The Bat

The Bat (1959) is a black-and-white mystery with a streak of horror you can watch online on iFILM. Crime novelist Cornelia Van Gorder rents an old mansion called The Oaks for the summer. Trouble is, a killer dressed all in black — known as the Bat — is prowling the area again, tearing out his victims' throats with a clawed steel glove.

A second puzzle thickens the plot: the home's former owner, a bank president, stashed a million dollars in stolen securities somewhere inside The Oaks, then turned up dead before he could collect. Soon everyone converges on the house — a doctor with secrets, a terrified staff, the police, and of course the killer himself. Cornelia doesn't scare easily and sets out to crack both mysteries while the noises in the dark creep closer to her bedroom door.

It's an old-fashioned haunted-house whodunit drawn from Mary Roberts Rinehart's famous stage play, anchored by Vincent Price as a slippery doctor and Agnes Moorehead as the unflappable lady of the house. Tame on gore by today's standards, but generous with hidden passages, failing lights, and a fair game of guess-the-villain. Cozy classic viewing for retro-mystery fans. Stream The Bat (1959) online on iFILM.