蝙蝠 (1926)

罗兰V. West bought the rights and directed 蝙蝠 (1926) (友情链接), 第一个 “老房子暗” 神秘的美的艺术家 1926. Arthur Edeson was the cinematographer for both this film and 老黑家 (1932), which share similar Expressionist elements. Both films are set in large mansions, which have seen better days. The key to the residents safety in both films is solving the mystery of the old dark house before they are murdered by mysterious forces.

蝙蝠 (1926) concerns a master burglar and murderer, who is looking to recover a large amount of money that he has stolen. The money is hidden at the Courleigh Fleming home, which has recently been rented by Miss Van Gorder, a mystery writer. Fleming has recently died. 然而, his ne’er do well nephew Richard wants to search the house, so he and his accomplices are trying to scare Miss Van Gorder and her niece away.

Unbeknownst to all of them, “蝙蝠” is also lurking around the house because he believes that the money is at the Fleming Mansion. Throw in two detectives, a mysterious stranger, a Japanese butler and a terrified maid and you have the makings for a genre bending film. 蝙蝠 can be classified as a comedy-drama-mystery-thriller. 本片运行约 86 分钟.

In an ad placed in The Film Daily from 1926, Roland West 表示，已有 500 万人读过 Mary Roberts Rinehart 的小说或戏剧. They expected to gross 10 million dollars on the production. The movie reviews at the time were all positive. Bob Kane would later say that his creation, 蝙蝠侠, was inspired by the villain of this film and West’s sequel 蝙蝠私语 (1930).

West directed 14 films with his last film being Corsair (1931). The films had been well-received by the viewing public. 今天, West is more famous as a suspect in the death of Thelma Todd, who he engaged in a volatile affair with between 1930 and her untimely death in 1935. Todd was found dead in her garage with her vehicle running.

The coroner ruled it an accidental death but West supposedly confessed to his friend Chester Morris of Boston Blackie fame in 1952. West was already deathly ill at this time, so the confession was never acted upon.

今天, 蝙蝠 (1926) is a largely forgotten mystery. 不幸的是, a lot of the copies are probably darker than the original print, so we don’t have all the detail available to us that 1926 audiences did. 然而, the copies are good enough to educate and entertain us.

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