So, has anyone seen "The Bat" (1926) silent film. It's suppose to be a forerunner of Batman, but the bat in this movie is a bad guy, terrorizing everybody. Batman (Adam West, Michael Keaton, et al) is a good guy. (?????) Was Batman bad before his parents were shot or what???
All Work and no Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy
I've seen this movie, I have not seen Batman but I think the idea of it was that you have this guy, nobody knows who he is, where he came from, don't know anything about him, he is in disguise and he can do what it is he's come to do, and nobody will ever know who he really is. I think Kane took the idea of that, from a villain who uses his disguise to sneak around doing his dirty work, to a good guy going after the bad guys, in an equally anonymous manner.
shareI've seen "The Bat" numerous times & have it on VHS.
Re: this film versus the character the Batman, co-creators
Bob Kane(artist)& Bill Finger (writer) both mentioned this silent
as influencing them on their character (costume); also a
forerunner of the "Bat-Signal' also appears in this silent.
The 'look' of this film (stylized sets) also influenced the look
of the comic book panels in Batman.
Another silent both men cited as influencial on their character was
"The Mark of Zorro," (1920) starring Doug Fairbanks Sr, which features
a dark, cape-clad, acrobatic masked avenger whose secret identtity is
a rich playboy idler, with a secret cave underneath his mansion, with
a grandfather clock as the hidden entrance to the secret cave. He also
has a manservant, who knows his secret identity. All these elements
were incorporated into the Batman mythos...
Finally, a third film, "The Man Who Laughs" (1928)features a title
character who was the inspiration for Batman's arch-enemy, the Joker.
Once you see this character you will immediately know why...
"Silent films are the purest form of cinema..." (Hitchcock)
It's on Youtube. Search for it.
shareparts 1 trough 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU10KI1ouGw
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