THE BAT (1926)

[Jim Roots]

I'm watching this (for the third time) at the rate of about 20 minutes per night while I ride the ol' Speed Racer exercycle -- you know, the one that comes with the priceless Hank Aaron rookie card clipped to the rear wheel for a neat sound effect, a macho adaptation which is somewhat undermined by the pink streamers on the handlebars -- and I'm endlessly irritated by Louise Fazenda's supposedly comical screaming fits. It's a silent film, for pete's sake: how funny can repeated screamings be in silence?

It's the Aikman Archives VHS version from the early 1990s. So I'm asking you hearies out there: is there some utterly hilarious sound effect being used every time Louise screams that makes you laugh? 'Cause if there isn't, I'm darned if I can understand what Roland West was thinking when he assumed it would be a terrific running gag.

While I'm on the topic, how complete is this 88-minute version? There seem to be quite a few jumps that suggest missing footage, and several choppy fast edits that could be either missing frames or just bad editing in the original. The niece and Jack Pickford get no introduction, either; the picture suddenly cuts to them without any explanation as to who they are or where they are, and it takes quite some time before we're told she's the niece. But the film was originally 9 reels, and that is pretty close to 88 minutes, so I'm wondering how complete it is.

Jim

[Roseha]

I remember seeing both The Bat and The Bat Whispers (1930 widescreen talkie also by West) at MoMA some years ago and enjoying the sound version more. Maybe it was partly because it's more complete, maybe because I saw it first, I am not sure at this point. However I don't think there were any sound effects attempted when showing the silent- I don't think MoMA's accompanists generally do that. What I mainly remember is how much I enjoyed the Margaret Dumont-ish character in The Bat Whispers, and her final line, which is the same in both films.