The Bat Whispers *** (1930, Chester Morris, Una Merkel, Maude Eburne, Spencer Charters) – Classic Movie Review 3592

Writer-director Roland West’s 1930 film version of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s spooky mansion stage chiller play The Bat is inevitably creaky but suitably creepy and satisfyingly funny, as a master arch criminal called The Bat steals a necklace from the safe in the house of a rich socialite, robs a bank then terrorises the occupants of an isolated country mansion.

The Bat Whispers is well and imaginatively directed by West, who also made the second silent version in 1926, successfully going for chills and laughs. Everything takes wing – the deliciously hammy performances of the actors (Chester Morris, Una Merkel, Maude Eburne, Spencer Charters), the sets (settings by Paul Crawley), the black and white noir-style night photography (by Ray June [35mm version] and Robert H Planck [70mm version]), and even the models.

West keeps to his original 1926 formula – ghosts, secret panels, lightning flashes, disappearing bodies, but delights in the coming of sound by adding screams and his witty dialogue. At the end, an actor asks viewers not to reveal the Bat’s identity. Also in the cast are Chance Ward, Grayce Hampton, DeWitt Jennings, Wilson Benge, Richard Tucker and Gustav von Seyffertitz.

The Bat Whispers is supposedly the film that inspired Bob Kane to create Batman. The special effects were shot in 35mm.

Mary Roberts Rinehart’s play The Bat was previously filmed in 1915 and 1926, made here in 1930 and again in 1959 as The Bat by Crane Wilbur in 1959 with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3592

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