Remake of 'The Bat' did someone suggest?

Borrowing from the heated words of John McEnroe, "you can't be serious!"

How many remakes have you personally witnessed that were as good or even better than the original rendition? Unarguably there are a few such cases. But you can easily count them on just one hand, or certainly two at the very most. Attempting to improve upon perfection is nearly always a serious mistake. Certainly a very risky and unwise endeavor at best. Given the fact, once having reached the ultimate pinnacle of success, the only place left to go is downhill!

Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead's performances are nothing less than dazzling, as was the entirety of this outstanding cast. The well-written plot, dialog, personal interaction and closely-knit relationships developed between characters, artfully makes you completely forget you're watching a movie as opposed to "the real thing." Consistently being the most notable characteristic of any superbly talented screen performer and film production crew.

As you read this now and it's once again shoved-down our throats like the "letterbox" format was, high-definition television (HDTV) and the associated transition to digital television (DTV) planned to occur February 2009, is being touted as "the greatest achievement since the advent of color television" by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Truly stunning visual quality coupled with nearly a complete lack of meaningful content and substance.

Never before in history, was there a greater calling to aggressively dig deep into the vaults and utilize today's amazing restoration technology, for the express purpose of rescuing the vast number of priceless motion picture masterpieces, decomposing into piles of dust. It's nothing short of a tragedy, just how many irreplaceable reels of film have suffered this unforgiving and inevitable fate.

Realize given its age, "The Bat" could very easily have been just such a casualty. While no substantial restoration effort has yet been made, thankfully at least, it's been transferred from film to DVD. How would it impact you, had you been deprived of this particular extraordinary motion picture?

What good is today's "state of the art" high-definition quality without equally high-quality content, worthy of viewing? Given the ability to watch minute beads of sweat form on some athlete's body during a Football game, or count the wrinkles and blemishes on your favorite actor's face, surely doesn't utilize high-definition technology to its greatest potential. Nor is its use mindlessly justified across-the-board without consideration of meaningful purpose and intent.

Give me an outstanding B&W (low-definition) movie from the 1930s-1950's like "The Bat" and I'll choose it instantly, in preference to any of the contemporary Box Office fecal stream pumped-out of Hollywood and the commercial television industry, these days! Presently, the screen-writers are all on strike. Good! Let them stay out-of-work until they acquire some genuine talent, assuming that's a possibility.

This incredibly well-written play and (television adapted) screen-play is a superb reminder, clearly demonstrating by example, to what depths and just how profoundly today's motion picture and television industries have sunk. While completely devoid of the usual sex, profanity and gratuitous violence most typical of today's motion pictures, nonetheless, "The Bat" easily manages to keep viewers on the very edge of their seat, from beginning to end.

Undeniably, "sex and violence does sell" movies to a substantial (depraved) minority of the public-at-large. Let it not be forgotten however, great performances in combination with a brilliantly-written script, is profoundly more powerful and of far greater aesthetic value. Something Hollywood has chosen to forget due to its own laziness, lack of imagination and scarcity of genuine talent.

How many motion pictures can you watch again and again, enjoying them as much (or even more) with each succession, in anticipation of picking-up upon various subtleties and dialogue which somehow managed to evade you, previously? Only a genuine masterpiece has such extraordinary potential and staying-power. The kind which lasts the test of time.

Mike Adams, Lewisburg PA