The first film version of The Circular Staircase appeared in 1915. A television version appeared on CBS's Climax!

series in 1954. More well-known, however, are the motion pictures and television productions based on Rinehart's own adaptation of the novel for the stage as The Bat, one of the most commercially successful mystery dramas ever written. Rinehart and Avery Hopgood adapted The Circular Staircase for the stage under this title in 1920. Miss Rachel Innes became Miss Cornelia Van Horder; her maid Liddy was renamed Lizzie. The initial Broadway run of The Bat lasted for two years. (A 1953 revival with Zasu Pitts as Lizzie was nearly as successful, and after the play closed, Pitts starred in a television version.) To capitalize on the success of her play, Rinehart allowed Stephen Vincent Benet to fictionalize The Bat, and it was republished as a separate novel in 1926. The stage version of The Bat was...