The Bat Whispers is a mystery film

Mystery film

Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.The...

 directed by Roland West

Roland West

For the basketball player, see Roland West Roland West was a Hollywood director known for his innovative film noir movies of the 1920s and early 1930s.-Biography:...

, produced by Joseph M. Schenck, and released by United Artists

United Artists

United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....

.

Plot

A mysterious criminal by the name of "The Bat" eludes police and then finally announces his retirement to the country, while a wealthy Cornelia Van Gorder takes up residence in the estate of a famous banker. Along with her maid Lizzie, her niece Dale, and a bank teller disguised as a gardener, she is terrorized by a series of strange events seemingly set in motion by the mysterious bat. Possible suspects include a doctor, an elderly police lieutenant, a butler, a handyman, and a big-city cop.

Production background

An early talkie, this film is the second film version of the 1920 hit Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 play The Bat, written by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase. She is considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing...

 and Avery Hopwood

Avery Hopwood

James Avery Hopwood , was the most successful playwright of the Jazz Age, having four plays running simultaneously on Broadway in 1920.-Biography:...

. The first film version of the play, The Bat

The Bat (1926 film)

The Bat is a silent film based on the 1920 hit Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda...

(1926), was also directed by Roland West. Just as in the play and the first film, people explore an old mansion looking for a hidden treasure while a caped killer picks them off one by one. This film is noted by Bob Kane

Bob Kane

Bob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the DC Comics superhero Batman...

 as one of the inspirations for some elements of the Batman

Batman

Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...

 character, which he created.

The film was shot in three versions: a pair of 1.33:1 aspect ratio, 35mm negatives for US and foreign prints; and a 2:1 aspect ratio 65mm widescreen "Magnifilm" version (misspelled "Magnafilm" in some advertisements). The domestic negative was cut down to 72 minutes for the 1938 Atlantic Pictures reissue, and subsequently was lost.

In 1988 the UCLA Film and Television Archive

UCLA Film and Television Archive

The UCLA Film and Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of...

 restored and preserved the 35mm foreign version and the 65mm Magnifilm from the original camera negatives.

This film was remade again in 1959 as The Bat

The Bat (1959 film)

The Bat is a mystery film directed by Crane Wilbur, and starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. Its tagline was "When it flies, someone dies!" The film was based on the 1920 Broadway play by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart, which was previously filmed as The Bat and as The Bat...

with Agnes Moorehead

Agnes Moorehead

Agnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...

 and Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

.

Cast

• Chester Morris
  Chester Morris
  Chester Morris was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.-Career:...
  
   as Detective Anderson
• Chance Ward as Police Lieutenant
• Una Merkel
  Una Merkel
  Una Merkel was an American Tony Award-winning stage and film actress.-Life and career:Una Merkel was born in Covington, Kentucky, and grew up in Philadelphia and New York City. She bore a resemblance to actress Lillian Gish and began her career as a stand-in for Gish, most notably in the 1928...
  
   as Dale Van Gorder
• Richard Tucker
  Richard Tucker (actor)
  Richard Tucker was an American actor. He appeared in 266 films between 1911 and 1940.He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was the first official member of the Screen Actors Guild and a founding member of SAG's Board of Directors...
  
   as Mr Bell
• Wilson Benge as The Butler
• Maude Eburne
  Maude Eburne
  right|thumbMaude Eburne was a Canadian character actress of stage and screen, known for playing eccentric roles.Born in Bronte-on-the-Lake, Ontario and studied elocution in Toronto...
  
   as Lizzie Allen
• William Bakewell
  William Bakewell
  William Bakewell , also known as Billy Bakewell, was an American actor, who achieved his greatest fame as one of the premiere juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.-Life and career:...
  
   as Brook
• DeWitt Jennings
  DeWitt Jennings
  DeWitt Clarke Jennings was an American film actor. He appeared in 153 films between 1915 and 1937.-Biography:...
  
   as Police Captain
• Sidney D'Albrook as Police Sergeant
• S.E. Jennings as Man In Black Mask
• Grayce Hampton as Cornelia Van Gorder
• Spencer Charters
  Spencer Charters
  Spencer Charters was an American film actor. He appeared in over 220 films between 1920 and 1943.He was born in Duncannon, Pennsylvania, and died in Hollywood, California by suicide, from a mix of sleeping pills and carbon monoxide poisoning.His first stage work soon after leaving school was a...
  
   as The Caretaker
• Gustav Von Seyffertitz
  Gustav von Seyffertitz
  Gustav von Seyffertitz was a German film actor and director. He appeared in 118 films between 1917 and 1939.He was born in Haimhausen, Bavaria and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 81.-Selected filmography:...
  
   as Dr Venrees
• Hugh Huntley as Richard Fleming
• Charles Dow Clark as Detective Jones
• Ben Bard
  Ben Bard
  Ben Bard was a movie actor, stage actor, and acting teacher. With comedian Jack Pearl, Bard worked in a comedy duo in vaudeville...
  
  as The Unknown