This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2017) |
The Bat Whispers | |
---|---|
Directed by | Roland West |
Written by | Mary Roberts Rinehart (play) Avery Hopwood (play) Roland West |
Produced by | Joseph M. Schenck |
Starring | Chester Morris Una Merkel |
Cinematography | Ray June (35mm) Robert H. Planck (65mm) |
Edited by | Hal C. Kern James Smith |
Music by | Hugo Riesenfeld |
Production company | Joseph M. Schenck Productions for Art Cinema Corporation |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 83 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Bat Whispers is a 1930 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Roland West, produced by Joseph M. Schenck, and released by United Artists. The film is based on the 1920 mystery play The Bat , written by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, and is the second film version by the same director, previously adapted in 1926. An early talkie and one of the first widescreen films, West financed the cinematography, which required two cameramen and several techniques. It was considered a lost film for many years, but was restored from duplicate filmstock in 1988.
A mysterious criminal by the name of "The Bat" eludes police and then finally announces his retirement to the country.
In the countryside near the town of Oakdale, news of a bank robbery in Oakdale has put Mrs. Van Gordner's maid, Lizzie, on edge. Van Gordner is leasing the house from Mr. Fleming, the Oakdale bank president, who is in Europe. The chief suspect in the bank robbery, a cashier, has disappeared. Van Gordner's niece, Dale arrives followed by the gardener she has hired. Dr. Venrees arrives and tells Van Gordner that he has received a telegram from Fleming stating that because of the robbery he will be returning soon and will need to occupy his house.
There are mysterious noises in the house and lights turning on and off. A rock is thrown through the window with a note threatening harm if the occupants don't leave. Dale, and the gardener, who is actually Brook, the missing teller, are looking for a secret room in the house. They believe the money from the robbery is hidden there.
Detective Anderson shows up and questions Van Gordner. Fleming's nephew, Richard, arrives at Dale's request. She is hoping he can help in finding the secret room. Richard finds the house plans but refuses to show them to Dale. He pushes her away and runs up the stairs, but he is shot by someone at the top of the stairs and falls dead. Van Gordner sends for a private detective.
A mysterious masked man sticks a gun in the caretaker's back and tells him he had better get everyone out of the house. The lights continue to go on and off. The shadow of the Bat is seen by various occupants of the house.
Anderson states that Fleming isn't in Europe but robbed his own bank. He accuses the doctor of being part of the plot.
An unconscious man is found in the garage. He comes to and is questioned by Anderson. He can't remember anything. Anderson tells the private detective to keep an eye on him.
The hidden room and the missing money are found. Fleming, the missing banker, is found dead behind a wall in the room. The garage suddenly bursts into flames. In the ensuing chaos, the Bat appears and is caught, but he gets away before he can be unmasked.
As the Bat is fleeing from the house, he is caught in a bear trap, set up by Lizzie. He is revealed to be Anderson, who isn't actually Anderson. The real Anderson is the man who was found unconscious. The Bat says that no jail can hold him and he will escape.
A curtain closes across the screen. We are in a theater. Chester Morris, who played Anderson tells the audience that as long as they don't reveal the Bat's identity, they will be safe from the Bat. [1]
Director West financed the Magnafilm widescreen process and employed two cinematographers, using techniques not to be seen until the 1950s and Otto Preminger. [2] Along with The Big Trail (1930) it's one of the first known uses of widescreen. [3] Cameras used two different sized film stock and filmed in a variety of techniques including panning, cut scenes, and close ups. [4] Panning can be seen throughout the film but most notably in the opening scene of the movie. The movie begins with a shot of the face of a clock tower. It then pulls back and slowly scans or "pans" all the way down the building to show a car pulling out of a police station. Cut scenes can be seen throughout the film to show lapses in time. For example, when the police car is driving down the street, the scene (shot from the back of the car over the driver's shoulder) can be seen fading into another scene to convey a sense of time passing. In 1930, movie cameras weren not portable enough to be used in the back of cars, but Charles Cline invented a camera used for filming The Bat Whispers, more often used in Ray June's cinematography, for fluidity and to show The Bat in flight. [5] It was "a lightweight 24-foot-long camera dolly that could send a camera zooming 18 feet in a fraction of a second". [6] Close-up shots were also incorporated—the camera "zooms in" on the actors' faces when the characters are frightened and trying to figure out where the mysterious noises are coming from, and when The Bat is creeping up to Dale Van Gorder in the secret room.
An early talkie, this film is the second film version of the 1920 hit Broadway play The Bat , written by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, based on Roberts 1908 book The Circular Staircase. [7] The first film version of the play, The Bat (1926), was also directed by Roland West. Just as in the play and the first film, people explore an old mansion looking for a hidden treasure while a caped killer picks them off one by one.
The film was shot in three versions: a pair of 1.33:1 aspect ratio, 35mm negatives for US and foreign prints; and a 2:1 aspect ratio 65mm widescreen "Magnifilm" version (misspelled "Magnafilm" in some ads). [8] [4] The domestic negative was cut down to 72 minutes for the 1938 Atlantic Pictures reissue, and subsequently was lost.
In 1988 the UCLA Film and Television Archive restored and preserved the 35mm foreign version and the 65mm Magnifilm from the original camera negatives. [9] [10] UCLA gained access through the Library of Congress upon Mary Pickford's death in 1979 when she willed them her film collection, The Bat Whispers (65mm) was among it. [11]
This film was remade again in 1959 as The Bat with Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price. [12]
Comic-book creator Bob Kane said in his 1989 autobiography Batman and Me that the villain of The Bat Whispers was an inspiration for his character Batman.
James Avery Hopwood was an American playwright of the Jazz Age. He had four plays running simultaneously on Broadway in 1920, namely "The Gold Diggers," "The Bat" and "Spanish Love" and "Ladies' Night ".
The Great Train Robbery was the robbery of £2.61 million from a Royal Mail train travelling from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line in the early hours of 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England.
Droopy is an animated character from the golden age of American animation. He is an anthropomorphic white Basset Hound with a droopy face. He was created in 1943 by Tex Avery for theatrical cartoon shorts produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. Essentially the polar opposite of Avery's other MGM character, the loud and wacky Screwy Squirrel, Droopy moves slowly and lethargically, speaks in a jowly monotone voice, and—though hardly an imposing character—is shrewd enough to outwit his enemies. When finally roused to anger, often by a bad guy laughing heartily at him, Droopy is capable of beating adversaries many times his size with a comical thrashing.
Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. Rinehart published her first mystery novel The Circular Staircase in 1908, which introduced the "had I but known" narrative style. Rinehart is also considered the earliest known source of the phrase "the butler did it", in her novel The Door (1930), although the exact phrase does not appear in her work and the plot device had been used prior to that time. She also worked to tell the stories and experiences of front line soldiers during World War I, one of the first women to travel to the Belgian front lines.
The Bat is a 1959 American crime-mystery thriller starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. It is the fourth film adaptation of the story, which began as a 1908 novel The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which she later adapted into the 1920 play The Bat. The first film version of the play was the 1926 American silent film The Bat. The film version was adapted by playwright Crane Wilbur, who also directed.
The Bat is a 1926 American silent comedy mystery film directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda. The film is based on the 1920 Broadway hit play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood.
Roland West was an American film director, known for his innovative proto-film noir movies of the 1920s and early 1930s. He is however best known for his possible involvement in the death of Hollywood actress Thelma Todd in 1935.
Mitchell Camera Corporation was an American motion picture camera manufacturing company established in Los Angeles in 1919. It was a primary supplier of newsreel and movie cameras for decades, until its closure in 1979.
Cry Danger is a 1951 film noir thriller film, starring Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming. The film was directed by Robert Parrish, a former child star and later editor in his debut as a director.
The Anderson Tapes is a 1971 American crime film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery and featuring Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam and Alan King. The screenplay was written by Frank Pierson, based upon a best-selling 1970 novel of the same name by Lawrence Sanders. The film is scored by Quincy Jones and marks the feature film debut of Christopher Walken.
Detective Conan: The Private Eyes' Requiem is a 2006 Japanese animated feature film and the 10th entry in the Case Closed film series released on April 15, 2006. It earned 3.03 billion yen in the box office.
One Exciting Night is a 1922 American Gothic silent mystery film directed by D. W. Griffith.
Crane Wilbur was an American writer, actor and director for stage, radio and screen. He was born in Athens, New York. Wilbur is best remembered for playing Harry Marvin in The Perils of Pauline. He died in Toluca Lake, California.
Whispering Smith is an American Western television series that originally aired on NBC. It has the same ultimate source material as the 1948 film of the same name, but differs in some significant respects.
Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars (1955) is the 23rd book in the humorous children's series Freddy the Pig by American author Walter R. Brooks, illustrated by Kurt Wiese. Capitalizing on Martians' ability to pitch with any of four arms, Freddy creates a baseball team of Martians and circus animals to compete against neighboring towns. An old foe of Freddy's tries to rig the games.
The Place Beyond the Pines is a 2012 American epic crime drama film directed by Derek Cianfrance with a screenplay by Cianfrance, Ben Coccio and Darius Marder from a story by Cianfrance and Coccio. The film tells three linear stories: Luke, a motorcycle stunt rider who supports his family through a life of crime; Avery, an ambitious policeman who confronts his corrupt police department; and two troubled teenagers who explore the aftermath of Luke and Avery's actions fifteen years later. The supporting cast includes Eva Mendes, with Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Harris Yulin, and Ray Liotta.
My Lady's Garter is a lost 1920 American silent mystery film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Wyndham Standing, Sylvia Breamer and Holmes Herbert. It was based on the 1912 novel of the same name by Jacques Futrelle, a writer who perished with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
The Bat is a three-act play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood that was first produced by Lincoln Wagenhals and Collin Kemper in 1920. The story combines elements of mystery and comedy as Cornelia Van Gorder and guests spend a stormy night at her rented summer home, searching for stolen money they believe is hidden in the house, while they are stalked by a masked criminal known as "the Bat". The Bat's identity is revealed at the end of the final act.
The Circular Staircase is a mystery novel by American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart. The story follows dowager Rachel Innes as she thwarts a series of strange crimes at a summer house she has rented with her niece and nephew. The novel was Rinehart's first bestseller and established her as one of the era's most popular writers. The story was serialized in All-Story for five issues starting with the November 1907 issue, then published in book form by Bobbs-Merrill in 1908.
The Circular Staircase is a 1915 mystery silent film directed by Edward LeSaint and starring Guy Oliver, Eugenie Besserrer, and Stella Razeto. The film was produced by the Selig Polyscope Company. It is based on the mystery novel of the same name by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which was originally published in five parts starting with the November 1907 issue of All-Story magazine. The film is now lost.