The Bat Whispers

The Bat Whispers is a 1930 American film about a criminal that terrorizes the occupants of an isolated country mansion.
 * Directed and written by Roland West, based on the 1920 mystery play The Bat, written by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart and previously adapted to film in 1926.

Look out! The arch criminal is here! (taglines)

The Unknown

 * It's been a long chase, Mister Bat. But we've got you. We've got you red-handed!

Dialogue

 * Cornelia van Gorder: Who did that?
 * The Caretaker: I don't know... this house gets on my nerves, they won't let me sleep.
 * Lizzie Allen: Don't trust him, caretaker means servant... Bat!
 * Cornelia van Gorder: Who won't let you sleep?
 * The Caretaker: The ghosts... he slams doors, and there's no one there to slam them... he opens windows, and I can't see nothing... he rolls things down the stairs, and there's no one there to make them roll... that ain't all, he whispers to me, from behind the wall. [a loud scream is heard] Listen, he's here again... stay here long enough, you'll see.
 * Lizzie Allen: Let's go back to the city.


 * Cornelia van Gorder: We'll get to the bottom of this. I've sent for detectives.
 * The Caretaker: Detectives won't do no good. The entire police force won't do no good. [nervous laugh] They can't stop ghosts.


 * Cornelia van Gorder: Now what on Earth are you doing?
 * Lizzie Allen: I'm setting a bear trap for the Bat, in case he decides to come flying around here. [throws a trap on a chain out the window] And I've got the other end fastened to the bed.


 * Lizzie Allen: That new gardener, I don't like his looks, suppose'n he's the Bat?
 * Cornelia van Gorder: I know he's not a gardener, because uticaria is hives, rubeola is measles, and alopecia is baldness.
 * Lizzie Allen: And knowing all this, you're going to let him stay here?
 * Cornelia van Gorder: I will, until I find out why my niece brought him here.


 * Detective Anderson: Did you do much looking around?
 * Detective Jones: Did I? That's just what I was doing when somebody socked me with a piano.


 * Dale Van Gorder: We didn't mean to fool you, auntie.
 * Cornelia van Gorder: You didn't... gardeners don't have manicured fingernails.


 * Cornelia van Gorder: [Anderson picks up a gun after Fleming is killed] Why that's my revolver!
 * Detective Anderson: [inspects it] One shot fired.
 * Cornelia van Gorder: I fired that shot myself last night.
 * Detective Anderson: Nice try, Miss Van Gorder, but I'm placing your niece under arrest for the murder of Courtleigh Fleming.
 * Cornelia van Gorder: You can't arrest her without a coroner's verdict, and you'll have to wait on Dr. Vanrees for that.
 * Detective Anderson: Miss Van Gorder, when I find a need to make an arrest, I'll make it! And I won't wait for any coroner's verdict.


 * Cornelia van Gorder: Get the Ouija board.
 * Lizzie Allen: It's got the Bible on top of it, keeping it quiet.


 * The Unknown: What I'd like to know is how did you get the dope from headquarters on this case?
 * Detective Anderson: The same way I get everything, with my mind. I've got the greatest brain that ever existed.

Taglines

 * Look out! The arch criminal is here!
 * Greatest all talking thriller!

Cast

 * Chance Ward — Police Lieutenant
 * Richard Tucker — Mr. Bell
 * Wilson Benge — The Butler
 * DeWitt Jennings — Police Captain
 * Sidney D'Albrook — Police Sergeant
 * S.E. Jennings — The Man in Black Mask
 * Grayce Hampton — Cornelia Van Gorder
 * Maude Eburne — Lizzie Allen
 * Spencer Charters — The Caretaker
 * Una Merkel — Dale Van Gorder
 * William Bakewell — Brook
 * Gustav von Seyffertitz — Dr Venrees
 * Chester Morris — Detective Anderson
 * Hugh Huntley — Richard Fleming
 * Charles Dow Clark — Detective Jones
 * Ben Bard — The Unknown