"The Bat" by Crane Wilbur (1959)

"House on Haunted Hill" was such a great fun that I just had to see another movie that Vincent Price made around the same time. I wonder why his voice is particularly associated with horror, because in my opinion he actually had a very pleasant, mellifluous tone - wonderful diction and never screaming or yelling like other characters around him. Perhaps its because he didn't bark that made him appear even more sinister? I could easily imagine audio book read by him, some great classics or another. I noticed long ago that interesting phenomenon in American movies where ordinary people who scream, yell or talk in slang are usually good guys and dangerous or deranged characters are usually cultured, well spoken and listening to classical music. It really suggests that different is dangerous which is completely nonsense of course.

"The Bat" is actually not a horror at all, but a solid crime & mystery little afternoon entertainment, kind of movie that played on Sunday afternoon on my TV when I was child. Delightful Agnes Moorehead is a cranky spinster author of crime novels who arrives in town with her faithful maid (they behave like old married couple) to rent a house where all sorts of murders happened previously - even though everybody warns her to stay alert or to simply leave the place, Moorehead refuse to believe there is anything supernatural about it and we encounter healthy doses of cracking doors, windows slamming, thunders and lighting outside while story unfolds and we suspect someone actually searches the house for the clue about stolen money from the bank. While women helplessly roam the dark house, several men are around to help them but each of them might have ulterior motives: I must admit that old as this movie is, it still kept me guessing right until the very end so yes, its still effective, though it shows its theatre stage origins. I came to see Vincent Price and left impressed with Agnes Moorehead, who is absolutely cute as no-nonsense, tough and thick-skinned lady, very different from usual female characters of the time (other women around her mostly scream and faint, while she totters the gun and throws things at intruder).