This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

In the late 1920s until about the mid 1930s, Hollywood produced quite a few 'old, dark house' films. This genre always consisted of a group of people stuck in an old mansion as a maniac runs about trying to fill them off one-by-one. "The Old Dark House", "The Cat and the Canary" and "The Black Cat" are just a few examples of these films--as is "The Bat Whispers". So, while some today might be more impressed by this film than me, perhaps it's because they don't realize that the plot is very standard fare. And, aside from a few technical innovations, this is a rather poor example as well--mostly because it's so dreadfully boring.The film begins with folks talking about 'The Bat'--a daring and murderous thief whose identity is unknown and who has long eluded the police. Most of the film centers on one particular mansion and a group of people who run about trying to avoid being his next victims. And, at the end, the mystery is, of course, unraveled.This is an unusual film because the DVD has both a standard version and a unique 65mm version they also made for theaters. I watched the 65mm version and I could understand why some of the other reviewers disliked it. The overall look was akin to watching a film while standing far from the screen--very, very far. In other words, although they were innovating with the cinematography, they really didn't understand how to effectively utilize it. It's odd, as although they tried to innovate when it came to the picture, the sound is ancient by 1930 standards--with no incidental music and very flat sound. Overall, it's a film that looks unique (with some nice shadows and camera angles), sounds bad and bores the viewer to tears. A nice experiment--but one that just isn't very satisfying viewing.

This is a wonderful find. Roland West teams with star Chester Morris once again to give us "The Bat Whispers" a year after the same team gave us "Alibi", one of the very good films from 1929, and a Best Picture nominee from the 1928-1929 season.West uses some of the same photographic techniques that were ground-breaking in "Alibi". The camera moves along so you see what the police see as they ride along in their squad cars, and now the camera also swoops up the sides of buildings and "flies into" rooms at a birds-eye (or bats-eye) view."The Bat" is a super-criminal. He taunts the police by telling them what he intends to do next and then performs his crime under their noses. He dresses and moves like Batman, has the Joker's indifference to human life and confidence in his own immortality, but unlike the Joker his motive is not chaos - it is unmitigated greed. In that way he is like a merging of Batman, the Joker, and Bank of America.The rather complex plot involves a bank that has been robbed in which the suspect is a young teller who is in love with Una Merkel's character. Her aunt has rented an old dark house from the bank owner's son. However, someone is trying to frighten her into leaving. There are secret rooms and passageways, the mysterious activities of several guests involved, and the presence of Chester Morris as a police inspector who arrives on the scene. For some strange reason he is dressed as a middle-aged man here, and I could never figure out the reason for that one. The questions are - who is The Bat, is he at work here, is he working alone, and what is he after? The only negative is the maid in the old dark house. She is constantly screaming and yelping at every little noise. By the film's midpoint I was ready to dress up like The Bat and get rid of this annoying person myself. Alas, she survives until the end of the film without really adding anything. I get the fact that scary things are going on. I didn't need her 90 minute conniption fit to drive that point home.If you love early talkies you have to see this one. It came before Batman and Universal's old dark house sound films, so it actually is more original than the modern viewer might give it credit.

Bat Whispers, The (1930) 35mm version *** (out of 4) 65mm version ** (out of 4)The master criminal known as The Bat steals a necklace even though he warned police that he was going to do it. They believe he's taken shelter inside an old house, which is full of shocks and surprised for the Detective (Chester Morris) on the case. This film has a pretty strange history behind it since Roland was remaking his earlier film from 1926 and was shooting two different versions. The 35mm version is the one being reviewed it and for the most part I was shocked at how well made it was. What really shocked me is that a lot of these early sound films are quite horrid and hard to understand but that's not the case here as everyone from the director to the cast seem perfectly normal working with the sound. The actors really take off and know how to work their dialogue, which again is something I wasn't use to seeing in such a early sound film. The visual look of this film mixed in with the sound makes the film appear to be something made later in the decade and not at the start. The cast all turn in impressive performances starting with Morris who has become a favorite of mine over the past couple years. It took me a little while to warm up to his type of delivery but once I did I really enjoyed watching him and his style of comedy. Una Merkel is also very good as is Chance Ward and Richard Tucker. The film offers up a lot of comedy and for the most part it works including a scene where the two older women are being questioned and are asked how old they are. One tells and lie and this is one of the highlights of the film. Even before we get to the two versions of the film it's also important to note that the film offers up one of the first "dolly" shots with a special camera that was created just for this film, which allowed it to move 18-feet in the matter of seconds. There's also a sweeping camera shot that is way ahead of its time even though the miniature used is easy to spot. Some might find the story or settings full of clichés must one must remember that this is the film that influenced everything that would follow, which is saying quite a bit for director West as his 1926 film influenced all the future silent old dark house films. After the film we also get a quick "warning" from The Bat telling people not to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it.The 65mm version features the exact same story and cast but of course it's shown in an early widescreen format and features all new shots by a different cinematographer. It's really amazing at how different these two versions are and I'd say the 65mm is more of a curiosity than anything else. I think the best film is the 35mm version for various reasons. For one, the widescreen process being used here really takes you out of the action in several ways as the camera is far back from the actors and this here kills several of the comedy sequences. It's also worth noting that apparently shooting this way was very expensive so they couldn't do countless takes, which might explain a few instances where lines are messed up but the actors keep going. This might also explain why the performances here are a lot more lacking than in the other version. It almost appears that the cast members are worried about messing up and this too effects their work and once again the comedy is what appears hurt the most. It's always interesting seeing these early attempts at widescreen but I think in this case it really hurt the movie. There just seems to be way too much going on trying to get this trick to work that both the director and cast aren't up in their game.

When you hear the Bat whisper, you don't know whether to smile at the dated melodrama or admire some classy scenic set ups and camera work. The film may show its age with acting that is over the top, broad comic relief and a solution that for modern audiences is fairly easy to anticipate, but it looks great. The film was shot in an early version of wide-screen as well as a standard release version, using different cinematographers, cameras and set-ups. The wide-screen version is the one to watch. This is an old-dark-house creeper-thriller, with a stormy, thundering night, lots of shadowed stone staircases, massive doors and fireplaces, things that bump and thump, and, of course, a hidden room which may contain thousands of dollars stolen from a bank. More to the point, the film has a master villain who creeps and slides around wearing a bat outfit. He can shimmy up a rope in a flash or hang head down while he tips a victim out of a high window. And for fans of Bob Kane's Batman comic books plus all those Batman movies, this Bat is the grandaddy of both. He...it?...casts harsh, disturbing shadows of a tall figure with huge bat wings attached to unnaturally long arms. Is this just the work of the shadows or are his victims dispatched by some hideously deformed creature? And it whispers. All we know for sure is that the Bat is determined to frighten...or kill...his way to the stolen fortune. The movie was based on a hugely popular stage play. The number of characters is almost large enough to make its own crowd scene. Whenever things get really tense, it seems a new character suddenly pops up. In this old mansion is the owner, a grande dame named Cornelia Van Gordon (Grace Hampton), an imperious woman with a vast bosom, a sturdy waist and a shrewd mind. How shrewd? She knows the new gardener is not what he seems when she asks him what he thinks of rubeola and he says it's a nice plant. Mrs. Van Gordon has a niece, Dale Van Gordon (Una Merkel), who seems a typical brainless flapper until we realize she's in cahoots with the false gardener. There is also a loyal maid, Lizzie (Madge Eburne), who has hysterics, rolls her eyes, prepares bear traps, sits on funny objects and acts like a cross between Patsy Kelly and Harpo Marx. There's a mysterious doctor, a small town elderly police lieutenant, a butler, a handyman who shakes violently when the Bat whispers, and a smart, big city cop, Detective Anderson, who is determined to catch the Bat and solve the bank robbery. We are faced with a question as simple as the plot, just who among all these characters could be the Bat? Anderson is played by Chester Morris. If you're familiar with Morris' work you may recall him as a tough-guy leading man in a lot of Thirties movies. He never quite got both feet firmly on the A-level actors' list but never entirely was considered just another B-level lead. He exuded no-nonsense confidence, a kind of tall Jimmy Cagney without most of Cagney's empathy. He was always, in my opinion, an interesting actor. Then in 1941 in Meet Boston Blackie, he played Blackie, another tough, good guy detective. He was so good in the role he was instantly type cast. He played Boston Blackie in many movies during the Forties, each one a little worse than the other as the studio turned the series into a cash cow. By the time the string ran out, Chester Morris, who could be a fine actor, found himself doing television and regional theater. He killed himself with an overdose of sleeping pills in 1970 while starring in The Caine Mutiny Court Marshal at a theater in Pennsylvania. As Detective Anderson, Morris gives an odd performance that combines a clipped, sort of semi-off-and-on British inflection with a high degree of intensity. The thing that makes The Bat Whispers of interest is the use of miniatures, especially at the beginning, the use of camera tracking shots that pull us away while walls slide back or that take us from a clock tower down to a street. Considering the weight of cameras in 1930, these shots are a tour de force. Some stunning lighting shows up, particularly when the Bat is framed against back lighting that is almost blindingly bright. And it is genuinely unnerving when the giant shadow of the bat shrivels down toward the floor and a dark, hunched shape rises up and starts slowly to limp towards us. On balance, I think The Bat Whispers is something more than just an old and odd curiosity, but just barely.