From the UCLA Film Archive: Preservation funded by the National Endowment for the Arts

Directed by Roland West

Shot simultaneously in 35mm and 65mm, THE BAT WHISPERS represents a marvel of technical innovation. Previously filmed by director West in 1926, this version achieves a dynamic aesthetic through the use of startling camera movement, dramatic lighting and expressionistic sets, clearly inspired by LES VAMPIRES and THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. Revolving around the hunt for stolen money in an isolated mansion, THE BAT WHISPERS deftly combines dramatic flourishes with lighter moments, including a suitably hammy performance by Chester Morris as The Detective desperate to find both the money and the killer. Cartoonist Bob Kane would later cite the film as one of the seminal influences in his creation of Batman.

Based on the play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. Producer: Roland West. Screenwriter: Roland West. Cinematographer: Ray June. Editor:James Smith. Cast: Chester Morris, Una Merkel, Chance Wardrobe, Richard Tucker.

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Roland West’s The Bat Whispers (1930) is a stylish blend of mystery, horror and comedy based on the enormously successful stage play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood. When a master criminal known as “The Bat” announces his retirement, a daring bank robbery suggests that he may still be active. The missing money is believed to be hidden somewhere inside an isolated country mansion occupied by the formidable Cornelia Van Gorder, her nervous maid Lizzie and a collection of suspicious visitors. Secret passages, flickering lights, mysterious noises and murder soon transform the house into a shadow-filled maze in which almost anyone could be the masked criminal.

The picture is especially important for Roland West’s remarkably inventive direction and its bold use of German Expressionist lighting, elaborate miniatures and sweeping camera movements. It was simultaneously photographed in conventional 35mm and in Magnifilm, an experimental 65mm widescreen process presented at approximately a 2:1 aspect ratio—more than two decades before widescreen became standard in Hollywood. The rediscovered 65mm version was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and is now considered one of the great visual achievements of early sound cinema. The Bat’s dramatic appearance and bat-shaped signal were also among the inspirations Bob Kane later acknowledged in the creation of Batman.