Verified Unrenewed Public Domain
1959 Feature
The Bat
Directed by Crane Wilbur → • Production: Independent Studio
The Bat is a 1959 American crime-mystery thriller starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. It is the fourth film adaptation of the story, which began as a 1908 novel, The Circular Staircase, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which she later adapted into the 1920 play The Bat. The first film version of the play was the 1926 American silent film The Bat.
Runtime
80 minutes
Aspect Ratio
173:132
Archival Copies
2 Vault Holding(s)
Classification
1929–1963 Unrenewed
The Video Boneyard Vault Holdings
Archival Master Preserved in Studio Vaults
This title is cataloged and preserved across physical storage drives D: & E: in The Video Boneyard archival collection (2 vault master holding). A broadcast-grade restoration with dynamic loudness normalization is scheduled for streaming release on our YouTube channel.
⚖️ Statutory Public Domain Clearance Provenance
First published in 1959. Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published between 1929 and 1963 required mandatory formal copyright registration renewal during their 28th year. Official United States Copyright Office Catalog of Copyright Entries records show zero renewal registration was filed, placing this work permanently in the Public Domain.