Bat, The
(1959)
[DVD Info]

Cornelia van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead) is a murder mystery author. She leased a mansion called “The Oaks” while preparing to write a new novel. “The Oaks” is a place where many unexplainable things have happened, along with mysterious murders. Cornelia brought along her maids from the city to her new temporary home, among them Lizzie Allen (Lenita Lane). All of the maids hear of the creepy past that the home has and take off, but loyal Lizzie stays behind. In the area there was a killer called The Bat. The killer liked to murder women and never leaves any fingerprints. His calling card is the way the body looks when they find it, the throat is torn open like by steel claws. Along with the human bat, the area is rumored to have rabid bats flying around the area.

John Flemming (Harvey Stephens) built and owns the local bank. He also has embezzled one million dollars from it. He’s made it look like the bank supervisor Bailey (Mike Steele) is the one responsible. He wants to fake his own death so that if Bailey is acquitted, he won’t be a suspect. He enlists the help of his doctor Malcolm Wells (Vincent Price) but after confessing all the details, Malcolm turns on John and kills him. The millions are hidden in a secret room in “the Oaks” and John’s cousin let Cornelia lease it out without his knowledge. Suddenly The Bat is back in action. Is there any connection between Malcolm and The Bat? How many people will die before someone gets their hands on those millions? Will Cornelia and Lizzie make it out alive?!

Mechanical bats might have rabies.
It’s considered normal to continue spending the night after finding a freshly killed body in your house.

The best scene was when Cornelia gets locked in the secret room and she runs out of air. It was so over the top. Hehehe.

No one seemed to care when others died.
The women kept sleeping in the house even when they found bodies there.

This is another Rouges Roundtable featuring Vincent Price. In this movie he was less forlorn looking (as in House on Haunted Hill) and more just plain charming. This movie was less horror and more of a murder mystery. It kind of has two different stories going on. The first is involving Dr. Wells and the million dollars and the other is about author and The Bat. They seem pretty unrelated until the end.

The biggest problem I had with this movie was the fact that no one seemed to care when someone died. Someone gets their throat torn out and they’re like, “Oh my god! Well…it’s time for bed isn’t it.” The author seemed even less cornered than everyone else. Just because she writes murder mysteries doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be afraid when people keep showing up dead in her house. Also…when they find the realtor’s body in that hidden room, they don’t give it a second thought. No one even asks if they want to be put up in a hotel...and the girls spending the night don’t even want to go home! If that were me, I’d thank the hostess for a lovely evening and then get the hell out of there. Now that people are dying in this house there’s a big chance that it’s now haunted. No thank you. Don’t even hand me that.

I have to give it a lot of credit for being an interesting movie. For some reason I’m never one to jump for joy when it comes to black and white movies. I always assume that they’re going to be boring, old fashioned, and uninteresting…but lately I’ve been wrong (maybe I’ve been forced to watch It’s a Wonderful Life one too many times). Just because it’s black and white, don’t pass it up. With rabid bats, false accusations, killers in pinstripes, and authors exploiting murderers, the jury gives this flick:

(Fine)

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