poe426
Comics as we know them today owe much to the pulp magazines that preceded them. Case in point: BATMAN. Like the original Dark Knight himself (The Shadow), The Bat-man was a product of the Pulps- although he debuted in what I've referred to elsewhere as "the Pulps with pictures"- comic books. The early movie serials often featured characters from both. This "Natural Evolution" led to the very first BATMAN serial. While the minimalist Budgets were often blamed for the Below Average result(s), it was, more often than not, the relative skill(s) of the director(s) that determined the true worth of what we saw. Thanks to the often atmospheric direction of Lambert Hillyer, BATMAN evokes an air of dark mystery from its opening shot: we see The Bat-man seated in "the bat's cave," brooding pensively, staring directly at us. The camera eases in closer as bats flitter about the cave: we see their shadows on the wall. It's an impressive opening and Lewis Wilson as The Bat-man is believable both as the playboy alter ego and as the Revenge-driven masked man. It would be hard to imagine a better Robin than Douglas Croft: he's young enough (and small enough) and athletic enough to be believable as a crime-fighter's sidekick. True to his True Nature as a man obsessed with setting wrongs right, The Bat-man this time around is in the employ of the U.$. Government (it is, after all, War Time). The dastardly Dr. Daka proves a formidable opponent, but The Bat-man has a trick or two up his own sleeve: when he's outed in Chapter 11, it turns out he's wearing a disguise under his mask. There are one or two gaffs along the way, but they're relatively minor. BATMAN is definitely one of the better serials (though I don't see why they didn't paint one of the cars jet black and affix a bat-fin to it) and well worth a look.
flapdoodle64
Despite the overt racism, low budget, and low quality Batman suit, this serial was much, much better than I expected. It is better than the average Columbia serial, and should be very enjoyable to fans of old movies, B-pictures, golden age comics, as well as serials. I found that the serial was so engaging and the directing so skillful, that by the middle of the 2nd chapter I didn't think the suit was silly anymore.Lewis Wilson was very credible as both Bruce Wayne and Batman. As Bruce Wayne, he is suave and upper class, and as Batman he is tough, brainy, and no-nonsense.There's a couple scenes in which Batman takes crooks to the Batcave, tries to browbeat them for information, then locks them inside alone with his pet bats. In one very clever sequence, he employs a nice bit of deception on one of these thugs. But even though it is WWII, the fate of the world us up for grabs, U.S. territory has been attacked on 3 fronts and U.S. citizens are interned at camps in the Phillipines, Batman never employs torture, waterboarding, simulated suffocation, sexual humiliation, electric shock, or dog attacks, or other 'enhanced interrogation methods' to extract information from these traitors and saboteurs. That is because, even though he is a weird figure of the dark, striking terror into the hearts of criminals, Batman is not willing to degrade himself by torture, he is not willing to sacrifice his own humanity. What a concept! The fight scenes range from so-so to pretty cool. There are some good moves in some of the fight scenes, like when a bunch of thugs knocks Batman down and pile on, the stuntmen handled it really well when Batman throws the thugs off. Also, the stuntman who played Batman was able to throw a really convincing knockout punch, there are times when he really looks like he is putting all his weight into it, you almost feel it.I also liked the moments when Batman pulled Bruce Wayne's fiancé, Linda Page, out of danger: from his voice it sounds like he actually cares about her, and is not just using her to dispel rumors about his sexual preferences. Unlike a modern Batman, however, he never reveals his double identity to his love interest. Speaking of Linda, she is a quite a fox and a good actress. Douglas Croft made an excellent Robin, once you get used to his big hair (this is the 1st cinematic 'afro' hair style, 25 years before Linc from 'The Mod Squad'!), valiant, good in a fight, not the least bit obnoxious. Croft was 17 when this was filmed, appearing to be about 14 or 15, which is about how old the real Robin would have been Also, since the film is in black and white, Robin's suit shows up as a variety of gray tones, as opposed to the rather sissified red and yellow of the comics (what latent tendencies the guy who dreamed up that suit must have had!). Likewise, Batman's suit is darker in black and white, and in many scenes it's plausible that he really can frighten criminals.The director, Lambert Hiller, had previously done 'Dracula's Daughter,' and put in many atmospheric touches that give this serial the ambiance of a 1930's Universal horror film. The original Batman comics borrowed heavy from those films, and had only been created 4 years prior, in 1939. Having read many of those comics, it is my opinion that this serial comes the closest to the original concept of Batman, as envisioned by his original creators, Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Jerry Robinson and Bob Kane (who managed to grab all the credit). The 1st year or 2 of Batman comics had a very dark, primitive, gritty feel, which this serial captures nicely.Speaking of horror, Dr. Tito Daka has to be one of the greatest, most evil, intelligent, sadistic and insane serial villains ever. As great as, perhaps greater (?) than Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon. And the wacky happenings in Daka's lab and hideout are just some of the wildest, weirdest, pulp-fictionest stuff you've ever seen.There has been much said over the years about the racism of this serial. Dr. Daka was played by a Caucasian actor, and his Japanese voice sounds instead like Peter Lorre trying to do a Mexican accent. But there are a couple places where the narrator talks about the WWII U.S. govt. concentration camps, wherein 120,000 U.S. citizens were unconstitutionally confined for the duration. Even after all these years, that's still offensive.Another touchy point are the recurring shots of a bizarre propaganda carnival ride, in which wax figures depict Japanese soldiers picking on and brutalizing Caucasians. Obviously, these images were meant to inflame anti-Japanese feelings in U.S. theater-goers, thus helping the nation retain it's 'resolve.' Today, however, anyone who has read even the smallest amount of history will know that compared to the real atrocities committed by both Japan and the U.S., the wax tableaux now seem mild in comparison.I am told that the late 1980's VHS release of this serial had been censored of much of the anti-Japanese references, possibly by the Japanese company Sony, which holds the rights to it. If that is so, then it is perhaps cautionary that Sony no longer feels obliged to sensor this material. Maybe this gives we who would inter people on the basis of religion or ethnicity (can you say 'Gitmo'?) a glimpse into a previous time when, to our eventual shame, we did the exact same thing. Or perhaps Sony sees that the U.S. is now competing in the War Crimes Olympics, thus tacitly condoning, perhaps emulating, the Axis tactics of WWII. Maybe Sony just thinks atrocities have come back into style.
duke1029
As serial addicts know, chapter plays are driven by a logic all their own, a logic which often ignores plausibility. Viewers should always check their common sense in the lobby to enjoy these old cliffhangers. "Batman" is no exception and contains some especially enjoyable lapses of credulity.My favorite "Batman" moment involves the message that the captain of a Japanese submarine wants to impart to spymaster Daka. Although he speaks to him on short wave radio, he does not give him the message directly but tells him to follow "Plan 92," a labarynthian scheme which involves sending his henchmen to Smuggler's Cove to pick up a coffin that is only be accessible at low tide. Why the message was not communicated while they were speaking to each other directly is not explained. Instead of using a more discreet truck or van to transport the coffin, Daka orders his men to contact a third-party local funeral parlor to transport the coffin back to the ring's headquarters. The audience can only surmise what the henchmen could possibly say to the undertakers to explain why a coffin would be on partially submerged rocks near a beach that wouldn't arouse suspicion. When the coffin does arrive, it shows no sign of having been underwater and contains the body of a uniformed Japanese soldier. Daka explains that he is in a state of "animated suspension" and revives him with smoke-filled electrical charges directed a la Dr. Frankenstein into his wrists. Although the soldier will only be conscious for "a few moments" before dying with finality, Daka wastes time by first welcoming him to the country that will soon become "a colony of Japan's expanding empire." The soldier sits up with difficulty, delivers the Banzai greeting and conveys the message that the henchmen should steal the Lockwood plane, (one of the film's MacGuffins), and rendezvous with the submarine at Pelican Island. Before he dies, the soldier rips a button off his uniform, gives it to Daka, and tells him it contains more information. Why the information is formatted this way is also unexplained. He then dies with finality, only too happy to have given his life for the Emperor.The rationale which required the death of a soldier and the coffin to convey a byzantine message that could have been communicated directly by radio is left a mystery. Serials usually omit logical explanation. In another delightful scene, Daka orders Batman brought into headquarters inside a coffin so that he can feed him to his pet crocodiles. Actor J. Carroll Naish obviously relished playing the sadistic Zaca, and his scenes involving him feeding the crocodiles roasted chickens from a zombie's picnic basket are among the film's most enjoyable. When the coffin carrying Batman arrives, Zaca doesn't seem to want to open the coffin in order to confirm that the Caped Crusader is indeed inside it and summarily orders the six foot pine box thrown into the narrow, constricted crocodile pit. It obviously hits at least one of his beloved pet crocs on the head, and, even if the heavy wooden box didn't injure him, it would have severely restricted further movements of the reptiles in the narrow confines of their habitat. Why not simply take the body out of the coffin first? Any serial lover will know the answer. The body is one of Daka's henchmen, not the Dark Avenger, inside the pine box. Later on, when the crocodile pit is shown, the pine coffin has mysteriously vanished. So much for logic and continuity!
