MOVIES and MANIA score:
‘When it flies… somebody dies!’
The Bat is a 1959 American homicide thriller movie written and directed by playwright Crane Wilbur (screenplay for Mysterious Island; The Mad Magician; Home of Wax; storyline for The Wonderful Mr. X).
The film stars Vincent Worth, Agnes Moorehead (Bewitched, Pricey Useless Delilah; Frankenstein: The True Story) and Gavin Gordon (Bride of Frankenstein; Thriller of the Wax Museum).
It’s the fourth movie adaptation of the story, which started as a 1908 novel The Round Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which she later tailored (with Avery Hopwood) into the 1920 play The Bat.
Within the US, The Bat was distributed by Allied Artists on a double-bill with the British Hammer movie The Mummy.
The Bat was launched on a Particular Version Blu-ray and DVD by The Movie Detective, the basic movie restoration and streaming firm, on October 25, 2022.
Introduced at 1.85:1, a pristine print has been restored from authentic 35mm archival parts and features a host of bonus options. Notably, the discharge consists of 9 archival radio broadcasts that includes the long-lasting Vincent Worth in all the pieces from the favored radio drama suspense to a comedic efficiency for CBS Radio Workshop in Talking of Cinderella. Bonus options additionally embrace:
A full-colour booklet with the essay, “The Case of The Forgotten Creator,” by professor and movie scholar Jason A. Ney
Full-length commentary monitor by Jason A. Ney
All-new, authentic manufacturing, The Case for Crane Wilbur, by Ballyhoo Movement Footage
Plot:
Cornelia Van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead) is a thriller writer who lives in a city terrorised by a mysterious assassin recognized solely as “The Bat” who is claimed to be a person with no face.
The Bat enters Van Gorder’s rented home, The Oaks, and releases a bat, which bites Van Gorder’s maid Lizzy (Lenita Lane). With Lizzy in a panic, fearing she might now have contracted “the rabies”, an outbreak of which native papers have reported, Van Gorder calls her physician, Dr Malcolm Wells (Vincent Worth), who’s researching bats…
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Opinions:
” …the forged nearly drips with greasepaint conjuring up the environment of an intimate stage with a killer lurking simply past the curtain. Such an method proved delicate in a decade stuffed with an rising reliance on rampaging aliens and sinister ghouls, however time has been variety to the movie…” Turner Traditional Motion pictures
“Home of Wax‘s Crane Wilbur, directing his personal script, had once more chosen to revive a creaky previous melodrama which, on this event, remained each bit as creaky and melodramatic as the unique […] After seven reels of wearisome comings and goings, Wilbur disposes of extra to-ings and fro-ings by a last-minute change in building, switching from real-time to flashback mode…” Denis Meikle, Service provider of Menace: The Life and Movies of Vincent Worth
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“Crane Wilbur’s path is pretty static, though he does make efficient visible use of the deep darkish shadows which can be half and parcel of those “previous darkish home” tales. He additionally provides his forged free rein, permitting Vincent Worth and Agnes Moorehead to take the performing ball and run away with it. They’re incessantly over-the-top and sometimes campy…” All Film
” …The Bat isn’t actually scary as a lot because it’s “charming” […] The Bat is a good time waster, a movie that may put a smile on the face of those that might bear in mind it from days passed by…” Horrorfreak Information
” …Crane Wilbur, the scenarist-director, retains the plot perking and the our bodies falling (seven), with some amusing touches alongside the best way. Lastly, and happily, there may be Agnes Moorehead’s good, snappy efficiency.” Howard Thompson, The New York Occasions, December 17, 1958
“Price anticipating followers of Morehead, Worth, or The Bat Whispers. However I felt the entire thing ought to have been freakier and jazzier, and never so stately {and professional}.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers
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Alternative dialogue:
Lizzie Allen: “All of the victims died the identical approach – like their throats had been ripped open by metal claws.”
Cornelia van Gorder: “That, I suppose is the cat dropping its dentures!”
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