Directed by: Crane Wilbur
Starring: Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Gavin Gordon
Yes, The Bat. Not to be confused with Der Fledermaus, nor with The Batman vs. Dracula. Nope, this is a parlor mystery with Vincent Price and Endora from Bewitched. Hooray!
The Bat starts out the same way every movie should: With Vincent Price shooting a guy in a cabin in the middle of a forest fire. Sadly, nothing else really measures up to that, as it turns into an uninteresting mystery about who’s terrorizing the old ladies in this house that has a million bucks hidden in it. Of course you think it’s Vincent Price, since that’s what he DOES, but remember the two cardinal rules of these types of movies: It’s never the famous creepy character actor, and it’s never the butler.
Endora plays a mystery novel writer who just happened to be renting out this gigantic mansion owned by a recently shot-by-Vincent-Price bank manager, and she decides to turn the whole thing into a book while solving everything and blah blah blah. The character really vividly reminds me of Agatha Christie’s less famous character Miss Marple. Whereas Hercule Poirot would deduct clues and murder’s in a small, fat, Belgian manner, Miss Marple was just an old woman who sat around outside houses where mysteries took place and solved themselves. Seriously, there’s a whole book where she’s just sitting outside watching all the stuff that goes on. There’s a reason Miss Marple is less famous.
Even though this movie was pretty lame, it DID have Vincent Price in it, and he’s always fun to watch, no matter the situation. So… I guess that makes it not a complete waste of time to watch.
Films in Boxes 
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