THE BAT (1959)

[Le Chiffre]

Watched this yesterday on TCM for Halloween. Entertaining little horror-whodunit with Agnes Moorhead and Vincent Price, also John Sutton, the guy that played Dr. Rivers in JANE EYRE. Price plays "Dr. Wells", and Moorhead uses a similar technique of elongating the end of the last word of each sentence just like Aunt Fanny.

It takes place in an old mansion, and what caught my eye was that some of the sets looked like leftovers from Ambersons, including the front door and the staircase. Wiki says that RKO acquired the rights to the play in 1958, the year before they went under, so I can imagine the shoot having the feel of a farewell party; probably one of many on the lot that year.

I guess the point is that Welles was criticized by many for going over budget on Ambersons, but much of that budget went towards building the elaborate sets, which RKO wound up getting an enormous amount of use out of; almost two decades worth.