All his victims died the same way, like their throats had been ripped open with steel claws.
I've reached the point where all I have to do is catch wind of a movie where a character is described as a "man without a face" and I have to seek it out. So it is with 1959's The Bat, the third film version of the hit play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood about a criminal who dons a scary get-up to frighten people away from a country house where a fortune has been hidden. In the original silent version from 1926, he actually dressed up as a giant bat (and served as the inspiration for Bob Kane's Batman). In the 1930 sound remake -- called The Bat Whispers to draw attention to that fact -- he went with more of your basic hood. The 1959 model, on the other hand, went for style, wearing a black stocking over his face, a snazzy suit and fedora, and leather gloves with razor-sharp claws for slashing people's throats (although it must be said they're a little cumbersome whenever he tries to do anything else with them).
As for the plot of The Bat, which was adapted for the screen by director Crane Wilbur, it's kicked off when murder mystery author Cornelia van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead, who overacts a tad bit) rents "The Oaks" so she can work on her next bestseller. Little does she realize that the owner, a bank president who embezzled $1 million in securities and pinned the crime on his head cashier, has hidden the loot on the premises and gotten himself killed by the county coroner, Dr. Wells (top-billed Vincent Price, his usual reliable self), who wasn't keen on getting roped into his scheme. Wells keeps finding reasons to stop by The Oaks, though, making him the prime suspect for Lt. Anderson (Gavin Gordon), the top cop on the case when The Bat starts flitting around.
In all honesty, if it weren't for the villain's terrific look, The Bat wouldn't really be worth sitting through all the wheel-spinning and the antics Cornelia's hysterical maid Lizzie (Lenita Lane), who calls her "Miss Corny." (How very apt.) Luckily, The Bat gets a fair bit of play and is favored with a goodly number of close-ups throughout the film. I even like his first couple of appearances when he's just a claw reaching through an unlatched door and a shadowy figure lurking outside the window. Could have done with a couple more credible suspects, though. Once the most obvious one gets eliminated for being the most obvious one, The Bat's identity isn't hard to pin down.