The ultra-shadowy cinematography and the startling imagery of a man in a circa 1926 bat costume thieving in the night over city rooftops are the best reasons to see this old dark house mystery. Meanwhile, director Roland West doesn’t seem to give a flip about any of the other characters. Adapted from the play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, the film trips over its own comic relief as it settles down with a group of shifty types gathered in a stately manor where The Bat has sneaked in to retrieve hidden stolen money. Its plot twists are wearing and its surprises barely register as minor tremors. It’s possible that this hit harder in 1926, but then see the exciting intro scene and any scene where the action starts as The Bat rears his masked head to get the goodness of which Roland West was capable. In 1930, West remade the story scene-for-scene as a sound film called The Bat Whispers that has the exact same glories and letdowns.
Today, this film’s main place in pop culture history is that Bob Kane acknowledged it as an influence on the creation of Batman. The Bat’s disguise here is modeled more closely on an actual bat (the mask is furry and has fangs), but when he scales tall buildings with cables and disappears out windows with ease, the connection is clear. The scene where The Bat shines a bat symbol silhouette against a wall further seals the deal.