The Bat

Cornelia (Agnes Moorehead) is a mystery writer who temporarily moves into a mansion to attempt to get some work done. She later learns that the homeowner embezzled money and hid it in somewhere in the house. After he turns up dead, Cornelia and her houseguests find that someone knows about the money and will stop at nothing to get it. Could it be the notorious spikey-fingered murderer, "The Bat"?

This is a fun little mystery with a delicious performance by the always fabulous Agnes Moorehead. Vincent Price co-stars as the slightly creepy (of course!) town doctor. One of the most intriguing things about the movie is the refreshing treatment of the lead heroine. She has no love interest--something you don't see often in 50s horror movies. Her only reliance is upon her tough (and slightly butch!) maid, and her independence has garnered admiration by her female houseguests (one of which is played by Little Rascal Darla Hood).

Unfortunately, the movie doesn't really capitalize much on the potential of its "big creepy house with a claw-gloved murderer on the loose" premise, and seems to run out of fuel towards the end. Once the body count starts, the actors look like they couldn't care less. But overall, this is an enjoyable and often creepy mystery with terrific performances by Moorehead and Price.

My Rating: 6.5/10

This film is a lot better than you might expect. It follows the story of a wayward million dollars that is believed to be hidden within the walls of an old house. The inhabitants of the house are a female writer and her crew of servants.... oh, and a prowler known as 'the bat', who evidently wants the fortune for himself. The Bat is notable for a great macabre atmosphere that creates a sense of claustrophobia, as the house is in the middle of nowhere. It's also notable for an early performance from Vincent Price, who appears as the doctor, Malcolm Wells. Price was better known in 1959 for the William Castle classic "House on Haunted Hill", but 'The Bat' is still an able entry in his list of acting credits. Price evidently grew as an actor throughout the 60's and 70's, but his early performances always have that x-factor that would go on to instill the man in the hearts of horror fans forever, and his performance here has that also.

The story itself has lots of room for tension and intrigue, and it makes best use of it as the film is constantly intriguing, and many scenes, particularly the ones involving the menacing bad guy, are filled with suspense. The film is at it's best when 'the bat' is on the prowl, and features several lovely shots of the fiend poking his arm through various crevices in the house. The house itself is riddled with various traps and secret passages in true haunted house style, and it adds to the inventiveness and effectiveness of the movie. The film gives the twist away far too early, however, and it kind of spoils the ending as it turns out that, logically, there's only one person who the bat could possibly be. It doesn't really matter though, as the film is always a lot of fun and if you're a fan of Vincent Price (and who isn't?!), or just classic horror movies in general, I highly recommend this movie.

Some people don't like to watch anything that's not in color...they don't know what they're missing. Some people look down at anything made in the fifties or sixties as hopelessly hokey...and they don't know what they're missing either. The Bat is a taut, suspenseful story, and one which proves gore isn't strictly necessary in order to be frightening. Agnes Moorhead shows plenty of spunk, and the great Vincent Price steals every scene in which he appears.

The cinematography of this film is excellent...note the use of dark shadows to conceal and hide peoples' identities, just as the dark mask hides the Bat's face. Jump out of your skin as that eerily-clawed hand appears in frame for the first time. Ignore the truly awful fake-looking bat that appears for a few seconds. No movie's perfect.

And play the adult version of the "Scooby Doo" mystery game...where you try to figure out who are the red herrings and who is the real murderer. It's probably not who you think it is.

Agnes Moorhead (Endora of "Bewitched" fame) is a sheer delight as a cagey old bird of a mystery writer, and Price is wonderful in his seemingly dual role. As has been lamented here before, the brevity of Price's screen time is somewhat disappointing but that is the only factor which disappoints.

I found this to be an inventive and disingenuous endeavor full of red-herrings and wrong turns. Figure this one out for yourself. Puzzle the clues, weed out the characters set here as distractions, look past the deliberate contrivances and solve the mystery on your own.

Excellent entertainment with a splendid darkling atmosphere which I found enormous fun to view. While this is not up to "Gaslight" or "Rebecca" standards, there are many worse ways to spend a late Saturday night, or a rainy Sunday afternoon.

It rates a 7.5/10 from...

the Fiend :.

Watch out for the red herrings, I was wrong. And I am very rarely wrong in pre-1980's whodunits. Grabbing this to watch early Vincent Price I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of thriller that could be produced with the technology. For those of you looking for the technological aspects of movies the lighting and shadow work was excellent. That and the sound-tract adds a lot to the overall feel of the movie. An added plus was Darla from "Our Gang" adding a cute bit part of the movie. Comletely gore-less, this movie actually does as promised and delivers thrills without blood. Something most modern movies cannot pull off.

Problems with the movie - First it has a nasty habit of just dumping information on you instead of making the viewer gradually learn what happens. Second as most 1950's horror fare it does have a tendency to drag on. But both of these can be overcome by what some previous reviewers call a confusing plot. Sorry guys, if you know whodunit at the beginning of the movie it is not worth watching.