{"id":15288,"date":"2017-02-07T13:25:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T18:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=15288"},"modified":"2017-02-07T13:27:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T18:27:00","slug":"dvd-bat-the-1959","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=15288","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Bat, The (1959)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bat1959\"Film<\/strong>:\u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Standard<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Anchor Bay<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a01 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0July 11, 2000<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Thriller \/ Horror \/ Whodunnit<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A serial killer with claw-tipped black gloves taunts a mansion’s inhabitants while searching for a hidden loot\u00a0of $1 million in cash.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Theatrical Trailer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The third film version of Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood\u2019s 1920 Broadway play was heavily upgraded by writer-director Crane Wilbur with a lumpy structure that tried to update the material for 1950s audiences, perhaps tailoring Vincent Price\u2019s pre-existing screen persona as a likeable villain, having appeared in two prior Wilbur-penned 3D blockbusters, House of Wax<\/a><\/strong> (1953) and The Mad Magician<\/strong> (1953).<\/p>\n

Wilbur\u2019s redo is also harmed by an opening cabin-in-the-woods scene with dialogue that\u2019s utterly tone deaf. The set-up is designed to introduce Price as one of several villains within the story, as well as the mystery involving $1 million in cash which a bank founder gradually converted from stolen bearer bonds.<\/p>\n

Within a few minutes, the banker\u2019s out of the film, and Dr. Malcolm Wells (Price) is now a murderer, hungry to find the loot that may be stashed at an estate currently leased by mystery writer Cornelia van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead, stealing the film from the rest of the cast). Wilbur\u2019s conversion of Gorder from wealthy spinster to mystery writer isn\u2019t new or unique: in Magician<\/strong>, actress (and Wilbur\u2019s wife) Lenita Lane played a mystery writer who becomes involved with the film\u2019s serial murder mystery. Moorehead\u2019s version of a successful novelist is equally strong, but The Bat<\/strong> uses her in a faux wraparound in which the author sets up the isolated, stately locale and wraps up the picture as her final dictated words to an assistant (which are quite banal) signal the end of her latest novel\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n

Wilbur\u2019s plotting tightens only when the characters are trapped in the house and the eponymous killer, a long-coated, fedora-tipped killer wearing a black mask and metal-nailed gloves, stalks and slashes his way through victims until he finds the location of stolen funds. The back & forth maneuverings between characters is cleanly divided between women and possibly aggressive (but definitely suspect) men, making The Bat <\/strong>feel less of an Old Dark House<\/a> <\/strong>(1932) riff than a primordial slasher film, if not an Italian giallo.<\/p>\n

As Mario Bava and later Dario Argento would extrapolate the killer\u2019s physical design in their respective classics The Girl Who Knew Too Much<\/a><\/strong> (1963) and Bird with the Crystal Plumage<\/strong> (1970), The Bat<\/strong> is important as a forgotten attempt to update a creaky whodunnit long past its prime. Like a classic giallo, the killer\u2019s identity is unknown until the final reveal, and by then we\u2019ve seen suspects disappear and pop up maimed or dead, and seen maidens traumatized, with at least one dying horribly.<\/p>\n

What Wilbur couldn\u2019t show onscreen is hinted early on in descriptions of victims whose throats were found torn open, and the killer\u2019s customized gloves look nasty, predating Freddy Kruger\u2019s more skeletal, long-tipped gloves in A Nightmare on Elm Street<\/strong> (1984). Also successful is the variety of suspects, which include Wells, Lt. Andy Anderson (Gavin Gordon), and former chauffeur \/ van Gorder\u2019s bulter Warner (John Sutton). Gordon\u2019s performance is uneven, often characterizing the town\u2019s lead cop as a rude bully, whereas Sutton (excellent as the sadistic villain in Captain from Castile<\/a><\/strong>) is strong in the rare scenes he\u2019s allowed to interact at length with others.<\/p>\n

As a director, Wilbur wasn\u2019t the most adept at camera placement \u2013 early scenes in the back have awkward blocking, and the odd edit points leave too much dead space between characters, leaving theatrical pauses that deaden the energy of what\u2019s supposed to be a vital scene. The same goes for Price\u2019s opening cabin scene, where Wells\u2019 reaction to Fleming\u2019s weirdly casual admission to theft and setting up the bank manager as the chief patsy is akin to a talk about unusual lawn care. Wilbur\u2019s intention may have been to keep the tone monochrome so Wells\u2019 sudden action comes as a big shock, but the end result is an act that\u2019s disjointed.<\/p>\n

Little oddities pepper the rest of the script, and although the film\u2019s first shot shows a Big House, the drama occurs in a more most home which never infers there\u2019s a vast set of unused wings where the Bat is plotting his next maneuver \u2013 something better dramatized in the 1930 film version.<\/p>\n

Alvino Rey\u2019s credited with composing the rockabilly Bat<\/strong> theme with big band and twanging guitar, while Louis Forbes fashioned a more traditional orchestral score that adds a quick guitar twang whenever the Bat pops up or is referenced.<\/p>\n

Joseph Biroc\u2019s cinematography is workmanlike in the aforementioned cabin and bank scenes \u2013 maybe these were reshoots done with a lesser DOP \u2013 but once the tension begins in the mansion, the lighting is dimmed, and Biroc crafts some gorgeous shadowy images which have the killer often seen in silhouette or shadow.<\/p>\n

Although released by Allied Artists and seen in a new transfer when Lorimar owned the catalogue and licensed films to TV, The Bat<\/strong>\u2019s tumbling into public domain\u2019s ensured there\u2019s no definitive edition. Anchor Bay\u2019s 2000 DVD sports a 1.33:1 transfer that\u2019s clean but shows its age and compression in grey levels, and there\u2019s the 2015 Blu-ray from Film Detective that sports a matted 1.85:1 transfer that\u2019s supposedly faithful to the film\u2019s original widescreen exhibition. (An A\/B comparison shows the matted version crops the image\u2019s top and bottom, but offers a sliver of peripheral information.)<\/p>\n

In an ideal world, The Bat<\/strong> should exist on Blu in both ratios, sporting an isolated score track, and commentary by a film historian (David Del Valle, perhaps?) familiar with Price, Wilbur, and the source material, sorting through the stage and screen versions, and the film\u2019s release in a market that became increasingly aimed at younger audiences teased with aliens and bug-eyed monsters instead of black-gloved killers.<\/p>\n

The Bat<\/strong> has been filmed in 1920, as The Bat Whispers<\/a><\/strong> in1930 (shot simultaneously in 1.33:1 and the early 65mm widescreen process Magnifilm), and 1959. Rinehart and Hopwood\u2019s play was also adapted for TV in 1953 for Broadway Television Theatre<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2017 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third film version of Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood\u2019s 1920 Broadway play was heavily upgraded by writer-director Crane Wilbur with a lumpy structure that tried to update the material for 1950s audiences, perhaps tailoring Vincent Price\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[4915,4920,4918,4916,4919,3663,4917,4914,2054],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3YA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15288"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15335,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15288\/revisions\/15335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}