ABOUT THE EVENT: Prior to the screening, Los Angeles Silent Film Festival merch will be available for purchase in the auditorium. ABOUT THE FILM: Directed by Roland West from the enormously successful Broadway play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, THE BAT (1926) helped define the “old dark house” mystery long before it became a Hollywood staple. A mysterious masked criminal known only as “The Bat” stalks the corridors of an isolated mansion where hidden wealth, suspicious houseguests, secret passageways and unexpected murders keep audiences guessing until the final moments. West directs with extraordinary visual flair, using expressive lighting, elaborate camera movement and striking Art Deco-inspired production design to create an atmosphere of mounting suspense. The film’s shadow-filled imagery would prove enormously influential on later horror and mystery films, while its combination of suspense and humor established a formula that filmmakers would revisit for decades. Presented in the West Coast premiere of a new restoration during its centennial year, THE BAT remains one of silent cinema’s most stylish and entertaining mysteries, a masterfully crafted thriller whose influence can still be felt throughout the genre today. FORMAT: DCP DISTRIBUTOR: Undercrank Productions COUNTRY: USA
