Every year in December, 25 films are added to the National Film Registry for their being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, and are selected by the Librarian of Congress and the National Film Preservation Board. Given the connection to Batman that Roland West’s THE BAT (1926) has, I’d say it deserves to be on the National Film Registry. I’ve already shared this with the 681 backers of the Kickstarter for the restoration of THE BAT that my Undercrank Productions is readying for release in the fall of 2024, and am sharing this idea here as well in case you and others would like to support this effort.
Bob Kane has cited both The Mark of Zorro (1920) and The Bat (1926) – and the early-talkie remake The Bat Whispers (1930) – as inspirations for the creation of the Batman character. It’s not too hard a leap to make. Zorro is a wealthy young man with seemingly mild ambitions who, at night, dons a mask and cape and fights crime under a different name and identity. The character of The Bat is a master criminal who calls himself “The Bat” and does his criming in a full bat costume, including a mask-and-head-covering that cloaks his face and which has bat ears.
Bob Kane talks about this with Terry Gross on Fresh Air in a 1990 interview about his book Batman and Me (Eclipse Books, 1989). You can listen to the interview on the Fresh Air website.
The Mark of Zorro was added to the National Film Registry in 2015. I invite you to nominate The Bat (1926) for the registry. The deadline to submit a film to the National Film Registry is August 15. The nomination process simple, although a tad confusing, so I’ve outline the steps here for you:
- The nomination form is actually on two consecutive web pages.
- The first page has a field at the bottom to fill out where the prompt is: “we are particularly interested in your comments about lesser-known titles you nominate. Please use this space to tell us more about the films you’ve nominated today.”
- But wait, there’s no place on the first page to nominate any films! That’s correct. Backwards, but correct. You will input your film selections on the second page of the nomination form. That’s right – you write why you’re nominating the film before you actually get to list film.
- So, on page one, you enter your email address and say why you’re nominating THE BAT. Then at the bottom you click on the button that says NEXT.
- On the next page there are 50 slots to list a film’s title and year of release. You don’t have to fill out all 50. Put THE BAT and 1926 at the top of the list, and add anything else you’d like to.
- Way at the bottom is a button that says SUBMIT.
- The link for the page to start with is HERE.
Thanks for considering this!