Overly contrived murder mystery with as many sub-pots as rooms in the massive Oaks mansion where most of the movie takes place. Famous murder mystery writer Cornelia Van Gorder, Agnes Moorehead, is taking time off from writing and spending the summer at the Oaks which she rented from Mark Flemming, John Bryant the nephew of Zenith Bank president John Flemming, Harvey Stephens.
There's been this weird looking person known as "The Bat" who runs around with a sock over his head and a clawed glove that murdered a number of people at the Oaks the previous year. "The Bat" murderous escapades is making the hired help at the Oaks very nervous and they think that he's coming back for another visit.
Almost from the start of the movie we see a large hole in the storyline about "The Bat". Bank president John Fleming who's out in the woods hunting with his doctor Malcolm Wells, Vincent Price, tells the Doc. that he just stole $1,000,000.00 from his bank and hid it in a secret room in the Oaks. Fleming wants to fake his death by finding someone to substitute his body and then free from suspicion take off with the loot and live happily ever after.
It turns out that the Doc. has ideas of his own and when a forest fire almost on cue, like you would expect to see a song or dance number in a musical, breaks out. Fleming is distracted Dr. Wells who shoots him making it look like his death was because of the forest fire, are the police in Zenith Township so incompetent that they wouldn't notice that Flaming died of a gunshot wound?
The entire movie centers around the hidden stolen bank money in the Oaks which makes the Bat's, whoever he is, murders the previously year make no sense at all since there was no stolen money for him to look and kill for back then? Were given the usual suspects of who "The Bat" is but as usual the most obvious is the least one to suspect.
We're shown right from the beginning that Dr. Wells is up to no good by murdering John Flemming so right away we know not to trust him and he also knows that the money is hidden in the Oaks. There's so many other sub-plots in the movie that you soon forget Dr. Wells and suspect almost anyone in the movie and as the movie goes on and the plot begins to become even more convoluted you even start to suspect yourself.
If the movie tried to be a little less complicated instead of a puzzle that someone from the high IQ MENSA Society couldn't even figure out it may well have held ones interests but by the last half of the movie you were so lost and confused by the plot that you lost all interest in who the killer was.
This loss of interest seemed to be shared by the movies cast as well who went from being terrified of "The Bat" at the start of the film to giving the audience the impression towards the end that they just wanted it to be over so they could collect their checks for being in the movie and go home.
There's been this weird looking person known as "The Bat" who runs around with a sock over his head and a clawed glove that murdered a number of people at the Oaks the previous year. "The Bat" murderous escapades is making the hired help at the Oaks very nervous and they think that he's coming back for another visit.
Almost from the start of the movie we see a large hole in the storyline about "The Bat". Bank president John Fleming who's out in the woods hunting with his doctor Malcolm Wells, Vincent Price, tells the Doc. that he just stole $1,000,000.00 from his bank and hid it in a secret room in the Oaks. Fleming wants to fake his death by finding someone to substitute his body and then free from suspicion take off with the loot and live happily ever after.
It turns out that the Doc. has ideas of his own and when a forest fire almost on cue, like you would expect to see a song or dance number in a musical, breaks out. Fleming is distracted Dr. Wells who shoots him making it look like his death was because of the forest fire, are the police in Zenith Township so incompetent that they wouldn't notice that Flaming died of a gunshot wound?
The entire movie centers around the hidden stolen bank money in the Oaks which makes the Bat's, whoever he is, murders the previously year make no sense at all since there was no stolen money for him to look and kill for back then? Were given the usual suspects of who "The Bat" is but as usual the most obvious is the least one to suspect.
We're shown right from the beginning that Dr. Wells is up to no good by murdering John Flemming so right away we know not to trust him and he also knows that the money is hidden in the Oaks. There's so many other sub-plots in the movie that you soon forget Dr. Wells and suspect almost anyone in the movie and as the movie goes on and the plot begins to become even more convoluted you even start to suspect yourself.
If the movie tried to be a little less complicated instead of a puzzle that someone from the high IQ MENSA Society couldn't even figure out it may well have held ones interests but by the last half of the movie you were so lost and confused by the plot that you lost all interest in who the killer was.
This loss of interest seemed to be shared by the movies cast as well who went from being terrified of "The Bat" at the start of the film to giving the audience the impression towards the end that they just wanted it to be over so they could collect their checks for being in the movie and go home.