The Bat Whispers

From the memorable opening scene of the newsboy yelling "You won't get the Bat! I'll bet the Bat makes a chump out of you!" to the police, it was clear this would be a much more stylish film than the 1926 one. Roland West directed both films. This one is markedly superior visually and, unlike a lot of other directors at the time, West seems to make the transition from silent to sound filmmaking seamlessly. I've seen all three versions of The Bat and enjoyed them all but this is probably the best version. This is also the version that, according to Bob Kane, was part of the inspiration for Batman. The Bat looks less silly here than in the last movie, where he had big mouse ears and was more adorable than scary. Anyway, it's a good old dark house thriller with a cool beginning and an amusing ending. Any movie with Una Merkel in it can't be that bad.

Roland West first filmed the story of the Bat, a killer that steals money and jewels for their value as well as for adventure, in 1926. He then made The Bat Whispers in 1930, which is a sound version of his silent film. The transition is not entirely smooth yet rewarding. Let me first state that the silent film is easily the superior of the two. The silent film had a much more creepier feeling to it. The acting was far superior, and the sets were incredible. West does duplicate much of the sets and shots that were in his first version. The acting, however, is not very good as it is obvious that sound pictures have not been around too long. West tries to accommodate that new innovation which sometimes results in stagey scenes and long dialogue sessions. Chester Morris is...well, to say the least...a ham. His performance is a bit over-the-top for me. He does show glimmers of talent though. The story is pretty much the same and that is the film's strength. It's a fun mystery that by today's standards will seem crude and silly, but taken in context of its time should provide some entertainment. Oddly enough, the mystery seemed less mysterious in this version. I knew who the killer was with ease(trying to distance myself from the memory of the first film as I did this). West again has some impressive camera shots. The opening scene of the bat stealing a jewel from an apartment high in the sky was incredible as was the journey of the bat over a bank and following a man with a lot of money. The camera work of West is innovative, and it is a pity that his life was cut short and we did not get a chance to see him employ his talents in other projects.

Great fun! The special effects are amazing for a 1930 movie. Miniaturized sets are used & although they're primitive by today's standards, keep in mind that this movie is over 70 years old. It's an excellent Old Dark House movie, complete with thunderstorms, secret passageways, a mysterious creature named "The Bat," comedic elements, a large old house, several murders, etc. It's been noted that the comic strip character, "Batman," owes some of his origins to "The Bat," & it's apparent in the outfit, the shadows cast from buildings, & in the name of the character itself. "The Bat" is indeed a pretty scary entity. The sound effects are good, camera work is excellent, & the ending is bizarre. It kept my interest throughout its 83 minutes. Well worth seeing for Old Dark House fans (this is one of the best). I rate it 9/10.

A criminal called "The Bat" roams around the mansion house of Cornelia (Grayce Hampton) looking for a secret room with hidden money. We have seen that he has no problem in killing anyone that comes in his way at the beginning of the film but we don't know his identity. A cast of characters appear at the mansion and the story is a "who-dunnit" mystery............. so, who is "The Bat"..?.... The film starts well but unfortunately, it goes downhill when the action switches to the mansion house. This is largely due to the overbearingly dreadful maid Lizzie (Maude Eburne) who plays everything for humour and just never succeeds. She is VERY irritating. Of course, one irritating unfunny character isn't enough so we are introduced to 2 more! A butler/house-keeper type who also plays for humour and fails and a detective (Chance Ward) who is also very annoying and very unfunny. These 3 characters are a big part of the reason why this film is rubbish. The other is the story which is dull and complicated and I found myself watching a totally confusing mess. The only good things about the film are some of the camera shots and Grace Hampton who plays her role well. They stick an epilogue on at the end of the film which is really tacky. This film is not good.

Roland West's THE BAT WHISPERS was based on a hugely successful Broadway play, The Bat, widely credited for having created the vogue for thriller plays in the 1920's. (The 1927 production "Dracula" which starred Bela Lugosi on stage was part of the mystery vogue, and led directly to the 1930 Universal film which kicked off the 30's cycle of horror movies). West filmed The Bat in 1926 as a silent, with great success. The 1930 remake was a large production, shot simultaneously in standard 35mm and a new widescreen 65mm process. Theater owners largely rejected the expense of installing 65mm equipment, and most people who saw this film on its release saw the 35mm version. Among them was Bob Kane, who credited it as a major influence in his creation of Batman in the late 30's. It's easy to see why. This is a stunning looking film (I'm referring to the 35mm version, which I saw at the 2004 UCLA Festival of Preservation) gorgeously photographed by Ray June. In an old dark house where the lights are constantly going off, and lighting is frequently provided by candles, or lightning, bizarre lighting effects start to become the norm, and the dramatic possibilities take off. The director used every conceivable angle to keep things visually lively, mirroring the ridiculous complexity of the plot with a visual complexity that always keeps the viewer slightly off balance. Much has been made of the sweeping camera moves and the use of miniatures. The miniatures are a bit obvious, but their intent remains effective if you're willing to go with it. (Being willing to "go with it" is pretty much a necessity in general for this film, which was a wild and unrealistic ride in its time, and deliberately so.) The photography benefits from a number of technical innovations, including a lightweight camera dolly invented for this production that allowed the camera to be moved 18 feet vertically in a matter of moments. The performances - both comic and dramatic characters - are deliberately hokey, very stagey turns that were the standard for this genre. Much of Chester Morris' mugging and squinting, however, are attributable to the violently bright underlighting that was used in his closeups, which eventually scorched his retinas (a condition which became known as Klieg Eye). Within that context, they are wonderful performances. Morris is particularly engaging, as is Grayce Hampton as the patrician Cornelia Van Gorder, the middle-aged spinster who refuses to be scared out of the house. (Hampton appears to be a very capable stage actress, and offers perhaps the most natural performance in the film. She had made one previous film – in 1916 – and made numerous subsequent ones, usually in bit parts, until she was nearly 80.) Her no-nonsense dowager centers the film perfectly, keeping the other characters (and performances) from plunging completely off the deep end. The plot? A master criminal, The Bat, is on the loose, a half-million dollars have been stolen from a bank by somebody else, and The Bat is trying to get it. The money has apparently been brought to a lonely mansion in a rural town (apparently somewhere on then-rural Long Island) where a middle-aged woman and her made are renting for the summer. Someone is trying to scare her out of the house, so she has sent for detectives. From there, anything goes.

This is a wonderful find. Roland West teams with star Chester Morris once again to give us "The Bat Whispers" a year after the same team gave us "Alibi", one of the very good films from 1929, and a Best Picture nominee from the 1928-1929 season. West uses some of the same photographic techniques that were ground-breaking in "Alibi". The camera moves along so you see what the police see as they ride along in their squad cars, and now the camera also swoops up the sides of buildings and "flies into" rooms at a birds-eye (or bats-eye) view. "The Bat" is a super-criminal. He taunts the police by telling them what he intends to do next and then performs his crime under their noses. He dresses and moves like Batman, has the Joker's indifference to human life and confidence in his own immortality, but unlike the Joker his motive is not chaos - it is unmitigated greed. In that way he is like a merging of Batman, the Joker, and Bank of America. The rather complex plot involves a bank that has been robbed in which the suspect is a young teller who is in love with Una Merkel's character. Her aunt has rented an old dark house from the bank owner's son. However, someone is trying to frighten her into leaving. There are secret rooms and passageways, the mysterious activities of several guests involved, and the presence of Chester Morris as a police inspector who arrives on the scene. For some strange reason he is dressed as a middle-aged man here, and I could never figure out the reason for that one. The questions are - who is The Bat, is he at work here, is he working alone, and what is he after? The only negative is the maid in the old dark house. She is constantly screaming and yelping at every little noise. By the film's midpoint I was ready to dress up like The Bat and get rid of this annoying person myself. Alas, she survives until the end of the film without really adding anything. I get the fact that scary things are going on. I didn't need her 90 minute conniption fit to drive that point home. If you love early talkies you have to see this one. It came before Batman and Universal's old dark house sound films, so it actually is more original than the modern viewer might give it credit.

This is a great old black and white mystery/suspenser. If you have the capacity to enjoy films of the 30's and 40's and you like mysteries and fine film craftsmanship, see his movie. Chester Morris is very good as the lead. The plot is relatively true to the Hopwood/Rinehart original screenplay. The setting is an old mansion with a spinster and family members terrified by a super criminal known as the Bat. They get outside help, but the Bat strikes anyway. Who is the Bat? What does he want in the old mansion? The story answers those questions in a most old-fashioned, entertaining manner. Of the three movie versions of the Bat, the 1926 silent, the 1950's Vincent Price/Agnes Moorhead version, and this one, this is the best.

Bat Whispers, The (1930) 35mm version *** (out of 4) 65mm version ** (out of 4) The master criminal known as The Bat steals a necklace even though he warned police that he was going to do it. They believe he's taken shelter inside an old house, which is full of shocks and surprised for the Detective (Chester Morris) on the case. This film has a pretty strange history behind it since Roland was remaking his earlier film from 1926 and was shooting two different versions. The 35mm version is the one being reviewed it and for the most part I was shocked at how well made it was. What really shocked me is that a lot of these early sound films are quite horrid and hard to understand but that's not the case here as everyone from the director to the cast seem perfectly normal working with the sound. The actors really take off and know how to work their dialogue, which again is something I wasn't use to seeing in such a early sound film. The visual look of this film mixed in with the sound makes the film appear to be something made later in the decade and not at the start. The cast all turn in impressive performances starting with Morris who has become a favorite of mine over the past couple years. It took me a little while to warm up to his type of delivery but once I did I really enjoyed watching him and his style of comedy. Una Merkel is also very good as is Chance Ward and Richard Tucker. The film offers up a lot of comedy and for the most part it works including a scene where the two older women are being questioned and are asked how old they are. One tells and lie and this is one of the highlights of the film. Even before we get to the two versions of the film it's also important to note that the film offers up one of the first "dolly" shots with a special camera that was created just for this film, which allowed it to move 18-feet in the matter of seconds. There's also a sweeping camera shot that is way ahead of its time even though the miniature used is easy to spot. Some might find the story or settings full of clichés must one must remember that this is the film that influenced everything that would follow, which is saying quite a bit for director West as his 1926 film influenced all the future silent old dark house films. After the film we also get a quick "warning" from The Bat telling people not to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it. The 65mm version features the exact same story and cast but of course it's shown in an early widescreen format and features all new shots by a different cinematographer. It's really amazing at how different these two versions are and I'd say the 65mm is more of a curiosity than anything else. I think the best film is the 35mm version for various reasons. For one, the widescreen process being used here really takes you out of the action in several ways as the camera is far back from the actors and this here kills several of the comedy sequences. It's also worth noting that apparently shooting this way was very expensive so they couldn't do countless takes, which might explain a few instances where lines are messed up but the actors keep going. This might also explain why the performances here are a lot more lacking than in the other version. It almost appears that the cast members are worried about messing up and this too effects their work and once again the comedy is what appears hurt the most. It's always interesting seeing these early attempts at widescreen but I think in this case it really hurt the movie. There just seems to be way too much going on trying to get this trick to work that both the director and cast aren't up in their game.

The film does feel creaky, the humor is laid a little too thick for my tastes at times (much like Paul Leni's THE CAT AND THE CANARY [1927], in fact) and Maude Eburne as the cowardly maid IS unbearable…but this is more than made up for, in my opinion, by the film's dazzling cinematography, atmospheric sets and deliberate theatricality (complete with asides to the audience in the finale). In any case, it's easily miles ahead of the inept and boring Vincent Price remake of 1959! You will have noticed that I have preceded (as is my fashion) the film's name with that of its director. I'll be the first to admit that nearly nobody today remembers Roland West, let alone be prepared to accord him "auteur" status, but you'll agree that the VERY distinctive visual style of the film indicates an assured guiding hand behind the whole project. Although hardly as well-known today or as easy to find, THE BAT WHISPERS is by no means West's only notable feature; as a matter of fact, based on the minute information I've managed to find on them in my reference books, I'd be very interested in watching THE UNKNOWN PURPLE (1923; an intriguing-sounding precursor to James Whale's THE INVISIBLE MAN [1933]), THE BAT (1926; the original Silent-film version of THE BAT WHISPERS), the gangster drama ALIBI (1929; which even earned Chester Morris a Best Actor Academy Award nomination) and CORSAIR (1931), his last film. As for myself, the only other Roland West film I've seen is the atypical and rather unsatisfactory Lon Chaney vehicle THE MONSTER (1925), which also happens to be a bizarre 'old dark house' melodrama. Elliott Stein, in Richard Roud's indispensable tome, "Cinema: A Critical Dictionary – The Major Film-Makers" described Roland West as "one of America's supremely original visual stylists, the director of a series of stunning thrillers." He also names ALIBI "one of the most oppressive films ever made…the distorted sets, odd angles and restless camera make it West's most Germanic work…this claustrophobic little nightmare would be fully at home in a retrospective of the American avant-garde film." Furthermore, he acclaims THE BAT WHISPERS as "a pictorial knock-out" and CORSAIR "a visual treat"! Unfortunately, his promising career was suddenly curtailed by a real-life tragedy. West was involved and living with renowned comedienne Thelma Todd (a frequent foil for Laurel & Hardy and The Marx Brothers) in Malibu at the time of her mysterious death in 1935. Neighbors heard them quarreling the night before the morning she was found in her garage overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning; though a suspect, he was never arrested but, of course, he could never work in Hollywood (or elsewhere) again. I've only watched THE BAT WHISPERS (twice), in Widescreen, on VHS and I've been meaning to pick up Image's DVD edition (comprising also the 'alternate' full-frame version, shot simultaneously by a different cameraman!) for the longest time. As it happens, from the online reviews I've read of the disc, the verdict as to which version is actually 'better' seems to be pretty mixed.

Well for heaven's sake, who would have thought that once upon a time Una Merkel would have been considered leading lady material. Not for very long though as the next year, 1931, she played Ricardo Cortez's sexy secretary, Effie, in the original "The Maltese Falcon". She was a discovery of D.W. Griffith who thought she had a Lillian Gish look about her and she did extra work in "Way Down East" and "The White Rose". So when she went to United Artists in 1930 Griffith thought she would be ideal as Ann Rutledge for his "Abraham Lincoln" but it was on a Fox loan out that her brilliant comedy vein was found. In Roland West's talkie remake of his 1926 success "The Bat" she starred alongside "Mr. Versatile" Chester Morris who was already being noted for his anti-hero parts. West certainly tried to experiment with camera shots and sound (much like with his "Alibi" of the previous year) - from the panning shot from the top of the clock tower to the street below, there is a cacophony of noise - sirens, police radios, newsboys jeering at the police's inability to catch the Bat who has just claimed another victim. Most people would be familiar with the plot that centres around the Fleming residence where Miss Van Gorder and her petrified maid (Maude Eburne) pass an eventful night. First visitor is Van Gorder's niece, Dale (Merkel) who brings her boyfriend (William Bakewell), who is disguised as Bailey, a jobbing gardener - in reality he is on the run having been falsely accused of embezzling funds from the bank at which he is a teller. They are both convinced that the missing money is hidden in the house - but in this crazy place no one is who they appear, even the owner, Fleming, is out to find the money for himself and there is also a strange doctor (Gustav Von Seyffertitz) who seems to have a morbid fascination with matches. Keeping the whole movie ticking along is Chester Morris as the mesmerizing, handsome detective Anderson - you just can't take your eyes off him, even though he doesn't make his appearance until 30 minutes after the movie has started. This movie is just terrific fun and trumps the silent one by having a powerful actor in the leading role (Jack Pickford was the star in the original - he played Bailey!!). Bob Kane did get the idea for Batman from the 1926 movie which did have a clearly defined bat's head as a silhouette and also flashed the bat insignia up in the sky - whenever the Bat was about to strike again. "The Bat Whispers" had plenty of atmosphere and frights and the bat costume, when illuminated by shadows, filled the screen - but it was easy to see it was only a costume after all. And the ending was great!! Chester Morris actually comes on to the stage and chats with the audience, asking them not to divulge the ending to their friends!! For a stage trained actor he was a complete natural in front of the camera and you have to scratch your head and wonder why he didn't become a major star. Maybe he was just too good!!!