Bats!

I've been reading about the silent movie The Bat for a very long time. It supposedly was one of the influences on Bob Kane who went on to gain credit for creating Batman (though we all know Bill Finger was also very much responsible). The movie has a good reputation and I've long wanted to see it. Well I found it of all places in my local Wal-Mart buried (pun intended) in a Mills Creek collection of public domain items all featuring the "Undead".

The story is a classic Scooby Doo-style mystery with an infamous burglar and murderer named "The Bat" and who slinks around the city wearing an over-sized bat-head terrorizing the locality. The action switches to an estate outside of town which apparently contains a hidden room and in that room is a valise filled with stolen loot. The Bat needs to get the old lady and her maid who have just moved into the house out, so he can ransack the place. There are other mysterious characters lurking and the movie begins with a plea from the producers for moviegoers not to reveal the Bat's identity.

The action is pretty neat, as the Bat slithers around in the dark, leaping and whatnot. There's plenty of humor, mostly from the maid and a bumbling detective who cavort out of all proportion to the dangers they see. Though I must confess the maid manages to see things almost all the others miss. There is young couple trying to clear the young man's name who is accused of having stolen the money hidden in the house. There is a mysterious man who shows up all tattered and beaten. But amidst all the action, the old lady keeps on knitting, her face implacable as she confronts the menace with composure and clear thinking.


This movie got remade in 1931 by the same director, Roland West, as The Bat Whispers. That one I haven't seen yet. It was remade again in 1959 as just The Bat, this time starring Vincent Price and Agnes Morehead. This one is on this collection too. This remake has pretty much the same basic plot though the Bat is more a murderer than a thief. It's not a bad movie by any stretch, but it is a bit talky. Having been adapted from a play that's logical enough, but the action such as it is, is too sparse to really hold the attention in the way the original did. The red herrings are easier to spot in this one too I think, but that might be the familiarity with the plot. It's not identical to the original, but it does nicely play off its expectations.

One thing though about this remake is the Bat's costume. Not bat-head here. I swear it's like a Steve Ditko character came to life and trotted across the screen. The character wears a slim dark suit, a fedora, and a full-face mask that looks like he has no face most of the time. He's nimble and spends a lot of the movie racing around the house. Every time I saw him, I noted how much like the classic Ditko hero he looked. The Question, Mr.A, The Mocker, they all look pretty much alike and this Bat looks like 'em too.

All in all The Bat is a pretty good movie. The remake less so, but both can be diverting. I can see why Bob Kane might've been inspired to want to do something similar.

Rip Off