The Bat Whispers
About The Bat Whispers
A criminal called the Bat slips the police and says he is retiring to the country, where Cornelia Van Gordner has leased banker Fleming's house near Oakdale. A bank robbery, a secret room, and the shooting of Fleming's nephew Richard follow as Dale Van Gorder and missing teller Brook search the house. The masked man, caught in a bear trap set by maid Lizzie, is a false Detective Anderson, and the real Anderson is the unconscious man from the garage. Chester Morris, who plays Anderson, then tells the theater audience they are safe if they do not reveal the Bat.
Cast & crew
More about The Bat Whispers
Roland West directed and wrote the screenplay, Joseph M. Schenck produced for Art Cinema Corporation, and United Artists released it on November 13, 1930. The source is the 1920 play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, from Rinehart's 1908 novel The Circular Staircase, which West had already filmed in 1926. Two 1.33:1 35mm negatives and a 2:1 65mm Magnifilm version were shot, Hal C. Kern and James Smith edited, and the domestic negative, cut to 72 minutes for a 1938 Atlantic Pictures reissue, was later lost.
Themes
Background
It is an early talkie and one of the first widescreen features, released the same year as The Big Trail.
In film history
Bob Kane later cited the Bat as a source for Batman. The 65mm version sat in Mary Pickford's collection until she willed it to the Library of Congress in 1979.
Making
West paid for the widescreen photography himself. Two cameramen covered the 35mm and 65mm negatives, using pans, fades, and close views that the production notes contrast with ordinary 1930 camera cars.
Look
Ray June shot the 35mm version and Robert H. Planck the 65mm Magnifilm. Charles Cline's dolly was used for the flying moves associated with June's footage.
Technique
Three camera negatives were shot: a pair of 35mm 1.33:1 versions and a 65mm 2:1 Magnifilm version. Some ads spelled the process Magnafilm.
Music
Hugo Riesenfeld composed the score.
Preservation
The shortened 1938 domestic negative was lost. In 1988 the UCLA Film and Television Archive restored the 35mm foreign version and the 65mm Magnifilm from the original camera negatives. The 65mm materials came from Mary Pickford's collection through the Library of Congress.
Notes
- Chester Morris plays Detective Anderson, Una Merkel plays Dale Van Gorder, and Maude Eburne plays Lizzie Allen.
- Grayce Hampton plays Cornelia Van Gorder, William Bakewell plays Brook, and Gustav von Seyffertitz plays Dr. Venrees.
- Charles Cline built a lightweight 24-foot camera dolly that could move a camera 18 feet in a fraction of a second.
- In 1959 the story was filmed again as The Bat, with Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price.
- Bob Kane wrote in Batman and Me (1989) that the villain was an inspiration for Batman.
- As a 1930 publication it entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2026.
Scenes
- Lizzie's bear trap catches the fleeing Bat, who is the false Anderson.
- Chester Morris steps in front of a theater curtain and warns the audience not to name the Bat.
Influenced by
- Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood's 1920 play The Bat
- Rinehart's 1908 novel The Circular Staircase
- Roland West's 1926 film The Bat
Influenced
- Batman
- The Bat (1959)
Also available
- Internet Archive (bw5558885)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Bat Whispers (1930, fullscreen version).webm)
