I had seen Roland West’s two versions of the creaky old dark house play The Bat that he made in 1930 under the title The Bat Whispers. (There are two such films because he shot two versions; one in the standard ratio, and–bizarrely for the time–one in 70mm.) These are available on a VERY nifty DVD.
However, I had never seen West’s previous stab at the subject, in his silent version The Bat made in 1926. To my delight, the Portage Theater hosted a showing last week under the auspices of Chicago’s venerable Silent Film Society, complete with live organ accompaniment performing the original score.
The silent version proved pretty close indeed to West’s 1930 remake(s), so I can’t say the film itself knocked my socks off or anything. Still, I’m glad to have seen it, and particularly under these circumstances. We sat four rows back from the front–a performance stage keeping us from being too close to the screen–and thus had a great view of the astounding Jerry Warren, who played the entire 90 minute score on the pipe organ, apparently off the top of his head. At least no sheet music was in evidence, and this on an instrument that requires the use of one’s feet as well as one’s hands.
The film was fun, although the ’30 versions are better. Still, the movie generally keeps up a pretty good pace, which is the main bane of silent pictures. I will say you could have constructed a pretty good hero sandwich with all the red herrings the film provided. Most of all, one is again struck by the fact that West’s films (either this or, more likely, the later ones) clearly influenced the creation of Batman. Although the Bat is a villain, watching him repel himself around on ropes in a bat costume certainly calls the hero to mind.
Also, the opening of the film, where the Bat commits a crime as threatened despite having given warning and thus allowed the victim to surround himself with cops, is the exact way we are introduced to the Joker in his first comic book story. So The Bat (Whispers) clearly influenced the creation of the Joker, albeit not as much as The Man Who Laughs, in which Conrad Veidt played this guy:
Remind you of anybody?
Aside from West’s various versions, The Bat was also the inspiration for the 1959 Vincent Price movie of the same name, although that played around with things a bit.
Trivia fans might be interested to note that West’s career soon foundered when his girlfriend, popular actress and sexpot Thelma Todd, died under mysterious circumstances. Rumors persist to this day that she was murdered, and West himself is one of the suspects. However, it was just as possibly a suicide or just a drunken accident on Todd’s part. In any case, West was ruined in the film business.
Anyway, a good way to kick off the Halloween season.
