Director and screenwriter Roland West (1887-1952), probably best known for the still unclear role he played in the murder of actress Thelma Todd, is one of the most fascinating figures in the shadowlands of early Hollywood history. He is a strange personality, whose subjects and ideas tended towards horror and crime, and who peopled his films with dual personalities shrouded in the night. At the crossroads between popular and avantgarde, stylistically his work was some of the most fabulous and outrageous of his times. West’s background was in both acting and writing, and many of his early films were vehicles for Norma Talmadge, including his film with Lon Chaney (The Monster, 1925) and the famous The Bat (1926). His greatest film was arguably Alibi (where William Cameron Menzies joined his ensemble), and The Bat Whispers (1930, originally a 65 mm film, now simulated within a cinemascope print thanks to an excellent UCLA restoration) was a fascinating fantasy as well as a mix of odd elements, with the result not far from the inspirational vein of Browning or Whale.

The overall sense of his films may have been static, but there were always exiting and hallucinatory touches, often verging on parody in a combination of horror and farce similar to that originated by Paul Leni. His totally strange sense of the cityscape, based on wild use of the camera and equally imaginative editing, is pure pleasure. The urban silhouettes of Roland West come much closer to the ghostly feeling of Feuillade than do current popular attractions like Batman et al.

Peter von Bagh