MYSTERY THRILLER CHIEF FEATURE AT QUEEN’S THEATRE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18623, 27 November 1928, Page 7

MYSTERY THRILLER CHIEF FEATURE AT QUEEN’S THEATRE.

When it first made its appearance as a stage play “The Bat” caused a theatrical sensation, and set a fashion in plays. As a thriller, “The Bat,” with its mysterious shadows on the walls, its murders, and sensational burglaries, is in a class by itself. The plot is most ingenious, and every character is subjected to the strongest suspicion. In the mind of the audience, there is enough proof to saddle the series of crimes committed by the Bat, r>n any member of the fairly large household which is concerned. As in so many plays of the thriller type, "The Bat” responds even more successfully to treatment on the screen than to stage production. There is a bigger scope for realistic rendering of the shadows, and other necessities to the typical thrilling atmosphere. On the screen too, there is tremendous scope for the use of suitably cob webbed walls, and dust'•encrusted windows, features which are difficult to the painted scenes of the stage. There is no lack of s gripping personal atmosphere in the film version of “Tile Bat.” The cast is admirably selected for its work, and during the course of the screening. the audience is frequently tantalised bv the sight of the dim form of tile Bat passing across a window or skylight. In the midst of a true drama, filled with tense moments, Louise Fa '/enda has a difficult task set her in giving good comedy. It would seem at first to be so out of place. Her work is peerless as the highly imaginative servant whose suspicions and hysterical fright are so pronounced. She carries the part with the utmost distinction. and to say that she is able to stuac a laugh in the middle of some of

the most intense scenes, is sufficient comment on her work. The romance is provided by pretty Jewel Carmen and Jack Pickford. The story tells of “The Bat.” a diabolical criminal, who with almost superhuman cleverness robs, and murders. He plans the biggest coup of his career, the robbery of a bank, but arrives just in lime to see a rival decamping with the swag, lie trails the

man to the house of Courtley Fleming, now leased by Cornelia van Gorder. a spinster. The reported death of Fleming on the heels of the bank robbery and the disappearance of Brooks Bailey, a cashier in the employ of the bank, causes a disturbance. As a matter of fact, young Bailey had taken a job as a gardener in the emplpy of Miss van Gorder in order to be near his sweetheart. Dale Ogden. The tension at the house. where the Bat has been seen, increases to fever point, and a Force detective as well as a private detective, is emploved. Almost in front of the party in the house, a man is shot, and suspicion points to Dale. The manner of the trusted family physician, who had given the certificate of the death of the banker Fleming, arouses suspicion. In the midst of the pursuit of the Bat through the house, an unidentified stranger staggers into one of the rooms and collapses. There is nothing to show his identity. He was followed bv the appearance of the Bat on the window pane In a secret room of the house, the Bat finds the bag in which is contamed the missing funds from the bank 1 u th J s , momen t> the man who had robbed the bank appears in the room and a terrible fight ensues. Dale, search, mg the house, presses the secret spring and the fireplace swings, allowing her to enter. She finds herself trapped in p” 00 ? Wlth the two struggling men. From then on things move rapidly, with a sensational chase of thi Bat throughout the house and into the grounds where he is caught by a bear Th ? ey is found, and the Bat is revealed. The second attraction is “Tumbleweeds,” a Western, starring that king of cowboys. William S. Hart, in one of his best offerings.