The Bat
by Crane Wilbur
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Vincent Price; Agnes MooreheadDirector: Crane Wilbur
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Miracle Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Bat
Movie Review: Moorehead and Price in a Pedestrian Mystery!
Summary: 3 Stars
First off, the editorial review has it wrong. Moorehead is NOT pulling off a million dollar heist! Someone else was and he's dead. But I digress....
I ran into this somewhat pedestrian murder mystery thriller with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead.
Before getting into the campy 60s comedy Bewitched, Agnes was quite the radio and movie queen actress. Bewitched must have been quite a let-down. I've heard Agnes in old 40s radio serials and on the Twilight Zone. See: I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead, 2nd edition; Bewitched - The Complete Fourth Season
We start out with an embezzler who wants to convince Vincent Price as his doctor to either come in on the deal or kill Vincent to cover up the embezzler's tracks. Price is not happy with either choice and decides to rub the guy out. There's a forest fire too, but it's unclear if it was purposely set or what in order to cover up the murder.
Now, it's OK to say this as the center of the tale circles "The Bat", a serial killer who wears a black face mask, fedora hat and has claws on his gloves to tear out the throats of women. Sounds bad but he's a fairly clumsy villain.
In the house where the embezzler hid the loot (who knows where it is?) Agnes Moorehead plays a mystery writer who uses the house for the summer, little guessing that the murderer has greed on his mind and will stop at nothing to get it. As the body count increases, suspicion falls on everyone except the clumsy murder. Example, when "The Bat" bangs on a wall with a chisel quite loudly in the so-called secret chamber, and others come up to investigate, I'm like "Dummy, why wake up the whole house?" The villain in the piece is not the brightest bulb on the Xmas tree and the writers trying to peg it on Price or the butler is a bit lame.
Overall, somewhat entertaining - nothing to compare with Price's other more memorable films.
A couple of stars for the star performances and another for the overall action and suspense. The awful music that was supposed to build suspense was less than thrilling. From what I understand, this is a remake. A rental, for sure.
Better: House on Haunted Hill
Summary of The Bat
In The Bat, top-billed Vincent Price brings his silky, sinister elegance to the second remake of the hoary "old dark house" stage play. But the real stars of the show are Agnes Moorehead, as an eccentric mystery writer who decides to pull off the million-dollar bank heist, and the steel-clawed killer known only as "The Bat." Price's devious doctor is but one of a rogues' gallery of suspects that include a Johnny-on-the-spot police detective, a chauffeur turned butler with a checkered past, and a housekeeper with echoes of Rebecca's Mrs. Danvers. Moorehead is a kick as the spirited author, and makes the most of her expanded role, but fans of the early film productions (1926's The Bat and 1930's The Bat Whispers, both directed by Roland West) will be less forgiving of other changes, especially writer-director Crane Wilbur's decision to draw the story out over a succession of nights. Wilbur loses the tension and claustrophobia of the originals with a rambling pace and handsome but airy photography, more appropriate to an episode of Perry Mason. Moorehead and Price bring a little spirit to the otherwise bland film, but not quite enough. --Sean AxmakerHorror DVD Video
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