The Bat (1959 American Crime-Mystery Thriller film)

Starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. It is the fourth film adaptation of the story, which began as a 1908 novel The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which she later adapted (with Avery Hopwood) into the 1920 play The Bat. The first film version of the play was the 1926 American silent film The Bat. The film version was adapted by playwright Crane Wilbur, who also directed.

The Bat was distributed in 1959 on a double bill with the British Hammer film The Mummy.

Plot

Vincent Price and Gavin Gordon in The Bat
Mystery author Cornelia Van Gorder rents The Oaks, a summer home in a small town, from local bank president John Fleming. While on a hunting trip with his physician, Dr. Malcolm Wells, Fleming confesses to stealing over $1 million in negotiable securities from the bank. He offers to split the money with Wells in return for help faking his own death and threatens to kill him if he does not comply. Wells shoots Fleming and covers up the murder.

Cast
Agnes Moorehead as Cornelia Van Gorder
Vincent Price as Dr. Malcolm Wells
Agnes Moorehead as Cornelia van Gorder
Gavin Gordon as Lt. Andy Anderson
John Sutton as Warner
Lenita Lane as Lizzie Allen
Elaine Edwards as Dale Bailey
Darla Hood as Judy Hollander
John Bryant as Mark Fleming
Harvey Stephens as John Fleming
Mike Steele as Victor Bailey
Riza Royce as Jane Patterson
Robert B. Williams as Detective Davenport

Cast notes
The Bat was the final film appearance for Darla Hood, who between 1935 and 1941 played "Darla" in Our Gang comedy shorts.
Production and release
RKO Pictures bought the rights to remake The Bat from Mary Pickford, who produced the original 1926 film adaptation for United Artists,[6] the studio she founded in 1919 with Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin and D. W. Griffith.

The Bat was released as a double feature with the Hammer horror film The Mummy.

Reception
According to Turner Classic Movies, in an era of films featuring "rampaging aliens and sinister ghouls", The Bat's period piece approach was not a crowd pleaser, although its reputation has improved over time.

Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2 1/2 out of 4 stars (a rating that he used more than any other rating), calling it "[a] faithful filming of Mary Roberts Rinehart-Avery Hopwood play".

Allmovie gave the film a mixed review, complimenting the film's screenplay, but criticized the script's mechanical nature and lack of scariness, as well as the varying quality of performances from the cast. But they also stated, "While it's all done in a by-the-numbers manner, there's more than enough here to entertain whodunit fans".

In a contemporary review of the film, The New York Times praised Moorehead's "good, snappy performance" and Crane Wilbur's direction.