The Bat Whispers

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: Everyone else has said it all. So here is my 2 cents worth. Get the movie if you like 30's films and in particular old house and mystery films. The video quality is very good but i agree, the sound is a little low but hey, its great to have it. Now, this got me thinking, I like Chester Morris and wish i could find some Boston Blackie movies.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: Everyone else has said it all. So here is my 2 cents worth. Get the movie if you like 30's films and in particular old house and mystery films. The video quality is very good but i agree, the sound is a little low but hey, its great to have it. Now, this got me thinking, I like Chester Morris and wish i could find some Boston Blackie movies.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Remake
Review: Having been overwhelmed by Roland West's direction in the silent film "The Bat," I was equally astonished at how easily he took to the sound medium for the talkie remake. Most films of 1930 are immobile; here, the camera cranes, spins, and dances between miniature sets, elaborate mattes, and beautifully lit stages. The final scene must have been incredibly effective when shown in theatres.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Remake
Review: Having been overwhelmed by Roland West's direction in the silent film "The Bat," I was equally astonished at how easily he took to the sound medium for the talkie remake. Most films of 1930 are immobile; here, the camera cranes, spins, and dances between miniature sets, elaborate mattes, and beautifully lit stages. The final scene must have been incredibly effective when shown in theatres.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting movie, but...
Review: I am a huge fan of 1930's films, so it was with great anticipation that I sat down to watch this DVD. Unfortunately it was not the exciting film I had expected. Firstly the good points: The picture quality for a film over 70 years old is amazingly good. The 65mm widescreen print is fairly speckled but boasts superb sharpness and contrast. The full frame version is less speckled but not quite as sharp. Nevertheless I was very impressed by the print quality for both versions. There is also frequent use of highly imaginative model shots and camera work throughout the movie. Now the bad points: Whilst the picture quality is terrific, this is another Image Entertainment DVD that suffers from lower than usual sound level - so be prepared to turn up the volume on your TV. The film itself contains some of the worst acting I have ever seen. Chester Morris gives a laughable performance and the rest of the cast aren't much better. As for the plot - what plot? We spend at least an hour watching various people climbing in and out of windows, opening and closing doors, shouting, crying, screaming, dying - leaving the viewer totally bemused as to what is supposed to be going on. Perhaps this was director Roland West's intention, but I think the audience would have been better served by fewer aimless characters and a stronger storyline. I take my hat off to Image Entertainment and other video companies for releasing these vintage films for everyone to enjoy. 'The Bat Whispers' is a very interesting piece of film history which has sadly dated quite badly. This movie is a film buff's dream but others may feel less enthusiastic. So if you want to watch strange goings on at an old dark house I recommend you check out Universal Picture's 'The Old Dark House' instead.

Rating:
Summary: The Bat Whispers...will you listen?
Review: Take a trip to yesteryear with me and enjoy a thrilling ride from a time when sound was just making its' way onto the silver screen, adding a whole new dimension to the entertainment we now take for granted. In this remake of his 1926 silent film The Bat, director Roland West gives his characters voices in The Bat Whispers (1930), which is based on a novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Not having seen the silent original version, I am unable to provide a comparison of the two films, but I found much to like in this 'talkie' version.

The movie opens on a lovely miniature of Gotham at night, with a lush matte paining backdrop. A slow pan down a large building leads us to policemen waiting outside the front of the building, and then we move inside through a lighted window. The cinematography is quite exquisite here, worth watching more than once. Inside the room is a man reading a letter, one written by The Bat, a criminal who claims he will steal a valuable necklace at 12 midnight, and dares the man to be alone in the room. With police just outside the door and surrounding the building, The Bat manages to pull off an impossible caper in a unique and interesting way.

Soon we cut to a darkened bank, and someone opening the large safe, and making a hasty departure. The fellow is followed to a large house, one occupied by an older woman, her maid, and a creepy caretaker. The man who robbed the bank makes his way into the house, and is soon followed by a great number of characters.

First of all, let me just say this is one of the crazier plots in a movie I've seen in while. Throughout the entire first half of the film, there were characters coming and going in the great, spooky house with secret passages, moving paintings, hidden rooms, and lights that fail almost on cue. Some characters had formal introductions, some didn't, and confusion ran rampant. It was like every five minutes or so, I found myself asking, "Now who the heck is that?" Eventually everyone is made known, some not until the end of the film, as the plot threads untangle themselves. This is basically a crime/mystery/thriller with a dash of horror (the house is supposed to be haunted) and touches of comedy. You see, there is a large amount of money hidden in the house, and various characters are trying to locate it, each for reasons of their own. Not only that, but throw in a police detective, a private detective, a suspicious gardener, a man with amnesia, and arch criminal The Bat, and you've got quite the stew. The red herrings certainly do begin to fly fast and furious as the plot barrels along to its' final act, to which I was highly satisfied as all was finally revealed.

In a nice touch, after the story ends, the film doesn't, as the audience is asked not to reveal the identity of The Bat, first as a plea, and then as an ominous warning, that if you do spill the beans to your friends, The Bat will haunt you up good. While the acting in the film may never win anyone awards and such, it does fit with the characters and the story. The under lit sets are wonderful, along with the cinematography, adding the moody atmosphere, playing with the light and darkness to create spooky shadows that serve well to send a chilling tingle up your spine. And throw in the occasional thunder and flash of lighting and you've got all the makings of a suitably hair-raising thriller from an age long ago.

Available here are two versions of the film, one in the standard full screen 35 mm print, and another in a 65 mm 'Magnifilm' format, providing a rare wide screen presentation of a pre-1950's film. The wide screen format we are used to seeing nowadays wasn't really utilized throughout until the early to mid 1950's. Both versions look really great, despite the fact that the film is 70 plus years old, and do suffer speckling and slight deterioration due to age. The sound is a bit soft, but, again, given the age, one has to be somewhat generous in not being overly critical. Along with basically two versions of the film, also included is extensive liner notes on the fold out cardboard cover of the DVD case. The product information page here lists deleted scenes and alternative endings also available, but I didn't see those features. Could be that I missed them, but the menu options on the disc are limited to choice of which format you want to watch and chapter stops. I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone, but if you like old films and have the patience to hang in there, you will be rewarded at the end.

Cookieman108

Rating:
Summary: odd macabre thriller
Review: THE BAT WHISPERS is an odd macabre thriller, with enjoyable performances and is very good.

Starring Chester Morris, Una Merkel, Maude Eburne, DeWitt Jennings and Chance Ward, THE BAT WHISPERS was filmed in 70mm widescreen (very odd since widescreen wasn't patented until the 1950's), an experimental move that works to the film's advantage.

The story of the search for a demonic, depraved killer known as The Bat is a wonderfully entertaining piece of whimsy, with Merkel and Eburne in top form.

Directed by Roland West.

Rating:
Summary: The Inspiration For Batman.
Review: THE BAT WHISPERS is Roland West's 1930 sound remake of his 1926 version of Mary Roberts Rhinehart's long running comedy/mystery play THE BAT. While the earlier version had the benefit of a better all around cast including Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda, this version was shot in an early widescreen process called Magnavision (65mm) which allowed director West the opportunity to employ a startling array of visual tricks that still have the power to impress today. Chester Morris gives a strong performance as the detective who holds the key to the mystery. Una Merkel plays the heroine in one of her earliest roles and William Bakewell (the twin monarchs in Douglas Fairbanks' THE IRON MASK) acquits himself nicely in the thankless role of the wrongly accused fiance'. The story of a masked killer on the loose in an old dark house was already old hat by the time this film was made. The performances are deliberately over the top in accordance with the creakiness of the story which only adds to the fun. There is even a plea at the end to not reveal the killer's identity to future patrons. What makes THE BAT WHISPERS so remarkable is its stunning cinematography, its expressionistic use of light and shadow and its innovative use of sound. The bat costume, though not as striking as in the 1926 version, is said to have been the inspiration for Bob Kane when he came to create BATMAN over 10 years later. Roland West was a premiere visual stylist and quite an innovator for his time. He was forced to give up directing in 1935 after the high profile death of his girlfriend actress Thelma Todd for which he is now believed responsible. The DVD from Image Entertainment contains both the 65mm and 35mm versions shot by different cameramen as well as outakes, deleted scenes, etc. If you enjoy old movies and want to see a little pop culture history as well then you can't afford to pass this one up. If you like this one then check out Roland West's other available film ALIBI. For 1929 it's truly amazing and it also stsrs Chester Morris.

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece of Mirth
Review: When I grabbed this video from the shelves of Virgin Megastore on Broadway, I raced home to watch it in a darkened room. It was even storming outside. I have been reading about this mythical, lost movie for decades. At last. It starts off with magnificent scenes of a fantastic Manhattan in l930: the tolling of a bell, an incredible aerial view, then an equally incredible descending shot to a street with pedestrians, traffic. But after that--good God! A hideous cast. Una Merkle makes your skin crawl with that high, cracking voice, Chester Morris over-acting all over the place. So many people coming in and out of nowhere, you lose count of whose supposed to be who. But one great plus: the first shots of "The Bat" are really terrifying. You see his distorted shadows, then see his dark image gliding through the darkness, with one twisted foot dragging behind him. This is mostly of interest to those who are addicted to lost treasures of the early talkies. Beautifully restored, shown in rare 65 mmm (and this in 1930!)when the Bat is finally unmasked, any macabre magic vanishes. He's just another old human being like you and me. Still, this is definitely worth a look at--just to see what was coming out of movie studios just a year or two after movies found their "voice." In this one, you wish they hadn't.