was really striking, like out of a horror movie. i was really suprised at how horrific a scene it was (with the screaming and blood) especially for it's time audiences must have been shocked when they saw it in the 40s.
sharewe watched this tonight and my film teacher said "Dont laugh at that part but i will have to leave the room cuz it disturbs me" sure enough she bolted out of there and yes..it was rather disgusting!
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The dripping blood elevates the hallucination to an impressive cinematic moment. I agree, it must have been quite a shocking thing for audiences in the 1940s.
shareActually preview audiences did laugh at this scene when it was first shown and Wilder was panicked by the reaction. He fixed it by simply adding musical underscoring to the scene which makes it terrifying. Another example of the power of movie music.
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God, that scene was bloody terrifying!
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Agreed. That sequence really got to me, as much if not more than any scene from any recently released movie I've seen. I really enjoyed being physically shocked by a movie made over 60 years ago, great testament to the film's makers, excellent stuff.
shareWhat I found horrifying was the eye-rolling, low-budget, cliched un-bat-like movement of said bat. The jerk-on-a-string with a halloweeen bat profile was a joke. Bats look nothing like this. They don't slowly circle a room flapping their wings up and down to allow your big scene build. Would it have killed them to visit a zoo to see some realistic bat bahavior?
I foudn this scene VERY silly.
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Would it have killed them to visit a zoo to see some realistic bat bahavior?
I foudn this scene VERY silly.
Thank you very much!! Very true
shareFunny how his version of a mouse was zoologically correct.
Why not use a sock with some paper ears attached?
A mouse is a more familiar animal to most people than a bat---and is easier to film.
As for the movie's version of the latter, I think it's only a problem to those severely lacking in imagination.
They probably couldn't appreciate (any) stage productions either.
onepotato2 says:
What I found horrifying was the eye-rolling, low-budget, cliched un-bat-like movement of said bat. The jerk-on-a-string with a halloweeen bat profile was a joke. Bats look nothing like this. They don't slowly circle a room flapping their wings up and down to allow your big scene build. Would it have killed them to visit a zoo to see some realistic bat bahavior?
I foudn this scene VERY silly.
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But the point is, hallucinations do look real to the people having them. If we as a movie audience are seeing a hallucination that a character is supposed to be scared by, it's not going to be scary to us if it looks fake, and I'm sorry but that bat looks totally fake when it first appears - it's particularly noticeable because the mouse is so obviously real (in fact for me the first appearance of the mouse crawling out of the apartment wall is the creepiest part of the scene, because it's unexpected and does look real).
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I kind of agree. It may be the only thing that kept me from giving it a 10.
"Why do you find it so hard to believe?"
"Why do you find it so easy?"
"It's never BEEN easy!"
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The bat scene is probably the creepiest scene I have seen in any pre-1960s movie.
shareYo, that scene was *beep* up!
shareI had no idea what the Bat was going to do in that scene!! I thought it was going to just fly around. :/
I freaked out when it started eating the mouse and was even *more* shocked by the blood dripping down the wall. coupled with the music and Don screaming it was seriously chilling to watch.
I'm surprised it got past the censors at the time.
~I love the rhythm it is my methoood!~
The bat was Don's hallucination. Okay, perhaps he'd never seen a real bat and only had an exaggerative version of what a flying bat must look like. So, since he's seeing what he thinks is real, then that's why the bat looked as it did.
Anyway, when I saw the mouse peek out from the wall, and Don smiled at it (I think he said hi to it), I was expecting 10,000 mice to tear the walls to pieces and terrorize him. The bat was a nice touch.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.
@cdjunkee
There's no reason why they would censor it.
That scene reminds me of Batman's origin.
shareIt was great scene but i have to admit it was kind dated. The bat almost made me laugh, but i wasn't expecting to see such gruesome scene, with the blood on the wall. I still think the most striking scene on the movie is when is stumbling on the street trying to pawn the typewriter, so unsettling, it comes from a much more real and intimate place, the horror of not being able to let go.
shareThe bat did look a little fake but for me watching as a kid that was the single most memorable scene in the movie and it was horrifying. The music and Milland's reaction sell and seal the scene.
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