Books and Movies

THE BAT (1959), as I’m sure you know, stars Agnes Morehead as the mystery writer who moves into the Old Dark House despite rumors of Mysterious Deaths, Hidden Fortunes, Rabid Bats and, of course the tile masked killer. Despite Morehead’s stage presence and Vincent Price as a corrupt doctor, this is very stagey, and I’m not even sure the unmasking makes sense (plus the clawed glove the villain wears hardly justifies his nom du crime). “He knew what was happening to him—but he didn’t think about it for long.”
THE BAT WHISPERS (1930) is a much better adaptation, from a more visually striking Bat (and a much creepier Old Dark House) to an overall more entertaining film, moving so fast that there’s hardly any chance to analyze the plot that has so many people hunting for stolen bank loot in the same spooky house. Also stagey at time, but not enough to spoil it. “I arrest you for robbery, murder, larceny and everything else that’s going on around here!”
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967) is by far Sidney Poitier’s superior film of that year, as Philadelphia homicide detective Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) reluctantly helps Rod Steiger’s small-town Mississippi police chief crack the murder of a local bigwig. Fair on the murder plot, very good on the Southern atmosphere and, of course, the crackerjack performances of the leads (plus Lee Grant, Warren Oates and William Schallert as supporting players)—though it shows the changes in detecting style over the years that Tibbs being both detective and forensic pathologist now seems a bit of a stretch. “They’ve got a murder on their hands they don’t know what to do with.”
A MESSAGE FROM AKIRA KUROSAWA: FOR BEAUTIFUL MOVIES (2000) was an extra on my Ikiru DVD set, chronicling Kurosawa’s career and his longstanding collaborators in lighting, set design, music (“When the music is happy, the sorrow in the scene comes through.”) and the running themes throughout his career. Like most films of this sort, interesting for fans.
IT IS WONDERFUL TO CREATE is a Japanese documentary series on Kurosawa, this particular episode covering Ikiru, revealing how a collaborator convinced Kurosawa to heavily rewrite the script (“The original story has Kanji living up to the end of the movie.”), the development of the theme song, the lighting (“Light reflected in the eyes became a Kurosawa trademark.”) and the usual on-the-set stories. “Mr. Kurosawa said the movie had failed.”

TOXIC SLUDGE IS GOOD FOR YOU!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton is a jeremiad on the use of PR to shape opinions, justify wars, bury exposes and “greenwash” polluters, with examples ranging from the tobacco industry’s PR flacks through the first Iraq war to the seweage sludge industry’s reaction to their title (“She suggested TOBACCO IS GOOD FOR YOU would be much better.”). The authors argue that between the industry’s astroturf campaigns and co-opting of legitimate activist groups, the best help for fighting the corporate structure are NIMBYs (“What is so terrible about not wanting toxic waste in your back yard?”), though the book shows PR groups are quite willing to infiltrate, smear or manipulate them too. Quite effective, if occasionally overstated (written in 1995, this takes it as a given that the cigarette industry would soon crush nonsmoking laws).