long episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." There are a few unexpected witticisms in the dialog, nothing too challenging. But for the most part we get lines like this: Two young women are spending the night locked in their room. The beds are next to each other. One young lady turns to the other and says, "I can't sleep. I keep thinking of that man with the slashed throat." The other replies soothingly: "Don't think about it." How do you DO that? How do you not think about something? The mind will think what it will. It's its own agent. Unless -- is it possible that there is a mind BEHIND the mind? Somebody make a long-distance call to Descartes. We'll get to the bottom of this.Look, the whole movie seems to have been lying at the bottom of a shoe box labeled "B movie scripts, 1930s.") But I had to stick with it to the end.
Horrible crappy little low budget film. A female crime writer rents a mansion with a suspicious history to write a new novel. Meanwhile, said mansion owner steals a million dollars from his own bank and is murdered by Vincent Price for the money. He just has to find it, as it is hidden somewhere in the house. Meanwhile (again), a thief and murderer named The Bat is on the prowl in and around the mansion, also after the money. The story was pretty bland, the acting in some parts was so terrible it was weird (mainly the police detective) and I got too bored to watch to the end.