THE BAT WHISPERS (1930)
Directed by Roland West
Image Entertainment DVD
THE FILM
Awesome.
1930. Super-cool arch-criminal The Bat is out. And, he's stalking around a large house in the country, filled with mysterious characters. Everyone is looking for a secret room. There are about 40 staircases all leading to different places. The camera flies around the place in ways that seem very Evil Dead-like to my eyes. It starts out strange, slows down to bring the characters in and then picks up again for the extremely chaotic and zany ending. And, all the time, it is so entertaining. I'm ready to watch it again.
The Old Dark House films where based on quite a few plays. Mostly "wacky" plays. Folks would go to the theater and laugh and scream and, in the end, everything was all right. The Cat and The Canary is one of the big examples. The Old Dark House is James Whales's very odd variation. The Bat Whispers was based on one of these plays and, luckily for everyone, Roland West, the director, does everything in his power (and a few things I wouldn't have imagined were in his power) to keep leaping past the stage roots of the material.
The camera moves in this movie. Not all the time. Sometimes it sits still and watches the actors go through their parts. A lot of the times, during the scenes, the angles chosen are very surprising, which is nice. Then, whenever he can, Mr. West bursts out of the confines and the camera goes flying. The opening shot of the film sets the tone and, from there on, the camera keeps pointing at places and doing things you don't expect.
Of course, if it were a bad script going nowhere than it would have been a completely painful experience livened by a few bursts of energy. The maid (Lizzie Allen?) might be a touch on the annoying side and it may be a little tough to sort out everything that's happening but it all works in the end. The play was well-thought out so Mr. West has solid material to work with. He can go out on crazy-ass limbs and he can do astounding things and the material backs him up.
I think one of the reasons I loved this type of film when I was a kid is trying to figure out the layout of the house. We never get a plan of the house. We see it from the outside and we see rooms and hallways and lots of staircases. We see secret panels within secret rooms. We see enormous doors. (How heavy are those huge doors?) We see a brief shot of the roof and a series of gables. All of it made me, as a child, try to piece together the house in my mind.
I watched this one with Joe and he nailed it when he said: "In many movies, I don't want to go anywhere near the locations. But, in this one, I would love to go inside that crazy house." It's inviting. It's a fun, off-kilter world and I realized that I, too, really did want to explore that house. I wanted to live in the world of this movie. I can't think of a better compliment.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Well, the audio is from 1930. And, surprisingly, it's quite good. There is no musical score. The only music is right over the closing credits. The sounds are people talking, thunder rumbling and yells and whispers and gunshots. That's fine with me. But, that does mean that are several really, really quiet moments. Moments where no sound is being made. It can be a little much for a modern viewer who is used to some sort of almost constant sound.
EXTRAS
We have the 35mm version, which, like most films of the time, is around 1:33. Then, we have the 65mm version. It's around 2:1 and seeing the sets with all the space around them is almost exhilarating.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This film's a Wower. Who knew something like this was made, especially at the time it was. Would anyone care to join me at an old, dark house? We can hang out and climb around on the roof. And, when I leap off the balcony onto the lawn, in between the huge hedges, the camera will follow me overhead. It'll be very creepy and oh so cool.
— Dan Budnik, 11.04.10 |
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