Film Studies Group Project (1935 Movie)

The Bat (1935)

Writers: Austin McNichols, Billy Bizub, Chris Ayers and Jackson Dockery
Genre: Horror
Studio: Universal Studios
Director: James Whale
Actor: Boris Karloff, Henry Travers and Deana Durbin
Color or B/W: Black and White
Make Up Artist: Jack Pierce

The Bat (Plot Synopsis):
The setting begins in a widowed, failed science professors basement as he searches for the cure for Polio and good fortune. (Boris Karloff) Robert Carmicheal begins his research on bats injecting each with mild doses of polio. Meanwhile the experimental vaccine is being combined with the bats DNA to make a deadly combination. Out of carelessness Robert leaves one of the bat's cages unlocked one night. The very next morning Robert enters his layer one of the bats bites Robert and he begins to pass out. After hours of being out cold Robert wakes up to find the bat lying dead next to him and his daughter (Deana Durbin) Marylin concerned and afraid. Although Robert appears the same he most surely is not. A day passes and Robert is sitting beside Marylin smoking a cigar and watching the local news. On the news is a report of a gruesome murder of the Jeffersons, a family that lives down the block. Sickened by what has happened Robert rushes out the door to see the crime scene and what has happened in their quiet suburban town. At the scene the whole family is being carried out in body bags while the Jefferson's dog (who is still alive) begins barking rapidly at Robert, but is restrained by local law enforcement. After coming home Robert begins his work again in the lab and injects his last bat subject with his blood. That night Marylin hears foot steps in the house, curiously she walks over to Robert's room to check up on him, however, his bed is empty. Marylin reaches for the phone to alert the police when a hand comes and grabs her wrist. Flinching Marylin looks up to find Robert covered in blood with  a knife in the other hand. Fearing for her life she begins to run. After running away Robert begins to chase her into the street it is there Robert is hit by a car and killed. The next morning Marylin is in the police station with (Henry Travers) Police Chief Officer Brady, when asked what research her dad had been doing she mentioned how he was trying to cure polio. Officer Brady then mentions how all the other bats had died except for the one with Roberts blood and had been cured of it's disease.

Does this fit the Hays Code?
No, because the violence, gore, and makeup for Karloff that we would initially want to use would probably be banned. So instead, we'd have to tone down these things, using things like off-screen deaths, and having dead bodies in a scene but only showing the characters looking at them and not the literal body. As far as the violence we could make use of shots of the location of where said violence is happening with detailed sound effects to show the dichotomy of something terribly violent and awful happening in this small, supposedly safe suburban town. Perhaps even use one of Hitchcock's techniques and use shadows to show the terror of the scene.

Why did you choose this staff/production company?
Well first of all we chose horror because horror was an exciting new film genre really taking hold in the 30's drawing in big crowds of both adults and a younger audience alike. So in order to find the best producer of horror we simply looked to the studio who was churning out horror classics like nobody's business, while also creating some iconic characters such as the Invisible Man, Frankenstein, and Dracula: Universal Studios. We chose James Whale and Jack Pearle for their excellent work together on Frankenstein, and we also got the monster himself Boris Karloff so that people could really see him portray a monster without needing insane makeup like that of Frankenstein. We chose Henry Travers because he was a solid supporting character actor in the 30's and fit the role of a small town cop nicely. And we chose Deanna Durbin because of her rising star status in the 30's and her diversity as an actress in that she was able to do light-hearted musicals and hardcore dramas at the same time, and became such a big star that her movies later saved Universal from bankruptcy.

What would you have done differently?
I would have chosen to make Boris Karloff the cop, make his role bigger, and then also cast someone even bigger in size with at least decent acting chops to play the madman. This is because I would have loved the idea of a monster movie in which Boris is not the monster. The tagline for the movie would then be able to read, "You've seen become a monster. Now see him fight one." I feel like the mass audiences, from the popularity of Frankenstein, would have jumped at the idea of seeing Boris in a role they were not accustomed to him being in, but still seeing him in a genre of movies they were accustomed to seeing him in.