|
|
|
The Bat Whispers
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - VCI Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (15th February 2025). |
|
The Film
 Gotham – New York, that is – is being terrorized by a murderous master criminal known as The Bat who has announced to the press and the police his latest heist of a valuable necklace recently acquired by wealthy Gideon Bell (Wings' Richard Tucker), specifying the time he will strike and daring Bell and the police to be present when he does. In spite of police outside the property and outside his locked study, The Bat manages to kill Bell and take the necklace, leaving his calling card and word that he is headed to the countryside to give the police a break. That same night, the Oakdale bank's vault is robbed of half a million dollars, and The Bat just happens to witness the theft and follows the assailant out of town into the countryside to The Oaks, a mansion being rented by aged socialite Cornelia Van Gorder (The Snake Pit's Grayce Hampton) for the season. Things go bump in the night and maid Lizzie Allen (The Vampire Bat's Maude Eburne) and the caretaker (High Sierra's Spencer Charters) are both convinced the place is haunted after the other servants made excuses to quit. Cornelia dismisses their fears until someone tosses a rock thorugh the window with a letter warning her to get out; whereupon she consults the Ouija board which comes up with the word "bat" but she confides to Detective Anderson (Close Call for Boston Blackie's Chester Morris) – who had been chasing The Bat and is now investigating the bank robbery and the likely suspect of missing cashier Brook Bailey – another likely suspect in Richard Fleming (The Phantom Creeps' Hugh Huntley) who she believes rented her the house without the permission of his bank president father who is currently abroad but due to return in light of the robbery. Anderson confides that he is not so sure that Fleming is out of the country despite the claims of Dr. Vanrees (Son of Frankenstein's Gustav von Seyffertitz) who is working on Cornelia's niece Dale (42nd Street's Una Merkel) to convince her aunt to vacate the house. Cornelia does not disclose her suspicions about the gardener Dale has engaged Brook (Radar Men from the Moon's William Bakewell) who is actually cashier Bailey searching for the secret room he overheard his boss requesting of the architects in search of the missing money to clear his name. Anderson's investigation is further upset by the interference of a private detective W.D. Jones (Charles Dow Clark) and a roughed up man (The Leopard Man's Ben Bard) suffering from amnesia wandering the estate. Everyone is listening in on one another, including The Bat who is willing to kill and kill again for the loot. In 1920, novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart and playwright Avery Hopwood penned the old dark house stage play "The Bat" which was so successful and influential that Bob Kane cited it as an influence on his "Batman" comics. Rinehart novelized the play in 1926, the same year Roland West first filmed it as the silent The Bat. That film boasted cel animaiton and combinations of sets and painted extensions and background photographed by Arthur Edeson (Casablanca) and an uncredited Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane) as well as production design by William Cameron Menzies (Invaders from Mars). West's 1930 talkie The Bat Whispers not only innovates the expressionistic possibilities of its predecessor but was also shot three times in 35mm for American original and British export negatives – both by Ray June (Funny Face) – and 65mm Magnifilm widescreen by Robert H. Planck (Moonfleet). West expands upon the ways The Bat opened up the source play with a New York sequence full of miniatures, models, and forced perspective shots including a stunning shot in which the camera tilts down from the spire of a miniature skyscraper and then booms down its edifice to the street below where miniature automobiles and tiny figures of people match cut to the real thing (followed a few minutes later by the camera craning up the exterior of a real house and pushing in on an open window before match dissolving to its continuation as a dolly shot inside the room). Dozens of other such shots with model cityscapes, cars and toy trains on tracks through miniature environments are as artificial as the dolly shots careening through the real mansion sets but the give the story a stylistic verve over the more static-feeling dialogue scenes which do not entirely escape their stage origins in spite of inserts of furtive behavior of the red herring characters and, in the case of the 65mm version, a wider "stage" for the characters with many dialogue scenes unfolding in master shot long takes without close-ups for emphasis, relying instead on the broad performances and unfunny comic relief of Eburne, Charters, and Clark (with some dialogue projected to the back row and other bits feeling like "radio play dialogue" pointing out things the viewer can clearly see). This is all the more strange because there are other sequences of static camera long takes that are more strikingly composed, as if West decided to frame wide regardless of the number of people in the frame if they had to move about the rest of the set and only closer (and more thoughtfully-lit) if the characters remained seated or standing in one place for the length of a sequence. The simultaneously-shot 35mm versions only appear slightly more dynamic visually in such scenes due to having to stage action happening in different parts of the set in more than one shot. However innovative the widescreen look of the film – not unprecedented even in the silent era but rare for a feature film and most audiences outside of a couple venues would see the 35mm version (separately-shot American and export negatives a regular practice before optical printers) – The Bat Whispers' clunkiness could be blamed as much on the stage versus screen dichotomy and the transitional period between silent and sound cinema, but with this film West at least comes across as a slightly less-ambitious (or at least, less-equipped) colleague of Paul Leni, Fritz Lang, and Alfred Hithchock.  
Video
Long hard to see apart from poor quality transfers of a 16mm reduction of the 35mm version, The Bat Whispers was otherwise believed lost until the 65mm nitrate negative was discovered in the vaults of The Mary Pickford Company; whereupon, the UCLA Film and Television Archive mounted a photochemical restoration, creating a 65mm safety positive from the unstable nitrate materials and 35mm anamorphic reductions for screenings. The 35mm American version only survived as a master positive lavender preservation element in poor condition so UCLA chose the British export negative for restoration of the 35mm version even though it was composed of different takes. Presumably the 35mm restoration was done first because that is what Image Entertainment released on DVD in 1990 while the the 65mm version's restoration was released to laserdisc by The Roan Group in 1998. Both versions were released on DVD by Image Entertainment as part of the Milestone Film Collection. The widescreen version was non-anamorphic and both were passable for the period. VCI's two-disc Blu-ray edition features a new restoration of the U.S. 35mm version (85:32) by VCI and new transfers of the UCLA photochemical restorations of the British 35mm version (85:56) and the 65mm Magnifilm version (84:50) on the second disc. While it is nice to have all these versions on Blu-ray, the presentations are not without faul. While UCLA chose the British version because it looked better than the U.S. version lavender element, digital restoration has come a long way and the U.S. version's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.32:1 pillarboxed fullscreen transfer is the best-looking of the set in spite of some minor macroblocking in dark areas of the screen and the compression of some heavy grain. The British version's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.32:1 pillarboxed fullscreen transfer is simply digitally-cleaned up and still has plenty of damage that was acceptable in a photochemical restoration of materials from this period.  The 65mm version's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.00:1 widescreen version is also a digtally-cleaned up new transfer of the UCLA restoration – although the booklet does not clarify whether the scan came from the 65mm positive or the 35mm anamorphic reduction (although it would be have been advantageous for VCI, UCLA, and The Mary Pickford Company to split the cost of a 65mm scan for digital projections) – and it too sports more damage, higher contrasts, and is missing a crane shot of the camera rushing through the gardens onto the exterior of the house (we confirmed that this shot was present on the Image DVD's 65mm version and that it was not inserted from the 35mm version as the framing reveals more picture information on the sides than the 35mm equivalent). Resolution is still high enough to enjoy the artifice of the miniatures and models but not so clear as the U.S. 35mm version but some jitter in a few scenes was baked into the optical conversion. The disc has split-screen comparisons of all three versions, but in addition to their differences observed, it appears that the aforementioned match cuts from models to live action were better executed on the 35mm U.S. version. 
Audio
All three versions include English LPCM 2.0 mono tracks with optional English SDH subtitles. The U.S. version's audio sounds cleanest although all three have been digitally-cleaned up and are not entirely free of hiss and some crunchiness that may be inherent to the original recordings. The 65mm version is perhaps the worst with consistent underlying hiss even in the quietest scenes but even "noiseless recordings" of the period were probably never entirely noiseless.  
Extras
Besides a still gallery (5:26), the first disc also includes a U.S. vs U.K. version comparison (10:14) which is not comprehensive but contains examples of differences that stood out to whoever prepared it. From the split-screen comparison, it appears that in most cases the versions utilize different takes with slightly different framing and sometimes wildly different line readings and movements by the performers. In the case of one of the model shots of The Bat's car following the bank robber's, it appears as though the practice was to shoot it once with the shot used for the British negative from a different angle than the primary American one. The 65mm version on the second disc is accompanied by an audio commentary by author and film critic Mick LaSalle which seems rather ill-prepared but not uninformative. LaSalle provides background on the cast members – noting that Morris was at the height of his popularity as a leading man here although he would be better known in later years as a character actor – as well as the success of the original Broadway stage production which ran for two years and the later thirties and fifties revivals that each bombed and only ran for roughly twenty shows each. He spends a lot of time critiquing the performances and is frank in his assessment of the comic relief while puzzling over West's reticence to employ close-ups in some scenes including to showcase Merkel. He does make some interesting observations, noting that although shrill Eburne was a seasoned theatrical actress she was a novice film performer and her much better performances in later films suggest she was still adapting to the difference between stage and screen acting here while also noting that Morris seems to be deliberately playing his seeming hero in an unappealing manner - as well as discussing the film less in the context of West's earlier adaptation than West's previous sound film Alibi which he states better shows audiences how people really were in 1929 while The Bat Whispers demonstrates the type of entertainment 1929 people enjoyed. Disc two also has a U.S. 35mm vs 65mm version comparison (10:14) which also demonstrates differences in line readings, framing, and blocking between the two versions but also reveals how some scenes that unfolded in one shot in widescreen were blocked with additional angles to cover the action, as in the scene where the police rush into Bell's study and the 35mm version alone has a separate shot of the butler checking the open safe and finding the necklace missing. The Bat (1926) vs The Bat Whispers (1930) scene comparisons (7:33) reveals how West was innovating visual ideas he developed in the first film while also revealing some superior art deco set design (along with an unnecessary cutaway to the country club when Dale calls Richard Fleming and asks him to stop by). The Bat (1926) before and after restoration demo (1:54) shows some of the work that was at the time ongoing for what would eventually be released on BD-R by late last years.   Disc two also includes the 1958 remake The Bat directed by Crane Wilbur, the playwright of "The Monster" which was adapted by West back in 1925. Bewitched's Agnes Moorehead is celebrated novelist Cornelia Van Gorder who has rented out The Oaks mansion outside the town of Zenith for the season in search of atmosphere. Abandoned by the superstitious staff, Cornelia has only the company of her longtime maid Lizzie (Castle in the Desert's Lenita Lane) and recently-engaged chauffeur Warner (Return of the Fly's John Sutton) during the stormy nights with rumors of the return to the area of the killer known as "The Bat" who rips out the throats of his victims with steel claws. Cornelia and Lizzie are present at the town bank when young chief cashier Vic Bailey (Revenge of the Cheerleaders' Mike Steele) discovers that over a million dollars in securities are missing from the vault to which only he and bank president John Fleming (Sergeant York's Harvey Stephens) have access. With Fleming recovering from a nervous breakdown in the mountains with his personal physician Dr. Malcolm Wells (The House on Haunted Hill's Vincent Price), Vic is left to take the fall for the embezzlement. That, of course, was Fleming's plan as he informs Wells that he is responsible for taking the securities, converting them to cash, and hiding them in his country house The Oaks. Thinking nothing of Bailey's predicament, Fleming offers Wells half of the money to help fake his death and provide a too damaged to be identified body just in case the court acquits Bailey and comes after him. Wells, however, decides he would like more than his share and takes advantage of a forest fire to do away with Fleming. Returning to Zenith, Wells socializes with Cornelia at The Oaks and discovers that Bailey's former secretary-turned-wife Dale (The Curse of the Faceless Man's Elaine Edwards) and his current secretary Judy (former Little Rascals child star Darla Hood) – who is set to provide the court with damning evidence against Fleming – are staying as guests. Wells is not alone in urging Cornelia to leave The Oaks for fear of The Bat; there is also too-kind Lieutenant "Andy" Anderson (The Bride of Frankenstein's Gavin Gordon) who is narrowing down the identity of the clawed criminal, and also Fleming's charming realtor nephew Mark (Walk on the Wild Side's John Bryant) who has come to suspect like Cornelia and Dale that Fleming was the real culprit and the purloined properties are somewhere in the house. The Bat has also lighted upon this notion and makes nightly visits down the corridors, killing anyone who crosses his path and narrowing down the list of possible suspects. The play was an antiquated propertiy by the time it was brought back to the screen by Wilbur for his penultimate directorial effort; and yet, cinema got much more mileage out of adaptations and riffs on the play's old dark house contemporary alternative "The Cat and the Canary" from John Willard). Wilbur had had previously adapted Mystery of the Wax Museum into House of Wax followed by the original The Mad Magician as Price vehicles, and the star thought the play – which had terrified him as a youth – could be revised and brought up-to-date but he can do little more thank skulk around ambiguously like one of his later TV guest roles. Making Cornelia a mystery novelist rather than just a spunky and adventurous socialite being forced to wind down by her maid Lizzie and niece Dale gives Moorehead something to sink her teeth into, but making Dale the wife of the bank cashier means transforming another character into even more obvious a red herring than he was before. Wells is too obviously a red herring no matter how much verbal sparring he exchanges with Anderson as they try to throw suspicion upon one another, and the script is at its most contrived when it had to come up with excuses to give each of the suspects the same telltale injury inflicted upon the fleeing criminal when Cornelia nails him in the back of the neck with a fireplace poker. Sensing that the film is going to run overlong, the third act uses scenes of Cornelia dictating her novel to Dale to cover the exposition; but in doing so, suddenly and abruptly turns the climax into a flashback with the fact that Cornelia has lived to tell the tale scuttling any suspense as to her survival when she is shut up in an airtight secret passage or directly threatened by The Bat. These framing scenes also seem as though they might have been written around scheduling issues as Dale disappears from the climax and is replaced by former red herring housekeeper Jane when it would seem to better pander to the audience if at least one of the climax's three damsels in distress were not middle-aged. The old dark house creakiness, as flatly realized by seasoned DP Joseph Biroc (It's A Wonderful Life) does indeed look like a horror-themed episode of a TV sitcom while the comic interplay between Moorehead and Lane barely raises a chuckle no matter how much they try to engage with the material. Regardless of those shortcomings, the game presences of Price and Moorehead do grant the film the sort of nostalgic guilty pleasure value of more contemporary but equally dated and creaky theatrical old dark house consigned to daytime TV like Terror in the Wax Museum or the theatrical throwback House of the Seven Corpses. Released theatrically by Allied Artists, The Bat was soon consigned to television where it fit visually, even playing on morning television in the nineties, getting gray market VHS releases and an official VHS release through Goodtime Home Video, an LP-mode budget bin label that even handled Universal and Columbia titles on VHS in the nineties (and the former in the early days of DVD before Universal started their own DVD distribution) as well as being a bonus film on the aforementioned The Roan Group laserdisc of the 65mm version The Bat Whispers. Anchor Bay released a DVD in 2000. Film Chest did a new HD transfer for their 2013 DVD, and that same master was used for The Film Detective's 2015 BD-R which was a pretty good-looking edition. Unfortunately, The Film Detective's subsequent pressed special edition Blu-ray was subjected to some heavy noise reduction as was common with their early Blu-ray releases. Unfortunately, VCI has not used either master for their transfer here which is upscaled, oversharpened, with some jerky motion and intermittent audio sync issues. Optional English SDH subtitles are included.  
Packaging
A booklet is enclosed with restoration credits, restoration notes, and a brief essay on the film by Richard Barrios.
Overall
VCI's special edition of The Bat Whispers is an imperfect but still appreciable undertaking for a title no one else seemed interested in touching since the laserdisc-era restoration.
|
|||||
|