Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

ferbs54 Although Vincent Price had appeared in a number of scary films before the late 1950s, it wasn't until 1958 and '59 that the beloved actor really began to concentrate his efforts in the fright field and thus become one of the true titans in the arena of horror. During those two years, Price starred in "The Fly," "House on Haunted Hill," "The Tingler" and "The Bat," thus getting the ball rolling for one legendary horror career. This viewer, up until recently, had long enjoyed every one of those films except for "The Bat," which had somehow escaped me. Thus, how pleased I was to discover that this film fits in very nicely with those other great three! "The Bat" was based on a 1908 novel by mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart entitled "The Circular Staircase," which I had enjoyed; Rinehart and playwright Avery Hopwood had later turned this book into a stage hit called "The Bat" in 1920, and this stage version had subsequently been filmed no fewer than three times prior to the Price outing. Released in August 1959, the most recent version of "The Bat" teams Price with the great Agnes Moorehead, in an atmospheric B&W picture that originally appeared with the Hammer film "The Mummy," for one flabbergasting double feature. And if the film is not quite as frightening as some of those other Price films just mentioned (especially "House on Haunted Hill," which remains, for me and many other boomers, I have a feeling, one of the scariest films ever made), and does reveal its origin as a stage vehicle, it yet remains a lot of fun.In the film, Moorehead plays the part of Cornelia van Gorder, a mystery writer who has rented a creepy old mansion known as The Oaks to do her summer work. At the same time, the head of the local bank, John Fleming (Harvey Stephens), has absconded around $1 million in securities and bonds and stashed the resultant loot away somewhere. The perpetrator of this deed confesses his crime to Dr. Malcolm Wells (our Uncle Vinny), seeking his assistance in getting away with the crime, but the good doctor, rather than be pressured into cooperation, simply grabs a hunting rifle and shoots the banker down instead. Soon enough, the neighborhood surrounding The Oaks is plagued with a rash of murders. A black-masked killer with clawed gloves--known as The Bat--has been tearing the throats out of his/her victims, and soon enough, begins to sneak around the creepy abode where Cornelia and her maid, Lizzie Allen (Lenita Lane), are staying. The Bat, it would seem, is in search of the missing loot...but WHO is The Bat? The audience of course assumes the culprit to be Price, who has not only shot down a man in cold blood, but who is also later seen in his home laboratory doing experiments with baby bats. But there are other possibilities: Cornelia's chauffeur/butler Warner (John Sutton), Fleming's nephew Mark (John Bryant), maybe even the pretty wife of the bank clerk accused of the theft, Dale Bailey (Elaine Edwards), or houseguest Judy (Darla Hood, the former "Little Rascals" cutie, here in her final film). That's what Lt. Anderson (Gavin Gordon), the detective on the case, has to find out....From its strangely incongruous jazzy theme music to its surprising revelation at the film's tale end, "The Bat" works hard to entertain its audience, and if the film is never distinctly scary, it as often highly atmospheric and suspenseful, despite the light tone and moments of humor. Director/screenwriter Crane Wilbur, who had turned in the screenplays for earlier Price vehicles "House of Wax" and "The Mad Magician," does a fine job here of making things move along nicely (the whole film runs to a streamlined 80 minutes) and engendering a creepy mood; this could almost be a product of the great William Castle, who had helmed both "House on Haunted Hill" and "The Tingler," and if you only knew how highly I esteem that great showman and filmmaker, you would realize that this is very high praise, indeed. But most of the credit for the moderate success of this film must fall on its lead, Agnes Moorehead, who turns in a wonderfully animated performance. Typically intense and waspish, she is yet highly likable and even attractive here, and her Cornelia character is shown to be both highly competent and intrepid, although she DOES still cling on to her maid in fright when the shadow of The Bat is seen on a corridor wall. It is to be regretted that she and Vincent did not appear in more films together, as the two work very well together, old pros that they both were, at this point. "The Bat" contains any number of highlights, including the throat slashing of one victim and the discovery of that victim's body behind a grandfather clock; the scene in which Dale and Judy go upstairs to investigate the nighttime sounds that are booming throughout the house (why The Bat thought he/she could start hammering away at walls in search of the missing loot, in the dead of night, and NOT be heard is anyone's guess); and Cornelia's discovery of the secret room where the loot has been stashed, and her subsequent entrapment and near asphyxiation therein. The identity of The Bat should come as a surprise to most viewers, after numerous red herrings have been strewn about, although to be honest, I DID manage to guess who the culprit was, as events converged to a conclusion. But I would never dream of revealing that secret. As the promotional poster for the film proclaimed, "Warning! Keep the Secret! Anyone who reveals who I am will have to answer to The Bat!" And I would never want to risk THAT! Bottom line: I watched "The Bat" on an October evening as a nor'easter raged outside my windows and found it to be the perfect accompaniment to this very entertaining picture.

jkadmire Mary Roberts Rinehart is my all-time favorite author, and having read the book, most of my complaints have to do with the mish-mash of characters. The maid's name is LIDDIE (Lydia), not Lizzie, which grated on my nerves, and she and Cornelia have a complex, platonic, of course, relationship which isn't shown, but is significant in the book. Most of the humor between these two was eradicated from the movie. Darla Hood was dreadful in her part, and the two romances were cut entirely. The back-story was left out completely, so way too many characters just showed up, with no obvious relationship to each other or the plot. Agnes Morehead does as well as possible in her role, and Vincent Price is always superb. I found it surprising that "Cornelia" is presented as a "cougar". Cornelia, in the book, would never have worn the revealing night clothes, and her hair wasn't worn in a braid down to her butt. It's a different era. The characters' problems with daily details of life in the country is also ignored, but are a plot imperative and a lot of fun, so the feel of the era is destroyed. It was jarring to see early 1950s fashion in a period piece. Part of Cornelia's charm is her "elderly", rich, out-of-her-comfort zone, with a spine of steel, reaction to the weird happenings.Spoiler Alert: The "Bat" is a human criminal. He didn't have steel claws, and didn't slash throats, or do monstrous experiments on bats. This movie is a mixture of crime novel and early 1950s horror movie, which is an uncomfortable union. I'm sure the producer, director, and the actors tried hard to make a success of this bastardized version of a good book. I've never made a movie, but think in more talented hands, it would have been a major hit.

Leofwine_draca This creaky old remake of the 1926 film of the same name has dated more than the original – thanks to an uninspiring script, poor acting from most of the cast and a plot line so clichéd it stinks. This tepid thriller rekindles the old 'haunted house' mystery yarn, as various uninteresting guests assemble in a shadow-filled old building and are bumped off one by one by a sinister killer. The major turn-off point for me was the appalling acting of the cast members in this one, particularly Agnes Moorehead's grating crime writer and the other shrieking females assembled in the house. You get the impression that nobody's heart was really in this, and if they can't take the film seriously, how can the viewer? The only cast member of interest is Vincent Price, appearing thanks to his new-found status as a horror star in the likes of THE TINGLER, but Price's screen time is sadly limited and he fulfils the role of a red herring rather than being at the centre of the film's plot.If the idea of middle-aged women running about in low-cut night dresses and finding secret passages and bodies is up your street, then by all means check this one out. But the murder mystery aspect of the film is sadly limited, with only three possible suspects to choose from, and two of those are red herrings, one bumped off before the end. The film's running time is a scant eighty minutes but it feels much, much longer. The only interesting bits – other than those with the excellent Price – are where we see the Bat stalking through the house and bumping off a couple of victims. With his hat and clawed hands, this character was an obvious influence on the appearance of Freddy Krueger in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET films, and it's a shame he wasn't put to better use in a better movie altogether. As it stands, THE BAT is a real bore and one of those half-hearted remakes that just aren't worth anybody's time.

dwpollar 1st watched 12/25/2013 -- 3 out of 10(Dir-Crane Wilbur): Corny whodunit disguised as a horror movie with the king of the genre, Vincent Price, with the star billing. The movie is based on a play and the movie has that kind of feel to it in it's presentation. It starts as a mystery writer, played by Agnes Moorehead, rents out a house with a storied past as a vacation spot. It seems that a criminal called "the bat" has just murdered a couple of women there the last winter, and the being still seems to have some kind of control over it. The writer visits her bank and they discover there is a million dollars in securities missing while the president and his doctor is on a hunting trip. The doctor is the Vincent Price character and he decides to take things into his own hands when he discovers the president did the embezzling. This is where the plot and story gets very confusing as "the bat" starts showing up at the house all over again. Price's character just happens to study bats and he is thrown at the audience pretty blatantly trying to get us to believe he is 'the bat.' I will not reveal the true identity of the character(although I figured it out about 1/2 hour left in the movie) but I will just say that you probably won't care by the end of the movie. There were plenty of twists to the movie, but the real problem other than the bland acting was that it manipulates the audience and it's get boring very quickly. This is definitely an attempt at a different kind of horror/murder mystery but it falls pretty short of anything worthwhile.