The Bat (1959)

The Bat
Starring: Agnes Moorehead, Vincent Price
Director: Crane Wilbur
Writers: Avery Hopwood (novel/play), Mary Roberts Rinehart (novel/play), Crane Wilbur
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Year: 1959
My rating: 

I am disappointed to have to inform the general, unprepared public that the film THE BAT does not feature a giant evil bat, or a genetically enhanced killer bat, or even Adam West doing the Batusi. No, the movie is only titled thusly because the (human) villain has given himself the name "The Bat". Unfortunately, this is one of the only interesting things about the bad guy in this film.

As cheesy, cheap horror movies go, THE BAT isn't half bad. It's unpredictable in the sense that the movie keeps the identity of the killer a secret by throwing so much information at the viewer that each character has half a dozen clues pointing to him. The number of red herrings may make the Sherlock Holmesian portion of the audience weep, but it makes for an entertaining –- if totally incoherent -– ride.

The movie stars Agnes Moorehead (of CITIZEN KANE and "Bewitched" fame) as Cornelia van Gorder, a writer of cheap thrillers. (Her books are described as corny, and her friend shortens Cornelia to "Corny". Did you catch the joke there? Did you?) She's one of those fictional authors who somehow makes a huge amount of money from her scribblings, so she's taking the entire summer off and renting a luxurious mansion in a picturesque locale out in the country.

Ah, but where would a cheap horror movie be without Vincent Price? He shows up in his first scene wearing a stupid flannel shirt and wielding a shotgun. He purrs his way through the rest of the movie as Dr. Wells, one of the characters who keeps getting drawn back to the mansion. 

The mansion is where the bulk of the story takes place. You see, there's a hell of a lot of plot, and all of it comes back to the mansion. A million dollars has been embezzled from the local bank. There's already been one murder because of this. The money is hidden inside a secret room in the mansion, and while Moorehead and her maid/friend Lizzie are ignorant of these events, they have their own problems. Newspaper reports are hyping the recent killing spree of a serial murderer called "The Bat", a mean fellow who specializes in killing women, and who has taken a healthy interest in the mansion.

Scenes featuring the Bat show the nefarious villain creeping through the shadows in a black suit, a black ski-mask and a Jack Abarmoff black fedora. Is he attracted to the mansion because of the ill-gotten loot? Or is he simply preying on the women for kicks? Well, you'll have to wait during most of the movie while the screenwriter makes up his mind on that one.

The Bat is a relatively lackluster villain. He has no great lines of dialog, no fun character quirks. He does, however, have one redeeming feature. One of his methods of murder is to release a rabid bat into a room where his victim sleeps. Unfortunately, he only does this in one scene. A scene with one of the worst special effect animals I've seen in a long time. Indeed, I have vague memories of the Three Stooges being harassed by the same rubber bat prop to equally hilarious effect some years before. (The difference, of course, is that the Three Stooges were deliberately trying to amuse.)

Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price are really the only two memorable people in this movie. I watched this movie a few weeks ago, and when playing it again this evening to refresh my memory for this review, I realized that I had completely forgotten about every character who wasn't played by Moorehead or Price. The rest of the cast simply stand around blankly, passively waiting their turn to be killed off. (Basically, if you aren't Moorehead or Price, then there are only two actions for you to perform. You can either discover a new corpse, or you can be the new corpse.)

I mentioned that this is a decent film, but one gets the impression that this could have been much better. The appeal comes mostly from the cheesy, camp factor, yet with little effort, this could have been much better. Indeed, other films that were derived from the same source material have a much better reputation than this. 

There's no real tension, no sense of danger. A haunted spooky house is a common location for horror movies, but this mansion does nothing to distinguish itself. There are no ominous shadows, no creaky staircases. (There's the requisite dusty suit of armor, but it gets killed off in the first act.) In fact the only way we have of knowing that this is indeed a spooky, eerie house is that the characters keep insisting that it is.

I'm reviewing the Digiview Productions release of this DVD and the picture and sound quality are more than adequate for this kind of movie. There is an odd purple blotch that occasionally shimmies across the picture. Annoying as this interference is, it's often times more lively than the actors currently appearing on screen.

While this version of THE BAT is entertaining, it's nothing to write home about. I suspect that if I track down the other versions of this movie (1926's THE BAT and 1930's THE BAT WHISPERS) I'd probably enjoy them in the manner in which they were intended. As it exists, THE BAT is a fun movie, if goofy at times. Moorehead and Price at least make this watchable.