The Bat *** (1959, Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Gavin Gordon) – Classic Movie Review 3,591

‘When it flies, someone dies!’ The right stars in Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead crank up the enjoyably creaky 1959 American crime-mystery thriller film The Bat.

The right stars in Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead crank up writer-director Crane Wilbur’s entertainingly creaky 1959 American crime-mystery thriller film version of the maniac-in-the-mansion stage chiller play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Vincent Price plays physician Dr Malcolm Wells, and Agnes Moorehead plays Cornelia van Gorder, a clever dowager mystery novel writer who rents a spooky old dark house called The Oaks, where murders were committed by a criminal known as The Bat and now a murderer is looking for hidden loot.

Great though Price and Moorehead are, Wilbur can’t quite make the old thing fly, but it is still spooky and fun enough.

Gavin Gordon has the other main role as the local chief of detectives, Lieutenant Andy Anderson, with John Sutton as Warner the Chauffeur.

Also in the cast are Darla Hood, Lenita Lane, John Bryant, Harvey Stephens, Mike Steele, Riza Royce, Robert B Williams and Elaine Edwards.

It is the fourth film of The Bat, originally a 1908 novel called The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which she later adapted (with Avery Hopwood) as the 1920 play The Bat.

Mary Roberts Rinehart’s play The Bat was previously filmed in 1915 as The Bat (now a lost film) and in 1926 as the silent film The Bat, and in sound (as The Bat Whispers) in 1930. Roland West directed both 1926 and 1930 versions.

The Bat (1959) is in the public domain, so beware versions of inferior quality.

RKO Pictures bought the rights from Mary Pickford, who produced the 1926 film for her United Artists studio.

The Bat was released 0n 17 December 1959 in the US  in a double bill with the Hammer horror film The Mummy.

The cast 

The cast are Vincent Price as Dr Malcolm Wells, Agnes Moorehead as Cornelia van Gorder, Gavin Gordon as Gavin Gordon as Lieutenant Andy Anderson, John Sutton as Warner the Chauffeur, Lenita Lane as Lizzie Allen, Elaine Edwards as Dale Bailey, Darla Hood as Judy Hollander, John Bryant as Mark Fleming, Harvey Stephens as John Fleming, Mike Steele as Victor Bailey, Riza Royce as Jane Patterson, Robert B Williams as Detective Davenport.

It is the final film of Darla Hood, who played Darla in Our Gang comedy shorts between 1935 and 1941.

Crew

The Bat is directed by Crane Wilbur, runs 80 minutes, is made by Liberty Pictures, is released by Allied Artists, is written by Crane Wilbur, is shot in black and white by Joseph F Biroc, is produced by C J Tevlin, and is scored by Louis Forbes.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,591

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/