The Bat Whispers (1930)
THE SCREEN; An Old Mystery Drama
By Mordaunt Hall
Published: January 16, 1931
A bigger and better picture of "The Bat," the old would-be spine-chiller, in which shrieks and giggles are mixed, is to be found at the Rivoli. It is bigger because it is shown on an enlarged screen and it is better because the characters have voices. Whether it is really mystifying depends upon one's mood. Some persons might be quite bored by its frantic efforts to be frightening, but it is only just to state that in the far reaches of the theatre yesterday afternoon the synthetic excitement appeared to be contagious.
This yarn is now called "The Bat Whispers." It was directed by Roland West, who was responsible for that worthy talking picture known as "Alibi." And in "The Bat Whispers" there is Chester Morris, who stepped a great many rungs up the ladder of film fame through his work in Mr. West's previous production. Mr. Morris, however, does not run away with this screen offering, for the palm for acting is easily won by Grayce Hampton, who gives an extraordinarily facile interpretation of the determined Mrs. Cornelia Van Gorder, who is not going to be bluffed out of a house she has rented by any phantoms.
It is all hectic nonsense, sometimes stale and at other times moderately effective. Two or three persons fall down an airshaft and are saved from shattered limbs or death by a pile of laundry. The mysterious chamber discovered through the pressing of a button has its place in the scheme of things. Then there is the money in the satchel, the mysterious disappearance of a banker, the troubled young bank teller, the courageous girl, the stupid Lizzie Allen—stupid though she is, she is really responsible for the capture of the murdering villain.
Mr. West takes one through a house on his camera. In approaching the building one sees the house from a distance and then one finds one's self inside the mansion, ready to take one's place beside the others in the effort to catch the queer customer who chooses to pose as a monster bat.
Nothing more need be written of this mystery or the identity of the Bat might be revealed.
Una Merkel figures as youth and beauty. Maude Eburne officiates as the noisy and nervous Lizzie Allen. Then there are the various culprits who endeavor to appear to be the sinister marauder of the big house.
It is a well-directed film, but it seems rather a waste of time for Mr. West, for there is nothing new even in this bigger and better "Bat."
An Old Mystery Drama.
THE BAT WHISPERS, with Spencer Charters, Una Merkel, Grayce Hampton, Chester Morris, Maude Eburne, S. E. Jennings, Sidney D'Albrook, De Witt Jennings, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Charles Dow Clark, Ben Bard, Chance Ward, Richard Tucker, Wilson Benge, Hugh Huntley, William Bakewell and others, based on the play "The Bat," directed by Roland West.
