The Beast (1959)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The beast |
| Original title | The Bat |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 77 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Crane Wilbur |
| script | Crane Wilbur |
| production | CJ Tevlin |
| music | Louis Forbes |
| camera | Joseph F. Biroc |
| cut | William Austin |
| occupation | |
| |
The Beast (In the original: The Bat , thus: The Bat ) is an American thriller by Crane Wilbur with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead in the lead roles. Mary Roberts Rinehart provided the templates for this with the novel "The Circular Staircase" (1908) and her play "The Bat" (1920), which she wrote together with Avery Hopwood .
action
Cornelia van Gorder is a well-known author of crime and horror stories and wants to spend the summer months on the country estate Eichengrund rented by her banker's nephew, John Fleming. Her house staff from the city and her housekeeper Lizzie Allen are there too. As soon as they arrive, the staff want to leave again, because you've heard that a murderer is supposed to be sneaking around in the area, whom everyone just calls “The Beast”. And then there are supposed to be bats everywhere that have rabies and are allegedly even being instrumentalized by the “beast”. Local people say that the killer infected the bats and then released them. Cornelia doesn't let the rumor mill bother her, she definitely wants to stay. At the local bank where Cornelia and Lizzie are going, there is an entirely different problem. Securities worth around a million dollars have disappeared from the safe. Only Fleming's deputy Victor Bailey, who discovered the loss and immediately notified Police Commissioner (Lieutenant) Anderson, and Bank President Fleming have access to the safe. However, Fleming cannot be contacted for questioning because he is with his family doctor, Dr. Malcolm Wells, in a mountain hunting lodge with no phone.
At the hut, Fleming confesses to Wells that he had embezzled about a million dollars worth of securities. Fleming offers his doctor a deal: He should certify his death so that Fleming can start a fresh start somewhere with all the money. For this, Fleming wanted to do half and half with Wells. The still-to-be-murdered porter Sam, who is expected for tomorrow, is to serve as a Fleming replacement. Fleming threatens Dr. He shouldn't go in to shoot Wells with a revolver he'd brought with him. Suddenly the two men smell smoke from outside: the forest is on fire. Dr. Wells, who learned from Fleming where he has stashed the securities, takes the opportunity and shoots the bank president with a hunting rifle. The fire also destroyed the hut and the body of the millionaire thief. Wells returns with Fleming's body and spreads the story of the bank manager who was killed in a fire. Cornelia's employees are now even more worried, now the beast is said to have been seen with a half-burned face. His victims are always women, whose necks he would tear open with a steel claw. When a strong wind blows in the night and also makes eerie noises through an open window on the oak ground, Cornelia and her housekeeper start to worry. In fact, a hideous hermit reaches through the front door and scares Lizzie almost to death.
While Lizzie and her boss barricade themselves in Cornelia's bedroom, the "beast" invades the house with the claw. When the police, informed by telephone, announce their visit, the "beast" disappears as silently as it came. That same night it returned and smuggled a little bat into the bedroom of the two women, who were gradually becoming hysterical. The bat experiments in his laboratory, Dr. After an emergency call, Wells left for the oak ground that same night and treated Lizzie's bite wound that the bat had made. Police officer Anderson, who was hiding in front of the laboratory, breaks in and tries to get to the bottom of the matter around the spotted bats. Meanwhile, Wells takes care of Lizzie and recommends Cornelia to leave the house. There are rumors that this place is cursed. Soon afterwards, several women arrive as guests on Eichengrund: Dale Bailey, the wife of the bank's vice president, and Judy Hollander. Meanwhile, Mark Fleming, the nephew of the dead bank chief, also receives a visit from the police investigator Anderson. He suspects that the missing securities must be on oak ground, the property of his uncle. Mark secretly smuggles himself into his uncle's house, the blueprints under his arm. Here he wants to look for a hiding place where the securities could be. He falls into the clutches of the "beast" who kills him and hides the corpse in the closet behind a wall clock.
Now Anderson, who has also arrived, wants to go on a "beast" hunt and asks all women present to lock themselves in for the rest of the night. Then he goes in front of the dark villa and looks around. Meanwhile, the "beast" sneaks into the house and cuts the phone connections. While the women are resting in their rooms, the "beast" rummages through the dark oak grounds in search of the hiding place for the securities. But two of the female houseguests hear the noises he is making and get up. When the "beast" attacks one of the women and kills Mrs. Hollander in the process, the others join them. The "beast" flees after Cornelia throws a hook at him. Then Anderson returns and so does Dr. Wells, who has a suspicious head injury. He said he got this in an accident on the street. Cornelia van Gorder now begins to examine the mansion herself and comes across a secret back room in which she is accidentally locked. Dr. Wells meanwhile places the "beast" in his laboratory. There it comes to a fight between the two, in which the "beast" kills the Fleming killer and leaves a false suicide message. The "beast" returns to Eichengrund and sets the shed on fire to lure the residents of the property outside. But Cornelia smells the roast and stays with the other residents in the property. In fact, the "beast" sneaks upstairs with false certainty to open the secret safe in the hidden back room. He is surprised and shoots another person with Anderson's deputy, Davenport. But when he wants to shoot Cornelia and the other women as well, he is shot himself from behind. Butler and chauffeur Warner took care of the "beast". The killer was Commissioner Anderson, who once invested his own money in the securities stolen by Fleming and wanted to get "his" property back.
Production notes
The beast premiered in the United States on August 9, 1959. The film opened in Germany on February 3, 1961.
Further films
The Beast was the fourth Hollywood film adaptation of this popular stage material. The first two versions of The Bat from 1915 and 1927 were still silent films, the third film adaptation under the title The Bat Whispers an early sound film (1930).
Reviews
The Movie & Video Guide found The Beast to be a "true-to-work film".
"Half childish horror, half crude crime story."
Halliwell's Film Guide said the film was "a poor remake of a 1920s 08/15 stage thriller."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Certificate of Release for The Beast . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2015 (PDF; test number: 24 253 V).
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 83
- ^ The Beast in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed October 7, 2018
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 77
Web links
- The Beast in the Internet Movie Database (English)