Break out the orange pumpkins and black cats, because it is once again the spookiest time of the year. Let’s pick out the next RIM-Brain film from the movie library for the Halloween season. Now lets don our costumes, grab a bowl of caramel corn, and get ready to watch this year’s horror film. Here we will go over the possible records and information management (RIM) possibilities this year’s Halloween movie pick has to offer.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
The Bat (1959)
The horror mystery starring Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price tells the tale of the elusive killer known as The Bat and the hunt for one million dollars stolen from a bank hidden in a mansion.
Like any mystery movie there is always some mention of records that are needed to move the investigation along or to help the criminal get what they want. In this film there are examples of when records are created for the purposes of notes and when people are searching for records that exist, but not entirely sure of their location.
After the death of the bank’s founder it is believed he stole the missing million dollars from the bank and hid it somewhere. The growing theory the characters develop is that the bank’s founder hid the money somewhere in his mansion where the killer known as The Bat was spotted breaking and entering. The question is, “Where could he possibly have hidden they money?” So, the characters decide that the blueprints of the house need to be examined. In this case, an inventory of the banker’s personal papers would have been useful, but if he stole the money he would have made sure such information would not be easily located or known to everyone. Later, the banker’s nephew investigates a possible location to where the blueprints were hidden. He moves the grandfather clock to pry open the wall panel to find a hidden closet where the blueprints were stored. Unfortunately for the nephew, he wasn’t aware of how a shadow observed his actions and slashed him down to take the blueprints. The Bat struck again.
With the blueprints only being on paper the search for it illustrates the protection the banker took to keep his private records confidential and secured until someone found them. Those practices seem to follow the guidance laid out in Bulletin F: Records Storage Standards where the minimum storage standards include measures to insure records are protected from theft. The blueprints were stored safely from theft until The Bat got his hands on them, and on a similar note they were protected from any source of light damage due to being stored in a dark hidden closet. Which is also covers another minimum storage standard of not having records exposed to direct sunlight.
While this is all going on, Agnes Moorehead’s character, a mystery writer who is fascinated by the incidents of theft and murder, decides to document the events to not only cover her thoughts, but to capture as much detail as possible to use it for a future book. Also, her notes serve the purpose of logging the facts, being sure not to forget one piece of information as to what happened and by who. If these were local government records, would these be notes or would they be a report due to the nature of what is documented in them? Based on the nature and detail the writer has dictated for them, it appears more an account of what happened, where the million dollars were located, and the identity of The Bat. So, these would likely be classified as a report. In determining the notes serve as a report, it would a considered as a non-fiscal report for which the record series would be located in Schedule GR: Records Common to All Local Governments with potential historical significance in the world of the film.
So was the missing million dollars hidden in the house? And who is The Bat? Tune into the film to figure out which character turns out to be The Bat.
What other RIM-Brain moments have you noticed in horror films?
Happy Halloween!
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