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Batman: The Movie (1966)
160 Plays5 years ago
Grab your Bat-Shark Repellant and slather some white greasepaint over your mustache, because we're jumping in our Bat-Time Machine and going back to the swinging 60s for Batman: The Movie! We talk about why Frank Gorshin is the greatest Riddler ever, how Adam West surprises with some subtle facial expressions, and why this movie is kind of a supervillain origin story for...Robin? You'll have to listen if you want to know more!
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Transcript
Ethics of Altering Natural Laws
00:00:20
Speaker
Ready for separation. All right, man. I'll activate the computer link. Feed in the various ethnic and national factors. Batman, wait a minute. What? Well, with the way the world is and all, don't you think maybe we ought to try to improve those factors? Kind of reshuffle them a little? No, Robin. No. It's not for mortals like us to tamper with the laws of nature. Indeed, in this very bat cave.
00:00:50
Speaker
You saw a ghastly example of what happens when one tries to do that. Gosh, yes, Batman. When you put it that way...
Introducing the Superhero Cinephiles Podcast
00:00:59
Speaker
Here we go. Welcome to Superhero Cinephiles Podcast. I am half of your host, Perry Constantine. Derek Ferguson? How you doing today, Derek?
00:01:18
Speaker
I am doing fun. This is our 25th episode, right? 25 episodes, yeah. How does it feel to be 25? It feels, you know, I wish I was still 25 in my life.
00:01:31
Speaker
I had a class last night, and one of my students in this class, she's an older woman, and she was telling me, she's like, oh, we celebrated class, asked her how their
Personal Stories and Aging
00:01:41
Speaker
weekend was. Oh yeah, we celebrated my daughter's birthday. She turned 35 this last weekend, and I said, oh, that's nice. Wow, I'm gonna be 37 now. She's younger than me. And then the first thing my student asked, she's like, really, are you single? No, wow, really?
00:01:57
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm like, no, but thank you. Yeah, right, cool, yeah. Oh, listen, thank you for thinking of me. And then it's like, whoa, wait, wait, hold on a second. What's your daughter look like? No, no. But man, so how are you doing with everything that's been going
Chaos and Protests in America
00:02:15
Speaker
on out there? It seems like in the past week, since we did our last episode, America has decided to just catch on fire. Yeah, yeah.
00:02:26
Speaker
You know, there is nothing left. And that's something I really shouldn't say that because every time I say that something else happens. Don't even go there. Don't even go there. I mean, what is left to happen in 2020? Alien invasion? The rapture?
00:02:44
Speaker
zombie apocalypse you know because every time you turn around it's just I mean everybody I mean forget about the pandemic nobody's talking about COVID in like a week yeah yeah yeah you know everybody it's seemingly everybody has forgotten it was a pandemic that's going out the window and uh
00:03:04
Speaker
You know, it's been, yeah, but it's been pretty wild here. As I was saying earlier, as I was telling you earlier, and as I was telling my good friend Dave Kungalton, who has a radio show out of California, he actually invited me to be a guest on his radio program, you know, to talk about what was going on here in Brooklyn.
00:03:28
Speaker
It's been pretty wild. Patricia and I have driven around during the daytime and there's a lot of graffiti, a lot of stores have been broken into.
00:03:38
Speaker
You know, there's a lot of that going on. There's two distinct elements. There's the legitimate protesters who are out generally during the daytime and who are peaceful and who are calm. And then you have the looters who come out at night. Right. And they even tore up Macy's down on 34th Street. Yeah, I saw something about that. There's also apparently a third group and these are like these outside instigators who are trying to start like the second civil war with us.
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, from what I understand is that you can go on Craigslist. They advertise for these people on Craigslist. And they drive them to wherever the protests are. And their only purpose is to cause anarchy. And yeah, like you said, their purpose is pretty much to start another civil war. Yeah. Did you see the guy at assault lake who took out a frigging bow and arrow?
00:04:34
Speaker
Oh, they stomped his ass. I mean, I don't blame them. The guy's taken out of bow and arrow and he's ready to shoot people. So what do you expect them to do? Yeah. I mean, really, I mean, did you really think a bow and arrow was going to, unless you're green arrow, you take it out of bow and arrow pretty much is not going to scare me all that much. You know, I guarantee you that guy thought in that moment that he looked just like Daryl from The Walking Dead.
00:04:59
Speaker
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure he did. Meanwhile, I run a fish, but he looks more like the guy who ate Daryl. But yeah, it's weird, because you and I have grown up watching all kinds of dystopian scenarios in movies and on TV, and to actually be living one.
00:05:24
Speaker
you know, because I swear to God, this is, you know, I said, now I don't know if this is a David Lynch movie or this is James Cameron movie or, you know, I'm trying to figure out what kind of movie I'm living in right now. Yeah, it is. Well, it's also because it's just, it's so asinine, so much of the stuff that's going on. And you know what, a lot of this stuff
00:05:47
Speaker
didn't have to happen. It really did. A lot of stuff didn't have to happen. And it only confirms what I've been thinking for a long time. And it sounds really terrible. But hey, that's where I feel. People are just getting stupider. They are. I mean, really, they are. They're getting stupider.
00:06:12
Speaker
people are doing things that just simply do not make any sense. Yeah. Well, I'm reminded of every time like something happens, it keeps getting worse and worse. Like I'm always reminded of that Winston Churchill quote, which you can always count on an American to do the right thing after they've exhausted every other possible option.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah. And it seems like that's the point we're getting to now. It's like, well, let's try, we could do the right thing. You know, we could do this and try and stop. No, I think we're going to try this way first. We will not, we will not do, you know, the common sense thing. Yeah.
00:06:45
Speaker
you know, we will bend over backwards to do the politically correct thing or, you know, oh, well, we have to take this into consideration and we have to take that into consideration. At some point, you have to just say, you know, something, this is a bunch of bullshit. We're not going to do this anymore. And, you know,
00:07:04
Speaker
We have to get, as Americans, we have to get over this fear we have of offending people, which is one thing that I've railed about this for years. I'm sick and tired of this thing that I have to couch my language in a way that, you know what? There are too many people I have to worry about not offending.
00:07:21
Speaker
I'm sorry. I can't do it. And I'm not going to be bothered to do it. And people say, oh, well, you're being insensitive. No, I'm not being insensitive. But I cannot walk around with a list of 20 or 30 different types of ethnic groups, or sexual groups, or political groups that I can't offend.
00:07:42
Speaker
In order to solve, I think, a lot of the problems that we are having in this country, we just have to stop being afraid of offending people. You're going to offend somebody. So listen, let them get over it. Because otherwise, all we're doing now is just continually going around and around and around in circles. And nothing is getting solved. And as you can see for yourself the past week or so, it's just getting worse.
00:08:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's getting worse. It is, it is. I was, cause I teach a class and we talk about world issues. And so, and before all this happened, like over the weekend, I was wondering, like, what am I gonna talk about this week? And then, and the other day I'm just like, you know what, this, I gotta talk about this. Cause it's just, and you know, and I asked my students, I said to them, you know, and a lot of, I asked them, you know, does this ever happen in Japan?
00:08:37
Speaker
And they're like, one or two of them said yes, but most of the class, they're like, no, no, it doesn't happen in Japan. And I'm like, oh, really? And I showed them this video from a week or two ago of the cops beating this immigrant at a traffic stop. And then there's a protest last weekend in Tokyo about it.
00:08:56
Speaker
And I asked them after it was done, I'm like, still thinking it can't happen in Japan. It can and it does. And not as much as in America, but it still does happen. And I asked them, how many of you knew about this? How many of you heard about this? And nobody's hands went up. And I'm like, yeah, so you got to, you know, this is the kind of stuff that people got to start paying attention to. So. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, over here, I mean, you can't get away from it because I mean, you know, with the 24 hour news cycle, everything like that. I mean, you know,
00:09:25
Speaker
you can't get away from it. And actually, I don't want to get away from it because, as I said on the radio show, I honestly feel this is one of those pivotal points in American history where right here and now we have to decide what type of Americans we want to be and what type of America we want to live in. And this is an opportunity that's not going to come again
00:09:53
Speaker
At least in my lifetime, I don't think. And I don't know when it's going to come again. And I only hope that we take advantage of this opportunity right here and right now to decide the future course of this country as it is now. You know, really, that's something I honestly believe we have to decide what kind of Americans we want to be. Yeah, absolutely.
00:10:17
Speaker
I think that's a really good point. And actually, the movie you picked for this week is actually a pretty good choice in light of all this craziness because this is a good kind of crazy.
The Cultural Impact of 1966 Batman
00:10:27
Speaker
And it gives us something to take our minds off it for at least 105 minutes or so. And actually, I have a little something I'd like to read. OK. Get started. OK.
00:10:38
Speaker
to lovers of adventure, lovers of pure escapism, lovers of unadulterated entertainment, lovers of the ridiculous and the bizarre, to fun lovers everywhere this podcast is respectfully dedicated. And I read that because not only is it fitting
00:10:57
Speaker
for this being our 25th episode, but it's also the way that the movie we're going to talk about begins. It has that dedication at the beginning. Absolutely, yeah. And the movie we're going to be talking about is the 1966 Batman story, Adam West, Burt Ward, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, and of course, Cesar Romero as the Joker. Yeah, and also Lee Merriweather, feminine for Julie Newmar. Yeah, as Catwoman, yep.
00:11:26
Speaker
Okay, so now this was made after the first season of the TV show, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Which is interesting, because I actually, for some reason, I think it was just like the assumption that, well, you know, they do a movie at the end of the series. For some reason, I had thought this movie came after the series for a long time. And it's only like within the past recent few years that I discovered that, no, no, it was made after the first season.
00:11:53
Speaker
Yeah, this was definitely a rarity because you didn't often find a feature motion picture made of a popular TV series while the TV series was running. Yeah. Which only goes to show you how popular Batman was at the time. This was the first wave of Batmanio was in 1966. We talked when we talked about the 1989 Batman.
00:12:20
Speaker
And we talked about the wave of Batman that swept the country then. Well, this was the first wave in 1966 was the first wave of Batman. It was, it was almost as insane as the 1989 Batman. I mean Batman was everywhere.
00:12:38
Speaker
Yes, people don't realize, I think in retrospect, exactly how powerful and how popular and how massive this show really was. Oh, well, I was a kid when it came out. So I remember, I mean, this was the show when we went to school the next day because what also made the show unusual was that you watched, I think, I think the first episode came on Tuesday. It came on twice a week. Most shows didn't, but it would come on like Wednesday night.
00:13:08
Speaker
And at the end, there would be a cliffhanger. That meant that Robin would usually be in some kind of...
00:13:13
Speaker
the ridiculous death trap. And you had to come back the next night to see how they got out of it. Well, the next day, you know, you would go to school. Even the teacher would be talking about, you know, we would go in and spend 15, 20 minutes talking about the Batman episode we saw the night before. We're trying to figure out how Batman was going to get out of it. Yeah, well, people don't realize this wasn't really a kid show. This was prime time. Yeah, this was on prime. This came on, I believe, 7.30, 8 o'clock at night. Yeah, this was a prime time TV show.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah, and it was, yeah, 7.30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays. Yeah, when you say, okay, I had it right, yeah, Wednesdays and Thursdays, yeah. And it was the only, and the only, this and Peyton Place were the only shows that were broadcast twice a week. Oh, well, Peyton, okay, well, that was my mother's thing, I wouldn't know about that. But yeah, but Batman, yeah, definitely Batman, I mean, yeah, I mean, this show was, it was,
00:14:10
Speaker
I mean, literally off the chain, people would always say, okay, right now, people would say, well, I don't understand how they got all those actors to do this. They must've not been doing anything else. They must've, you know, they got the mistaken impression that the actors that played the villains were at the end of their careers when actually it was the exact opposite. They had actors calling up the studio asking, could they play a Batman villain? Yeah. They wanted to do this.
00:14:40
Speaker
And yeah, and there was the, so apparently, it was the biggest TV phenomenon of the mid 1960s, it says here. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, just like in 1989, you could not go anywhere without seeing the bat cymbal everywhere. There were, you know, you had the bat 2C, which was the actual dance people were doing. They were doing the bat 2C.
00:15:05
Speaker
You know, everything was bat this, bat that, bat this. Oh, yeah, it was crazy. You know, bat lunch boxes, bat, you know. And something that I always like to remind people, because, you know, you see people on the internet all the time that maintain that this is the TV series that supposedly ruined Batman. Right. As a character. Now, there's a thing I like to do anytime I
00:15:33
Speaker
Anytime I run across somebody on the internet who tries to give me that old tired argument that this show ruined Batman. And I say, well, have you ever seen any of the covers of the Batman comic from that time? Oh, god. And they say, well, no. And then I throw about half a dozen of them, like the one where Batman, where alien races, if they're in trouble, they shine the bat signal on the moon. And Batman jumps in his bat rocketship.
00:16:01
Speaker
it goes to other planets to solve crimes. Or when he goes in his time machine, it goes back to caveman times to solve crimes is caveman back. Yeah. Or when he wore like a, he wore like a rainbow colored suit at one point too as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this was the insanity that was going on in the Batman comic book. If you look at the Batman, if you look at the Batman comic book from that time, the TV series was actually down to earth. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, I remember in um,
00:16:30
Speaker
uh what was it like about like 10 10 year 10 15 years ago so Grant Morrison did a run on on Batman and he did a like a lot of like he threw like a lot of crazy concepts and a lot of like zany and stuff and it and people are like wow where'd he get this stuff from he got it from the 50s comic books yeah he yeah exactly if you go look and
00:16:49
Speaker
And I tell people all the time, just go back and read some of the Batman comic books from the 50s and 60s, and you will see exactly how batshit insane Batman was during that period. Yeah, because this was in a world where it was after the Comics Code, after the word seduction of the innocent, you know, hit job and everything in comic books.
00:17:09
Speaker
So, and back then, that had caused like the comic industry to stagnate in a lot of ways. So like all these, like, because until that point, the comic industry was massive and it was, you know, they had, and it was very diverse too. They had like romance, they had crime, they had horror, and then- Yeah, they had western, they had comedy, they had, yeah. Well, even DC's name, Detective Comics, comes from the fact that it used to be just an anthology about like crime stories.
00:17:38
Speaker
And something else that was really wacky at that time, for some reason, movie and TV stars were very
Evolution of Batman in Comics
00:17:46
Speaker
big. Bob Hope had his own long running DC comic. Jerry Lewis, for God's sake. Yeah, the DC comic ran for something like three or 400 issues or something like that. That was very popular. And Batman, back in the early days, he did not fuck around. Under Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Batman was chucking people off rooftops.
00:18:08
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Batman does the 1989 Batman. What we think of as Batman now is actually closer to how he was when he first started than he is in the 1966, you know, TV theory. Or even in the modern comics, too. Yeah, even in the modern comics. I mean, when most, OK, when you talk to most comic book fans now, and I actually despair when I talk to comic book fans about Batman because they think Batman just started with Frank Miller. That's it.
00:18:38
Speaker
That's all they know. See, I go back to when Neil Adams and Danny O'Neil, they revamped the character. So my history goes back a little bit further than theirs, and I try to convince them, well, you know what? You ought to go, but they don't want to know from nothing. They just know Frank Miller from then on, which actually is a small chunk of Batman history, really. When you look at the totality of Batman history, the Frank Miller era,
00:19:07
Speaker
We did the drug. That's a really very small part, but what happened
00:19:11
Speaker
is that you had comic book creators, they picked up that ball and they just ran with it. Well, Frank Miller never actually had a Batman run. He just did like the he just came in back then. Like he came in first in the to do Dark Knight Returns and then they asked him to do something for the regular title after a crisis. So he came in and he did year one for them for that. But other than that, he didn't do anything else until Dark Knight Strikes Again, which was
00:19:41
Speaker
But yeah, so like, it's not like his Daredevil run where he did that book for like a few years. I know what I agree with you, but here's the thing.
00:19:52
Speaker
Frank Miller, you know, his influence has such a profound effect on writers and artists for like the next 20 years. Yeah. To me, a lot of times it feels like Frank Miller has been on Batman for 20 years. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, people have just been, you know, script mining everything that Frank Miller did and just, you know, rehashing it over and over again. So in a way, to me, it feels like Frank Miller has been doing Batman for 20 years. Yeah, yeah.
00:20:19
Speaker
And after the seduction of the innocent, for anyone who doesn't know, there's this quack psychiatrist, Frederick Wordham, who tried to make himself famous by launching a public crusade against comic books. And he wrote this book, Seduction of the Innocent, basically saying that comic books were the reason kids turned into juvenile delinquents and then grew up to be criminals.
00:20:42
Speaker
and he said like and it was I mean the book really reveals more about Wordham's own hangups than anything else I think yeah because he talks about how um Batman and having a boy uh having the having Robin as a sidekick and like a child ward means that they were gay together and they were involved in in pedophilia and all that and I'm just like where the hell are you getting this stuff from well that was the whole reason why uh Ann Harriot was in yeah
00:21:10
Speaker
I mean, you know, to a TV show so that nobody would have any question about why these three men were living in this mansion, this remote mansion, still all by themselves. You know, so she was put in there solely just to allay those speculations that Amy Hankey Panky was going on, you know, in Wayne Manor.
00:21:29
Speaker
And, uh, which was, which seems like a weird decision because she didn't know anything else that was going on in one manner. So it's not like she would have known it. And as far as I can, as far as I know, and I'm pretty sure if I looked it up, I could find, but they never really said whose aunt she was. Was she Bruce's aunt? Was she Dick's aunt? No, I don't think they ever said. Yeah. They never clarified exactly who's aunt she was.
00:21:55
Speaker
I mean, I think when I was a kid, actually for a long time, I thought she was Alfred's wife or something at one point. Listen, listen, who knows? She knows something? They did act like me and her wife, too. Yeah. Alfred and Owen Harriet, yeah. They did act a lot like a married couple.
00:22:11
Speaker
And so after this came out, there were even congressional investigations into comic books. And in the industry, they got scared. So they created the Comics Code Authority to try and police themselves. And that kind of cooled everything down. But it also meant a lot of these other comics died. So a lot of the crime stuff died out. A lot of the horror stuff died out. EC Comics was pretty much destroyed after this.
00:22:38
Speaker
um and for superhero comics they decided like we're gonna make it like really really light.
00:22:44
Speaker
So, and then that, so Batman, and also to allay the fears of Batman and Robin being gay, they introduced Batwoman and the first Batgirl, who wasn't Barbara Gordon, but it was actually, it was, Kathy Kane was Batwoman. And unlike the modern Kate Kane, she wasn't a lesbian, she was in love with Batman. And then, and then I think it was her niece was Batgirl, if I'm remembering correctly. I'll take your word for it. Okay.
00:23:14
Speaker
I don't remember exactly. But then she ended up being reintroduced in the comics later as a flame bird. And so it was like Batman and Robin each had a bat girlfriend, basically, the 50s. Yeah. Which, of course, was the which, of course, again, was the whole point to lay any kind of suspicion that, you know, there was any kind of sexual relationship between Batman and Robin.
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah, and I remember as a kid, like they had going to the library and checking out like some collected editions of old Batman comic books. It was like Batman through the fifties and something like that. And I'd come off watch, and as a kid, like I'd watched the TV show because it was, it was in syndication on Fox, I think at that time. So it was like every day in like three o'clock in the afternoon, they'd have Batman on Fox. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. This thing was in syndication for, you know, forever. Yeah.
00:24:05
Speaker
And I remember in like summers, I would go stay with my grandparents and they had cable, which we didn't have in my parents house. So they had cable and they had a FX and like every morning on FX, they were running Batman on FX. Okay. Yeah. So like all summer long, that was my routine to get up at like seven o'clock in the morning and watch Batman.
00:24:25
Speaker
And then, so I was watching both of these together with as well as like, you know, Batman, the movie, the 89 movie and then 92 Batman Returns and then Batman the Animated Series. And then going back and reading those old comic books, you know, when people say like, oh yeah, this show ruined Batman, it made a mockery of him. No, it was a faithful adaptation of what was going on at the time.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yeah, which is what I always tell people when they talk about, you know, oh, yeah, oh, oh, yeah, well, that's not Batman. Well, yeah, at that time, yeah, that was Batman. Yeah, that was Batman. But see, that's the thing I love about Batman and what I love about any character that has lasted as long as he has is that he can be portrayed in a variety of different
00:25:18
Speaker
uh mediums and in a variety of different ways like recently I haven't watched it yet but I've heard nothing but good things about it there's uh the ninja batman the one where is batman is a ninja right right the the anime that came out a few years ago right and I've heard that's very good it is yeah yeah yeah and you can do that and there was the batman the brave in the bowl which you know which was a little bit lighter
00:25:43
Speaker
in a little bit, you had, of course, Batman Beyond, where we had an older Batman mentoring a younger one. Right. And he was more of like a more of like a Spider-Man type in a way. Yeah, exactly. But it was still Batman. Right. You know, so Batman can be portrayed in a whole lot of different ways without
00:26:04
Speaker
spoiling the essence of who Batman is, I think. And also something that the TV show had that the comic book really didn't was self-awareness. Like the TV show, like they weren't honestly thinking like, oh, this is how you make a superhero TV show. They were intentionally making a parody. Yeah, they were having fun. Yeah. They were having fun. They were having
00:26:27
Speaker
You know, they knew that they were making a nice, light, entertaining show. And then, which is nothing wrong with it if you realize that that's what you're doing. Yeah. You know, so I mean.
00:26:41
Speaker
I don't know. I have a hard time. I don't know. I have a hard time with anybody who does not like this movie. Well, you know what? I mean, I kind of under to a certain point, I understand it because I used to be like that, too. You know, back when I was a teenager would be like, oh, 66 Batman. That's terrible. It's can't be a root. It gives comic books a bad name. But in retrospect, I'm like, no, you know what? I enjoyed it as a kid. I'm willing to admit that now. And I'm not even admitted. I'm happy that I'm able to say it. And I've rediscovered this movie, I think,
00:27:11
Speaker
This is right before the Dark Knight came out. Me and my friend, we decided we were gonna marathon all the Batman movies.
00:27:18
Speaker
And so we started with, you know, we actually started with 89 Batman. We watched the Burton ones, the Schumacher ones. And then we decided, and after, before we switched over to Batman Begins, before we were going to go see the movie, we decided to go watch Batman 66. And watching it again, it was like, you know, we were, you know, we were drunk. It was the middle of the night and we were having a great time. This is like the most fun we had that night was watching this movie.
00:27:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you know what? And I think everybody goes through a period like that. Because even I went through a period like that where I said, ah, Bambio 66.
00:27:52
Speaker
I don't want to be involved because, oh, I'm sophisticated now. That's just for kids. And I think that that happens to everybody that they go through a period where they dismiss this movie and then you get a little bit older and you get a little bit more experience on your belt and you get a little bit more appreciation of film and of pop culture and of the character.
00:28:14
Speaker
and you start seeing it in a totally different light. And then you start to appreciate it for what it is instead of what you think it should be or what you want it to be, which is, I find it the problem, the core problem with a lot of superhero fans that they have with superhero movies is that they go see a superhero movie or they sit down and watch a superhero movie. And they're not actually watching the movie that they're watching. They're watching the movie that's in their head. Right.
00:28:43
Speaker
movie that they wanted to be.
The Influence of Darker Superheroes
00:28:45
Speaker
There's also this weird trend and you know Frank Miller and Alan Moore unintentionally created it where comic books and superheroes have to be super serious and dark all the time and that's not really what they were trying to do like they were just trying to you know to tell something do something different with these characters but everybody took the wrong message from that and so now you have people who are like who
00:29:10
Speaker
I hate to bash on Snyder fans again, but they're the biggest culprits of this. They think that that vision of superheroes should be the only vision where they're all dark and grim and there's no fun in the world at all. Right, exactly. And you cannot brush every superhero
00:29:36
Speaker
with that, with that dark and depressing and grim sort of thing, because it doesn't work for every superhero. They even tried doing that with Spider-Man, for God's sake. Who's like, you know, who, I mean, yeah, okay, Spider-Man has his bleak moments, but he's nowhere as dark as, you know, he was at one point. Right. You know, they even tried doing that with him, but they tried doing that with every superhero. Oh, yeah. And I just was notorious for that.
00:30:05
Speaker
you know, they tried doing that with everybody. Because you know what? Because that's what sold. I mean, the bottom line, that's what sold. They said, okay, well, if that's what the fans want, that's what we're going to give it to them. And as we have seen with the recent Justice League thing, giving the fans what they want all the time is not a good thing. No, no. I mean, there's a reason the 90s continue to be parodied in comic books.
00:30:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I am really not a fan of that whole notion that fans now have where, well, you know, we should have a say in everything that goes on. And, you know, yeah, you know, these are our movies and they're making them for us. No, they're not making them for you. And you know what? That's not how art is made. Art is not made by committee.
00:30:54
Speaker
You know, we don't have time to poll 10 million Justice League fans, you know, and ask you what you want in a Justice League movie. I make a Justice League movie, I put it in the theaters, you either like it or you don't. And that's the end of the story, as far as I'm concerned. This constant, for years, this shit has been going on. And I, you know, me, frankly, I've had enough, you know, and I know you have too. You know, I've had enough of this nonsense. It's a, you know what?
00:31:21
Speaker
put that energy into the ship that's going on in the real world now. Yeah. Or you know what? Put that energy and create something of your own that. Exactly. You know, just like that, the, the title of that, one of the Watchmen episodes, if you don't like my story, write your own. Yeah. Write your own. Instead of insisting that Warner Brothers keeps investing money and time into making the Justice League move you want to see. Yeah. Yeah. Please. You know,
00:31:50
Speaker
I don't have time for that analysis. Back to the fun. Yeah, now let's get into the fun.
The Iconic Batmobile
00:31:55
Speaker
Now this movie, it just jumps right into the action and it opens with one of the most memorable scenes, one often referenced, often mocked, often always enjoyed, whereas they
00:32:11
Speaker
They're racing to, they're racing to Wayne Manor. And they, the thing I loved about this was the instant costume change. And as a kid, I always wondered, how does that thing work? Yeah, right. They jump into the thing and they go and they slide it down the back pole and Bruce Wayne hits a switch, a big ass switch. And I love how everything is labeled with a big ass sign that says instant costume change.
00:32:38
Speaker
And I said, wait a minute. And then the next time you see them, yup, they're wearing their costume. How did that happen? Yeah. Is there like robot hands that come out and like put their costumes on? I have no idea. You know, that's something that Grant Morrison would love. Oh, I'm pretty sure he would. Yeah. Listen, don't worry about it.
00:32:56
Speaker
He'd say something that involves some sort of interdimensional dark matter that it activates some sort of interdimensional dark matter portal that passed through. And then, you know what, Grant Morrison, if you're listening, I want you to come up with an explanation for the instant costume change lever. Yeah, it's just such goofy, you know. And I mean, the whole thing with the bust of was Shakespeare. Shakespeare, yeah.
00:33:20
Speaker
You flip the head open and you turn the switch and the doors open up and it's the back. There's only two of them. Why is one more roost in the park deck? And also access to Batcave via Batcave. They don't know it? You're the only two that use it. Why is there a sign telling you that this goes down to the Batcave? Oh man, you gotta love this stuff.
00:33:48
Speaker
It's goofy, but you know what? I love it. Part of the fun is the goofiness. That's such a big part of why this movie is so fun. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And some of it is undeniably cool. If you always ask me, what's my favorite Batmobile, I'm always going to say this one.
00:34:08
Speaker
Wait, like the Batmobile looks awesome. Like in terms of like as a crime fighting vehicle, it's totally impractical to have, to be driving around in a car with a permanent open roof on it. But it is a cool car. Yeah, it is. I mean, you look at it and know what, it looks like something that comes right out of the comic book. Oh yeah, yeah. Whereas actually it was the other way around. Once they introduced this into the TV show,
00:34:35
Speaker
Then they started drawing the Batmobile in the comic books to look like this. Yeah, damn cool. Well, yeah, that's the thing. The Batmobile was actually mostly like a conventional car for most of the time. And it was only after this show when they started designing like these kind of cool little vehicles that they started putting that stuff in the
00:34:52
Speaker
in the comic books. But still, they were still altered cars. They were still basically regular cars, just with alterations to it. And it wasn't until 1989 when Burton did Batman that they really overhauled the Batmobile and made it a jet engine on wheels. And actually, I can even still see
00:35:15
Speaker
Batman, even, you know, it doesn't matter what Batman it is, I can see Batman driving around in this more than I can seeing him drive around in a frigging tank. I'd agree with that, but I'd say that it would have to be, if it had like a covered canopy, then that would be the only change I think I'd make, and then it would work perfectly in the comics. Yeah. I mean, and you got to take this jumping over rooftops, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:35:45
Speaker
And that's kind of what I like about, you know, we've seen the photos of the Batmobile that they're going to be using in the Batman. And it's, you know, and it is much more along this vein. It's like this much more like conventional kind of roadster, which makes total sense because it's supposed to be a movie set in Batman's early days. Yeah. Yeah. I really like the look of it. Like I had mentioned before in the group, Superhero Center, I get a strong Jim Iparo vibe from it. Yeah. You know, that looks like something that he would draw.
00:36:14
Speaker
I like it too. My only thing is like the front, the way they got this like red light at the front bumper, it reminds me a lot of Kit from Knight Rider. Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm hoping it doesn't have a red light going back and forth, back and forth. But the way that bumper looks, I'm thinking that it's probably, I'm getting a battering ram feel.
00:36:35
Speaker
From that like it'll pop out and be a battery ram. Yeah, I get that feel. But yeah, but I like that Batmobile a whole lot. Yeah, it looks really cool. Sure does. Now, so they get they drive to the airport, which I'll you know, I part of me kind of likes the fact that they don't they don't store all their vehicles in the Batcave.
Batman: Law Enforcer or Vigilante?
00:36:56
Speaker
Like, because it makes it makes it actually does it actually is more realistic.
00:37:01
Speaker
Robert calls up the airport and says, listen, get the back copy ready. And they got a whole crew there wearing overalls that's got the Bats logo on the back. Apparently Batman keeps the crew at the airport to service the helicopter. And they bring the helicopter out and they're prepping it and everything like that. So, sure.
00:37:21
Speaker
Yeah, I got a very like kind of Batman Inc vibe from this that kind of sequence Yeah back on it like I can under I can see where you know Morrison got the idea from Batman Inc is you know It is like this whole thing where I imagine like Wayne Enterprises is you know, secretly funding Batman and all that or maybe not even secretly just is like funding Batman's Because one of the things they do in this they make a point to mention that they're not vigilantes. They're deputized. Oh Yeah, yeah, there's there's a pointed. There's a very pointed scene where
00:37:52
Speaker
Catwoman disguised as Ms. Kitka, a Russian news journalist.
00:38:00
Speaker
She says, oh, yeah, well, you wear costumes because you're like, you know, vigilantes or something like that. Commissioner Gordon makes it very clear. No, no, no, no. Batman and Romney. Oh, he gets righteously angry. He's like, certainly not. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, no, no. They are deputized representatives of the law. You know, they work with us and yada, yada, yada. Shut up.
00:38:23
Speaker
And yeah, yeah, he gets real righteous with him. Her question makes total sense. Like, she's like, wait a minute, you guys are, you're in the real world. Like, she is the one who's acting sane there. She's like, wait a minute. Yeah. You're trusting the law enforcement into these two guys in weird costumes. You don't know anything about them.
00:38:44
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, Commissioner, and Chief O'Hara, cause she, you know, says, well, could you take off your mask so I can get a picture? Chief O'Hara just, oh no, what are you talking about? They can't take off their mask. Why you crazy? Now, mind you, these are two lawmen who are defending Mansfield's gelatinous, which is what they are. I don't care. You can talk about, oh, well, you know, the deputize or whatever like that. But yeah, they're still masked.
00:39:13
Speaker
you know, men that are taking the law into their own hands. Yeah. But, but I recognize the fact that this is a simpler time and they have to legitimize them, you know, for the purposes of
00:39:25
Speaker
You know, because I imagine that there was somebody that was in the legal department would say, no, no, no, no. You got to put a line in here that says that, yeah, that they work with the police. Yeah, yeah. So but they get in the, they take the bat copter out to sea and then Batman drops the, you know, the bat rope ladder because everything's got to start with bat in this, in this series. And there's even a sign at the end of the ladder that says bat ladder. Yeah.
00:39:54
Speaker
Oh man, it is if he's going to forget that that's what it's called. I'm telling you, yeah. And so he goes down there and the ship that he's trying to bore disappears. So he ends up going to the water and comes out with this rubber shark on his neck. And this shark, and I mean,
00:40:15
Speaker
This is one of the, there's a reason why this is like, this is the bomb or the two C's that everybody remembers. I don't know which is better, because Adam wasn't beating the hell out of the rug. He's kicking it, he's punching and this thing, and it's actually wiggling. Now I don't know how they did that, but the tail is like flopping back and forth and all, man, it's ridiculous as hell.
00:40:39
Speaker
There's been a lot of scenes in the comic books actually where Batman punches a shark. And I even, um, even in the one of the Arkham games like there's a scene where you're, you're trying to get into the penguins, the penguins layer and you have to like kind of go through this like
00:40:54
Speaker
uh, water-filled room, and there's a shark that'll jump out of you, and, like, you could punch the shark, actually. Yeah. And it all comes back to this moment here. Yeah, I mean, this is, like, this is iconic now. You know, Batman punching that shark that's hanging onto his leg, and this shark won't let go. And, of course, any real shark would have bit his leg completely off. Oh, yeah. And we're just... And Batman is hanging onto this thing for dear life, and then he tells Robert. He says, listen, I need the... I need the bat shark on top.
00:41:23
Speaker
And there's a whole collection of bat repellent sprays. There's one for stingrays, there's one for barracudas, there's one for piranhas. Oh my God, he's got big butt. Then again, he's batting.
00:41:40
Speaker
He's prepared for everything. What's the thing that you go in any, you know, you go to any Batman Facebook group and invariably somebody will start to think, okay, well, could Batman beat so and so and so and so? And everybody will come up with that thing. Well, if he's got prep time, Batman can beat anybody. But that's, yeah, I mean, he's Batman. He's prepared for everything. So why wouldn't he have a can of sharp repellent in a helicopter? In a boat, maybe. No, he's got it in a helicopter. Why? He's Batman.
00:42:11
Speaker
You never know when a shark's gonna jump out of the ocean and attack your helicopter. He would not be Batman if he was not prepared for every contingency. That's all I got to say. That's also part of the reason why people will laugh at that and think, oh, that's so stupid. But they weren't being serious with that. That was one of the parodies of here, because Batman always had a way to get out of stuff in the comic books. So they're making fun of that. So they're like, oh, well, he's got bat repellent shark spray.
00:42:41
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And Batman, in the course of this movie, gets into like two or three different traps. And he's always got, you know, he always says he pulls something out at the last minute. And Robin is like, oh, Batman, how do you know how to do that? Well, you know. And he's always got an explanation for how he knew how to do this. Some esoteric knowledge that he, why? He's Batman. It's just that simple. Yeah. And he, like, one of the, I remember one of the phrases that Adam West probably said in every single episode was, if I could just reach my utility belt.
00:43:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. When they get caught to the boy, because they go back to investigate the boy, which has a complicated series of lenses that projected the image of the boat. And they go back to investigate the boy. And then we find out that the villains of the piece, we've already named the Catwoman, the Riddler, the Joker, and the Penguin, are in a submarine.
00:43:41
Speaker
The penguin activates the boy into a gigantic magnet. Yeah. And then they start firing torpedoes at the thing, which leads to one of the best scenes in the movie and one of the performances I wanted to make sure that I highlight it. If you give me a minute. Absolutely. I was going to mention him as well. So go right ahead. Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. That cat is absolutely brilliant in this movie.
00:44:06
Speaker
I mean, they're all great. First of all, it's great seeing all four villains interact together.
00:44:12
Speaker
That's a lot of fun, because they're obviously having a lot of fun doing it. I think more than any other villain who was either in this movie or on the TV show, Frank Gorshin, you could have easily put him in a serious Batman movie and not changed a thing about his performance. You know what? You just actually took the next. That's exactly what I was going to say next. If there was any villain from the TV show that I would have liked to see in a Tim Burton movie, playing the Riddler, if they put him in there,
00:44:43
Speaker
He could have did it straight. Yeah. He could have did it because he comes across. There is one point because he displays such a psychotic bloodlust to kill Batman in this movie. See, that's his shit through the whole picture is kill everybody else is talking about where, you know, we're going to take over the world and we're going to do this. We're going to do that. And the realist said, OK, yeah, yeah, fine. I'm down with that. But his main thing is to kill Batman. Yeah.
00:45:08
Speaker
Oh my God, he's scary in this part. Because the penguin is going through this long, complicated system with the Joker to fire off the torpedoes. And there's one point where he says, when you just fire the damn torpedoes over. And the look in his eye is like, you say, damn, this guy is insane. Well, Gorshin, too. The Riddler was his favorite Batman villain as a kid. So when he got this role, he really invested himself in doing it right.
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah, in the TV series, I always loved it when it was Riddler, you know, when he showed up as a Riddler. John Astin, he tried his best, but he wasn't, because he didn't project that same amount of psychotic bloodlust. Right, and you know what the- That Frank Orson did. Which also, Jim Carrey also tried and failed to do that. He tried to be like a modern day Frank Orson, it just did not work.
00:46:02
Speaker
No, no. And the Batman, the animated series, they wisely knew that they could not replicate Frank Gorshin. So they made that they did a completely different take on the Riddler and made it more calculating and more even handed. Yeah. And I think that that's the way to go with it. If you can't get Frank Gorshin, and of course I believe he's passed away. Yeah, he passed away in 2005, I think. But I mean, yeah, I mean,
00:46:28
Speaker
His Riddler is like, wow. Like I said, I watched this movie today. And as always, I was just captivated by his performance. And I also like the fact that he's the only villain that has two different outfits. You know what? I was going to mention that too, because I'm not positive. But I think the whole thing about the Riddler wearing a suit, I think it actually comes from this movie.
00:46:51
Speaker
I think so too. I believe he didn't wear a suit until the, but I like the fact that when he's going out to commit crimes and stuff like that, he wears the one-piece suit, but then when he's just, you know, chilling around the lair, the guy's wearing a suit and he's, you know, he's the best dress villain that's sitting in the room. Yeah. Which is, I, that's always like, I've always felt that was the best look for the Riddler was that, was that green suit with the question marks on it. It, it works so much better. It differentiates him so much more than the, than the unitard thing.
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah, and then there's a scene where they're in the lair and the Riddler is jumping around and he's explaining how they're gonna get and he and it's like he's putting on a fashion show for the other villains because he takes off the suit jacket and folds it up neatly. Yeah, yeah. He's turning around, he's showing off the vest because he's got like a silk vest. Yeah, listen, the Riddler is cool, man. I don't care.
00:47:41
Speaker
Anybody who thinks that the Riddler is not a cool villain has never seen this movie. He's the coolest out of all of it. And Burgess Meredith, his penguin is classic. You couldn't buy him in a serious movie, but he still does a really good job in this. Every time I've seen Burgess Meredith after this, I always think the penguin is the first thing I ever always thought.
00:48:04
Speaker
You know what I like about him in this movie? How he doesn't take no shit from anybody. Yeah, yeah. Even when the Joker gets in his face, he tells the Joker, he says, listen, this is my submarine. He said, Orland, you command. At sea, it is me. His favorite doesn't take no shit from nobody. He's running things here. Yeah. And Lee Merriweather, she does a pretty good job, too. Like, she's just basically a stand-in for Julie Newmar, because Julie Newmar had a back injury and couldn't do this movie.
00:48:33
Speaker
Oh, was that what that was? I always figured, I never really liked...
00:48:40
Speaker
investigated why I just assumed that she was well because she was pretty busy doing movies. Yeah well she had done she had done two episodes of the first season and then um and then she and I think she had injured herself actually on the set of the tv show and okay so she had this back injury she was recovering from so she couldn't do the movie so they brought in Lee Meriwether instead and then after that uh Newmark came back and did like 11 episodes of season two or something
00:49:07
Speaker
And then Eartha Kitt came in and did three episodes in the third season. Yeah. Listen, I have no problem with her performance. And actually, her performance in the context of this, because one thing that I like about this movie is that it actually is a movie.
1960s Batman Movie and Character Dynamics
00:49:24
Speaker
They give it a story, you know, that's big enough to accommodate the fact that, well, this isn't just an episode of the TV series.
00:49:35
Speaker
And we just made it bigger. No, there's an actual story here where we see Bruce Wayne fall in love with Miss Kitka. And it's a whole arc for Bruce Wayne. So it's not just like, well, we're just going to just blow this up bigger. Yes, it is bigger, but it's bigger for a purpose because it is a big enough story to justify the running time. Yeah.
00:49:59
Speaker
And Lee Mary, like I love the way she moves is really, it is very cat-like, the way she kind of like sways in the movie and everything. And she does a really, I remember this one scene when they're looking through the periscope and she's like meowing and then the pirate who's standing next to her just kind of gives her this look and he's like, what the fuck is wrong with this?
00:50:19
Speaker
Yeah, he said, you know, and in the fighting scene, she's always standing in the back making these scratching moat, scratching, hanging on, you know, like she wants to get in there, but, you know. Well, there is that kind of like 60s sexism they had here. So Catwoman never fights, and then whenever something goes wrong, like when they have to sweep up the guinea pigs, like anyone asks the Catwoman to bring a dust bag. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:50:46
Speaker
But that's another thing I like about the fight scenes. This is the only Joker that I can think of doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. Like, usually the Joker is portrayed as, like, he can't fight and everything like that. Right. No, and it's a fight. The Joker jumps right in there. And he's swinging like, I said, damn. He's swinging like Mike Tyson. You know, of the villains in this movie, like, the Joker, Cesar Romero's Joker is the one that impresses me the least, actually.
00:51:09
Speaker
I mean, yeah, he does a good enough job, but he doesn't, you know, he's like somewhere between the Riddler and the Penguin, but he doesn't have the showmanship of either of them. Okay. Cesar Romero as the Joker doesn't do anything in this movie. You haven't seen him do in the TV series. Yeah. Whereas the other three, yeah, we see them in totally different roles. Yeah. Like, you know, like the Penguin is quite obviously the leader. You know, he dominates,
00:51:38
Speaker
you know, the others by virtue of his intelligence and he's got, you know, the submarine and, you know, it's his plan and everything like that. And the Catwoman, she's got the thing going on with Bruce Wayne, so.
00:51:51
Speaker
She's got her own little thing going on on the side. And we get to see a different aspect of the Riddler that we've never seen before with this bloodthirsty killer. So everybody, so those villains are doing things that we didn't, we haven't seen them done in the TV series. But Cesar Romero as a Joker really doesn't do anything we haven't seen him do before. No, no. And you know, I've always thought it was hilarious that Cesar Romero refused to shave his mustache anytime he played the Joker.
00:52:20
Speaker
And in HD, you can even see it even more plain. Oh, God. Yeah. I mean, yeah, when you were watching the movie on your little 12-inch black and white TV set, you didn't notice. But yeah, when he does a close-up in HD, you can see that thing plain as day. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But apparently, he refused to shave his mustache. But still, you know what?
00:52:46
Speaker
He's not my favorite Joker, but he was my first Joker. So he holds a special place in my heart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is kind of weird to see a movie that has the Joker in it and the Joker plays like fourth string to all the other villains. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because you know what? That's the thing about Cesar Romero's Joker. He's not insane. No, no.
00:53:13
Speaker
Now, if we were talking about the Joker in any other context, the other villains wouldn't even work with him because they'd be too scared. No, that was actually a thing. I remember if you read the Infinite Crisis series at the end of it, because there's the alternate reality Lex Luthor, Alexander Luthor, he's the one who's posing as Lex Luthor and gathering all the supervillains together, but the one villain he refuses to involve is the Joker.
00:53:36
Speaker
And the series ends with Lex Luthor coming up to Alexander Luthor. And he says, you made one mistake. You didn't let the Joker play. And then the Joker appears out of the shadows to kill him. Mm. See what I mean? Yeah. And that was the thing. I remember another one. It was Underworld Unlimited, I think it was called. It was like a 90s miniseries event that Mark Waid did. And it was like, Neeron was offering all these upgrades to all these villains if they sold their souls to him.
00:54:07
Speaker
And it shows like a table of villains and like the ones who had already agreed to like kind of convince these other guys, these second and third string villains to join up with them. And one of them was the Joker. And it was, I think it was the,
00:54:20
Speaker
whoever the narrator or whatever the main character, I think it was the trickster was the main character in that series. And he's, the narration is like, oh, nice job, Neeran. You bring in the, you bring in the guy that nobody wants to work with. Like when villains, when villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories. Right. Exactly. That's what they said. I remember reading that someplace. They said, yeah, that's how,
00:54:38
Speaker
you know, supervillains, you know, they scare their kids. They say, okay, well, if you don't go to bed, you know, the Joker is going to come get you. Yeah. Yeah. And shit like that. Yeah. But yeah, if we were talking about the Joker that we know from the comic books, he wouldn't, he wouldn't be working with these guys. No, they wouldn't want him in there. They wouldn't, yeah, they don't, what, the Joker? No, don't call him. Don't call him. No, no, no. He asked, we're out of town. Yeah.
00:55:06
Speaker
And then the joker shows up and says, oh, I hear you've got a plot, go to us. Do we have a plot going on? No plot here, joker. Yeah, he's the only one who doesn't really do much for me in this movie. I find things I like about all the others. The weird thing about him, though, is why the hell does he wear a face mask when he goes out in public?
00:55:35
Speaker
Yeah, I know. They had that scene where they all wearing the mask and they're like, you know. And you know, the Riddler and Catwoman's part of their costumes. But the penguin and the Joker, I'd be like, what are you doing? Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, if it's not obvious to anybody that you're the Joker, then there's something wrong with that person, you know. It's not.
00:56:01
Speaker
That's just one of the elements of the movie that you have to say, okay, you know what? I'm just going to go with it because there's a lot, there are a lot of, there are a lot of things like that. And it is part of the fun of it. Like when they, um, when they find the penguin posing as Commodore Schmidt lap and the penguins plan is, Oh, you know what? I'm going to, to get them to confirm my identity. I'm going to get them to take me to the bat cave to use their retinal scanner. And then I'm going to use the Guinea pigs and rehydrate them. And then, and then Batman and Robin, they know he's the penguin. Right.
00:56:33
Speaker
The disguise doesn't fool him for a second. They said, stop bullshitting around. You're the penguin. He's like, be penguin? And that's one of those things where it's like, you know, you know he's the penguin. You've got him unconscious. Just rip off his freaking makeup.
00:56:51
Speaker
But wait a minute, wait a minute, here's the thing that always made people fall down on the floor laughing when they said, okay, well, we're going to go over to the Batmobile and take your fingerprints. But he's done something to his fingers that they can't take his fingerprints. So the penguin said, oh, why don't you just take me to the Batcave and use your retinal imaging thing to... How does the penguin know they have one of them things in there?
00:57:19
Speaker
And it never occurs to Batman and Robin to look at each other and say, well, how does he know we have one of those in there? I guess every crime fighter has a retinal scanner in their lair. And that's why, you know... But that leads to a very good fight scene where they take him back to the Batcave. Indeed, first they knock him out with the bat knockout spray. Yeah. So he doesn't know, you know, he doesn't know the way to the Batcave. And...
00:57:48
Speaker
The device that Admiral Schmidlap has is a device that takes all the moisture from the human body. Yeah, and somehow this is supposed to make whiskey faster. I did not understand. I don't know. But what happens is that the penguin brings it back to the bat cave, hooks them up to the distilled water pump in the bat cave, rehydrates them, and through some magic of science,
00:58:18
Speaker
This turns them back into human beings again. Two of its henchmen. They rehydrate. Yeah, but the scary thing is, now Batman and Robin start fighting them, and when they hit them, they disappear. Right. And Robin says, what happened? Batman says, well, he used distilled water. And somehow that turned them into antimatter? Yeah. You know what?
00:58:46
Speaker
This isn't even Star Trek techno babble at this point. They're just throwing random stuff out. Yeah. It's magic. And they use this dehydration machine. They go to the United Nations, which of course isn't called the United Nations. No, it's the World Security Council or something like that. World Security Council, yeah. But it is the United Nations for all intents and purposes.
00:59:11
Speaker
they dehydrate all the members of the World Council and the plan being to hold them for ransom. And that's what they do. They pull it off successfully. Who knew?
00:59:26
Speaker
Oh no, they pull it off. So they're holding the world for ransom. And of course it is up to Batman and Robert. Can they rescue the World Council members? Can they rehydrate them? Can they stop these four foul villains from taking over the world? What do you think? Yeah.
00:59:42
Speaker
And we also see more of him as Bruce Wayne in this. And I think that, if I'm not mistaken, that was actually one of Adam West's requests for the movie was to have more stuff to do as Bruce Wayne. He actually gets into two major fight scenes. Yeah.
01:00:02
Speaker
Batman as Batman actually does not have a fight scene until the end when they're on the submarine. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Because when the guinea pigs get rehydrated, they just disappear as soon as they touch them. Yeah, as soon as they touch them. So that doesn't really qualify as a fight scene. It's a fight scene in the context of that. It emphasized the goofiness of the plot. Yeah.
01:00:26
Speaker
but it's not actually a fight scene. But as Batman, no, he doesn't actually fight until they have that big fight scene, you know, at the end of the movie. On the submarine, the two major fight scenes he has is as Bruce Wayne. Right, absolutely, yeah. And they got this whole subplot with him going romancing Kit-Kat. Yeah, which kind of clouds his judgment, which I like that they should. Matter of fact, you know what?
01:00:55
Speaker
One thing I like to say, a lot of people, they rag on Adam West and stuff like that.
01:01:01
Speaker
If you get a chance, folks, you got to look up Adam West's work that he did on television during the 50s and the 60s. Adam West was a very highly regarded dramatic actor in the 50s and 60s. And he was, believe it or not, he was a serious contender to take over the role of James Bond. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah, when Sean Connery, when he first left and George Lazenby stepped in and they were looking around for people to take over the role. Yeah, Adam West was in the running.
01:01:31
Speaker
Oh, OK. That's how highly regarded he was. A lot of people make fun of his portrayal as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. But you watch this movie, and he does some of his best work as Batman, I think, in this one. Especially there's a scene I always point to when he finds out that Miss Kitka is, you know, that Catwoman is actually Miss Kitka.
01:02:00
Speaker
And he's remembering the music that he heard the night they went on their date and they fell in love. And Adam West has to convey a lot wearing that mask, just using his eyes and his lips. And he does it. He sticks that landing really well. Thank you. I'm glad you, he sells that frigging scene.
01:02:18
Speaker
Where you know something? You actually feel for the guy. You say, oh, shit, he really was in love with him. It wasn't just, you know, he really was in love with him. And Robin is standing there. And Burt Ward is also a good enough actor that he knows when to come in. He lets him have his moment for a couple of minutes, and then he comes in, and he just simply says, I'm sorry. And that's all he says. And you say, oh, OK. You know, that was good.
01:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the thing about Adam West and the the genius thing about his performance is that everybody else is being zany and over the top. Adam West plays it 100% straight in earnest. Yeah.
01:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's it. He lets everybody else be crazy. Yeah, which makes him stand out all the more because of that. His purpose is to be the steady center of all the goofiness that's going on around him. You know what? He plays a Batman that's not in on the joke. Right.
01:03:15
Speaker
Everybody else around him is in on the joke though, but he's not which even in Even in you know, I can't be serious like this You need to have that person because that makes it that differentiates him from the other villains Right because the other villains there and especially like you think about the Joker the whole thing with the Joker and the Batman is that Batman is the straight man to the Joker's comedian
01:03:39
Speaker
You're right. And you got to have that dynamic. Otherwise, like that relationship doesn't quite make any sense. Yeah, it doesn't work. Yeah, it doesn't work otherwise. So even though, you know, Romero's Joker doesn't really get the spotlight in here. He doesn't really have a whole lot to do. They do still keep that, that tone, right? Where Batman still got to be the straight one.
01:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, he interacts more, but just because of the fact that all four villains are in this, and due to the romantic subplot, he interacts more with Catwoman than he really does with the rest of the villains. He really doesn't get much time with them, except during the fight scenes. Because he has that great fight scene where he's being held prisoner by the four villains.
01:04:26
Speaker
And he tricks them into thinking he has a radio strapped to his wrist, because he says, well, I want to see Miss Kitka. I want to see Miss Kitka. So Catwoman, she gets into Miss Kitka's disguise, and they throw him in the room with her, and they say, OK, well, you got five minutes.
01:04:43
Speaker
And of course, because he's Batman, he realizes the possibility that the villains are actually listening to their conversation. So he says, well, I've got a radio strapped to my wrist and if I can just get to it, you know. So of course they take him out and they untie him to get to the radio and what they do that for. But then now he proceeds to kick ass all over.
01:05:07
Speaker
He convinces the kick in everybody's ass, you know? Which goes back to an earlier scene, another scene that Adam West sells very effectively when he first wakes up and he sees all the villains are standing there. And, you know, he wakes up and he sits up in the couch and he says, well, where's Miss Kicker? And, you know, they start making fun of him. And he says very seriously, and he's not bullshitting around. He said, if you put your hands on her, I'll kill all of you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and you believe it.
01:05:38
Speaker
You know, there's no comedy in the way he says that. Oh, no, no, no. He is dead serious when he delivers that line. Yeah.
Humor and Parody in Batman
01:05:47
Speaker
And, but one of the things I'd like to is the, when they go, when Bruce is going out with Miss Kick, and then before the date, you know, he tells Robin that you should follow in the Batmobile. But because Robin is a teenager, he says, well, no, you can't drive the Batmobile. So he makes Alfred, and he calls up Alfred. He's like, Alfred, do you have your driver's license on you? As if some cop is gonna pull over the Batmobile.
01:06:15
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. He said, yes, sir. I got it. It's right in my wallet. And when he goes out, he's wearing his black suit he's got on a bowler, and he's got a mask on under his glasses. Under his glasses? Oh, for peace sake. And like you said, it's like any cop is going to pull over the Batmobile. If Robin was driving, you think a cop is going to say, well, Robin, I got to give you a ticket? Please, give me a break.
01:06:45
Speaker
Oh, man. But it is a nice moment that we have. And it's a way of getting Alfred into the action, too. Yeah, yeah. So it's not just he's in the back cave. And he goes in, him and Robert have a nice little conversation about responsibility and discretion. Because, of course, there's a camera that's watching Bruce and Miss Kicker. Don't ask me where the camera was.
01:07:15
Speaker
This was before we had drones. So I'm watching the scene and I'm saying, wait a minute, where are these images coming from? So when they get romantic, of course, Robin turns it off and he says to Alfred, he says, well, you know what, I can't, you know, yeah, I know I'm supposed to be watching all the time. And Alfred, you know, he said, listen, you're doing the right thing, you know, you're a conscientious young man, don't worry about it. And I thought that was nice.
01:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, I always appreciate when movies have scenes that they don't have to have But they do because simply because it's it's a nice bit of characterization. Yeah Yeah, so we get that nice little moment between robin and alfred. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah and um What was it? Oh, you know what the thing the thing I loved it was just like all the coincidences that happened in this movie so like there's the um
01:08:06
Speaker
Like we went to the torpedo scene where they're trying to fire the torpedoes at them. So Batman's able to reach his radio detonator to destroy the first two, but then the batteries die when the third one's taken at them. I told Batman to stop using them cheap cable batteries.
01:08:27
Speaker
Dora sells, man. You know what that reminded me of was that scene in Ocean's Eleven, when they're trying to blow the vault open, and George Clooney's like hitting the button and it's not working. Yeah. It's because the batteries are in it. There are no batteries in it. He's like, do you put batteries in it? And he's like, of course I put batteries. Like, wait, okay. And that everybody, I just got a total flashback to that scene.
01:08:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But you know what? It would not surprise me if Steven Soderbergh got the idea from that scene from this part in Batman. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised either because you know what? You, and I tell people this too, you'd be surprised how many modern filmmakers have a love of this movie and it's inspired them in some kind of way. But I have never heard a popular director
01:09:17
Speaker
when asked about this movie, deride it, or put it down, or say it's not a bad movie. Matter of fact, they say they love it. Yeah, yeah. Because it's not a bad movie. It's campy and it's cheesy, but it's supposed to be campy and cheesy. You know what? It's supposed to be fun. Exactly, yeah. It's a fun superhero movie. And
01:09:40
Speaker
If you sit and you sit back and, you know, you got a big, like me, I watch this, I get the biggest, I get a big three liter soda. I get a big bag of potato chips. I get, you know, a mountain of Reese's peanut butter cups. And I just sit back and I just enjoy this movie. Cause that's all it is. It's nothing but pure unadulterated fun. It's a throwback to a simpler time. Yes. A time when superheroes could be fun.
01:10:08
Speaker
and they're supposed to be fun all the time, they're not supposed, you know, we don't need Judge Dredd all the time. Right, right. The thing I like about this, and this is part of the parody aspect too, was just like all these coincident, coincidental escapes. So like with that one, they couldn't, the radio detonator runs out of batteries and then that third torpedoes come in near them, you hear an explosion and they look at the periscope, they don't see him anymore. And it cuts the Batman and Robin in the bat boat again, driving away.
01:10:38
Speaker
And Robin's like, gosh, thank God for that porpoise that sacrificed his life to save us.
01:10:48
Speaker
And you know what? That is a throwback to like the Saturday morning serials where you would, okay, you would go there. At the end of the episode, you'd see the hero like go over a cliff in a wagon or in a car, right? Okay. And the car blows up. Oh my God. Well, how do you escape? When you come back next week and you see a scene you didn't see before where he jumped out just before,
01:11:19
Speaker
you know, the thing goes over. And you said, wait a minute, they didn't show that last week. It's a cheat, obviously, which is what they did here. You know, it's a cheat. Well, how do we get out? Well, that dolphin jumped in front of us. Well, it's a cheat, but it's also done as a parody. It's making fun of that idea, not only in those old serials, but in the comic books, too. They did that kind of stuff all the time. Yeah, yeah. And that's the parody part of this, that it's actually got a lot of smart parody in this movie.
01:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like with the bomb, the other famous scene with the bomb, where Bruce Wayne, after he's escaped from the four villains, he runs back to Wayne Manor, gets Robin, and then they go back to the hideout. Now, of course, the villains have all cleaned out, but they've left this huge, big, honky black bomb.
01:12:08
Speaker
with a fuse and is going off. So Batman grabs it. And he's running along this pier trying to get rid of the bomb. And he keeps running into the same people all the time. It's like they're just following him around. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. There's the three nuns. There's the Salvation Army. The woman's pushing her baby. Oh my god. He keeps running. I love that. And he's like, oh, I'll just throw it over the edge of the pier. And he sees the family of ducks there.
01:12:36
Speaker
Yeah. And of course, he says that famous line. Some days you can't get rid of a Bob. You can't get rid of a Bob. And he's running like a crazy man all over this pier. And then I like how to get in the little life lesson.
01:12:49
Speaker
after because of course the hideout of the four villains is inside a waterfront bar so Batman yells at everybody listen I got a bomb y'all gotta get out so everybody screams and they leave except for the two ladies except for the two fat women that are eating all the seafood you know they're like eating every crab in the place so you know they ain't leaving their crab legs
01:13:12
Speaker
So after he gets rid of the bomb and it blows up, Robin says, oh, I can't believe, why did you risk your life and the lowlights and everything like that? You know, Robin's a judgmental little prick at this movie.
01:13:31
Speaker
Basically, he said, you risk your life. Why do you risk your life without drugs? Those are lowlives. The other part, when they're scaling the roof and he's complaining about people who drink and that, I'm like, you know what? Fuck you, Robin.
01:13:48
Speaker
I know, right? I'm sitting there, I'm sitting there watching this movie sipping my scotch. I'm like, fuck you, Robin. Exactly, right? This is why nobody puts you into movies until Joel Schumacher came around. He says, I can't believe you risked your life for the lowlights.
01:14:04
Speaker
And Batman has a chastisement. He said, hey, hey, wait a minute. Slow down there. They may be drinkers, Robin, but they're people, too. Yeah, they're people. They're human beings. You know, lighten up, man. You know? I told you, my friend and I, we were watching this. And like I said, it was the middle of the night. And we were drinking, you know, having a good time eating pizza. And then it gets to that scene. We're laughing our asses off it like that. They may be drinkers, but they're people, too. Yeah, but they're people, too. Yeah. No shit.
01:14:33
Speaker
Oh, man. But you know what? It's these little life lessons he has with Chief Robert. It's not all about being a crime fighter. It's also about being a good citizen as well. Yeah. So it's all good.
01:14:47
Speaker
And then my other favorite coincidence was when they're in the Batcopter and the Riddler shoots the missile at them and they go out of control and Batman's like, this may be the end. And then they just happened to land on a stack of rubber, because there's a rubber convention that just happens to be in Gotham City. There's a rubber mattress convention in town. Now, first of all, I've never heard of a rubber mattress convention, have you? No.
01:15:15
Speaker
I doubt there's ever been a rubber mattress convention in the history of civilization. But the bat cop that just happens to land on a pile of rubber mantises in this rubber mattress, why? He's Batman. He probably knew. He probably read about it someplace, and he deliberately steered the helicopter in a controlled dive to land on these mantises.
01:15:44
Speaker
And he even mentions, right? He's like, I think I spotted out of the corner of my eye. He's like, yeah, yeah. Dang it, yo. You happened to spot a rubber mattress convention at the corner of your eye. As the bat copter's spinning out of control. Why not? He's bat. He's bat man. You know what? That's how you explain away everything in this movie that he does. He's bat man. Yeah, yeah.
01:16:08
Speaker
There's also a nice bit of parody and like, you know, pretty harsh. I thought political commentary when he calls up the Pentagon, right? Ooh, yeah, yeah. Cause he says, and you know, he asked him, he's like, did you have, did you happen to sell any, you know, pre-war submarines recently? He's like, oh, let me just check that out. And he like looks through his Rolodex like, oh yeah, we sold one to a Mr. P N Gwyn.
01:16:32
Speaker
And Batman just like, you sold, and he's like, what was his address? He's like, oh, he didn't give an address. He just left a PO box. And he's like, you sold a pre-nuclear submarine to a man named P.N. Gwyn, who does it, and he didn't even leave his address. And you didn't think there was anything suspicious about that.
01:16:53
Speaker
And you can just hear, after he said that Adam wasn't such a good actor, that you can hear the, you fucking dumbass, from the end of it. You can hear it in his same voice. And the guy, the better, he doesn't even realize what he said. Oh, he's clueless. He's clueless, like, oh, OK. Well, remember, just before Batman puts the call in, we see where the guy's playing tiddlywinks with his secretary.
01:17:20
Speaker
You know, so obviously this guy, you know, he should have never had his job in the first place. This is a guy who failed up. Yeah, exactly. Wait a minute. You just sold a submarine? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy's name was Penny Gwynne. He seemed all right. He seemed like a good guy.
01:17:43
Speaker
Oh. Bad man is just like, say it all, man. This is why we're bad. Oh, man. But I love that little bit of political commentary, because it's just like such a small, but that's the kind of shit that the military was involved in back then. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they were just selling stuff off and not really much caring who they sold it to. Yeah.
01:18:12
Speaker
And yeah, folks, for those of you listening, go do your research and check up on the military history of that time. You see that actually was going on. They were selling stuff for people. And listen, if you had half a million dollars, yeah, sure. Take a summary.
01:18:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. No problem. But the thing I love is that he sold it like a week ago, and the penguin has already had time to make it look like a giant penguin. Oh, he's unpainted that thing up, and instead of propellers, it's got flippers. You know, he retrofitted the hell out of that thing in like a week. The periscope is like a penguin's head. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
01:18:55
Speaker
It's a cool, cool looking submarine. And we really get to get a good look at it in
01:19:03
Speaker
that big major fight scene at the end of the movie where, uh, Batman and Robin, they take on the villains and the whole crew of the submarine. And everybody saw it. And this is the one where we get, like, in the TV, uh, series when they had the fight scene, they would have, like, a pow. Yeah, yeah. Everything. Okay, we get that during this fight scene. Yeah. Which goes on for, you know,
01:19:28
Speaker
It's a pretty long fighting scene, because they get knocked in the water. Everybody gets knocked into the water. At one point, I think it's like Batman and Robin are the only ones still standing out on the deck. And a cat woman comes up behind them and pushes them both in. Yeah, exactly. She's the only one that doesn't get in the water, mainly because anybody that's still in sub, like you said, she pushes her men. Yeah. And this is when they find out that she's really kick up, because this cracks me up watching it, because
01:19:57
Speaker
Catwoman, you know, Lee Berry with her throughout this whole movie. She's so graceful. She moves with such purpose. And then she runs in the sub that she's run into hundreds of times in this movie. And then she trips and the mask falls off her face. Yeah. Yeah. Now she's been, we've seen her, you know, running around this sub in high heels and never once she's tripping, but now all of a sudden she hits the ground and the mask falls off. And then she turns around.
01:20:27
Speaker
And Batman and Robin says, holy shit. Yeah, yeah. But even still, Batman snaps right back into character. Because he has that moment where he's looking for lore and everything. And then Robin says, holy heartbreak. He's like, Batman, I'm sorry. And then Batman chides me. He's like, say no more, Robin. Because you don't want to reveal too much.
01:20:54
Speaker
Yeah, and he gives him the handcuffs. Notice that, he does the, he gives the handcuffs to Robin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he doesn't put them on. Nice little, again, nice little bit of characterization there. He can't quite bring himself to, you know. Right. You know, slap him on him. Robin ain't got no problem with that shit. No, no. Robin's that just click, click, click. Well, that's cause Robin's a little shit.
01:21:23
Speaker
Robert said, yeah, give it to me. I ain't getting nuts. And then you've got the real Schmidt lab. He comes up and he's like, cause he's, this whole time he thinks he's on a yacht. Yeah. Yeah. They've had this real bullshit set up.
01:21:44
Speaker
They make them think, you know, they've had a guy like blowing smoke past his porthole, and he blows a foghorn to me once in a while. And one foot has got a flipper, and it's in a little kiddie pool, and he's making water sounds. So Admiral Schmittlap, who apparently, I'm trying to figure out how this guy created this device, because he is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. No, you know what? I'm betting that one of his employees did it, and he took all the credit.
01:22:10
Speaker
Yeah yeah that sounds more plausible. Yeah because this guy's such a dumbass. Oh yeah I mean plus he never he never even leaves his room like I always wonder like you know this entire time they've got him captive what if he has to use the bathroom? I mean when you have the Joker come in to bring you your tea and the only thing you can say is you know what I don't think you're getting enough sun.
01:22:32
Speaker
And the Joker has this great line where he says, well, no, he said, most of my activities keep me pretty much undercover. Which I thought was pretty funny, taking in the context of the Joker's activities. He said, no, no, no. He said, my activities pretty much keep me undercover. That is really the most the Joker gets to do in this movie, is he gets to deliver the tea.
01:23:01
Speaker
Which, again, we have to go back to Joker that we know would not be delivering tea to anybody. No, no, no, no, no. Not unless there was the purpose that he was going to kill him after he delivered the tea. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, basically, the Joker is pretty much an arid boy in this one. Because everybody's always telling him to do something. And he's jumping to do it when the whole thing, like I was saying earlier, about the torpedoes. He tells the Joker, we'll go there and fire him. And the Joker jumps and does it. Yeah, yeah.
01:23:30
Speaker
Admiral Schmittlap needs tea. You know, the Riddler says, yeah, he's ringing for his tea. You know, the Joker jumps and runs to go get us it. You know, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And then they go back to the World Security Council to restore them all. And oh, well, because Schmittlap, you know, he trips over and he knocks over the vials with all the World Security Council members on it.
01:23:57
Speaker
Like they all get mixed together and then he sneezes. They all blow up even more. Even worse. And then Batman and Robin, they've separated them all and they've got them back at the world security building or whatever it's called. And then the super molecular dust separator to filter it out. Because somehow, again, listen, he's Batman. He's done gathered together every single particle
01:24:28
Speaker
of these people, gathered them together, and through this miracle machine, he separates them. Yeah. Oh, and while they're doing it, again, Robin's a little shit. Because he's like, you know, would it be in the world's best interest if we just change the dust samples a little bit? It's like, holy fucking shit, man. What is wrong with this kid?
01:24:52
Speaker
You know what, see this is why I love doing this, you know what you're pointing out a lot to me about Robert, I'm going back and watching this and gonna say yeah Robin you know you're kind of messed up. Yeah, because he said yeah you know we ought to tinker around with them and you know, maybe we can make things a little bit better and basically Robin wants to be God.
01:25:12
Speaker
You read the Frank Miller's Dark Knight sequel, right? Dark Knight Strikes Again. I remember the main villain of it is basically Robin, who's gone psychotic and has gone through all these genetic mutations or whatever. I'm thinking that's the Robin from this movie. No wonder Batman fired your ass, because you're a fucking little megalomaniac.
01:25:35
Speaker
This is like Robin's supervillain origin story. Yeah. I mean, that's Robin's first thing. Well, Batman, you know what? While we got him here, maybe we can tinker around with him a little bit and, you know, we can do this and that. And things will be a little bit better. And Batman slapped some down and said, no, no, no, no, no.
01:25:53
Speaker
You know that famous meme, the comic book panel of Batman smacking Robin? This is probably where the idea comes from. Yeah, because Batman would have been justified in trying to smack the shit out of him at this point too. What are you talking about? We can tinker around with him.
01:26:09
Speaker
It makes things a little bit better. And we can do this. And Batman just looks at him for a bit and says, no, no. He said, we don't do that. He said, we don't do that. We're the good guys. And then we'll put them back just the way they were, Robin. And then, though, they put them back together. But they're all speaking different languages now.
01:26:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So they did still get mixed up, which makes me wonder, did Robin fuck with that molecular device? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because Batman, he just says, Oh, well, listen, I did the best I could. I can't do, I can't do no more. They're both, they're both kind of looking at each other and Batman's like to the window.
01:26:54
Speaker
He said, let's leave inconspicuously. Oh yeah, well, going out the window and sliding down a hundred foot building, yeah, that's inconspicuous. But I also love the idea of like, you know, they're like, he's like, okay, well, we kind of fucked up, so let's just kind of move back away slowly. Yeah, let's just kind of, you know, we'll just ease on out the back door.
01:27:18
Speaker
And if we just leave quietly, nobody will know. Because the whole world is watching this. This is being broadcast all around the world. Because everybody's wondering if Batman is going to be able to reconstitute the world, the members of this World Council. And he's got the tubes all set up, and they're in the chair. Why they're not doing this in a laboratory, in a controlled setting, is beyond me. But hey, once again, it's Batman.
01:27:45
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And he rehydrates them and boom, they all come back and they're arguing just like they did when they got justified by the village. But as you say, now they're all speaking different language, like the guy from England, he's speaking Swahili. Yeah. And the guy from America, he's speaking French. Yeah, I think it was the American guy was speaking Japanese, I remember. Yeah. Because I remember being able to recognize what he was saying.
01:28:12
Speaker
Yeah, and Batman and like you said, and well, you know, we still must have got some, but now in light of what you're saying, I'm wondering, yeah, did Robin go in there with Batman as Bat was turned? I think Robin's been fucking around with the machines because, you know, bathroom and Robin just said, well, nobody will know.
01:28:34
Speaker
Robin, did you set the device to my exact specifications? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, Batman did exactly what you told me. I swear to God. I did not mess with them. I did not turn the dial too far to the right, I promise.
01:28:51
Speaker
I promise. And yeah, Batman is just like, yeah, he says, well, let's just ease out the back door. You know what I love here is when they're opening, how long it takes them to open the damn windows. Yeah, yeah, because he's got an old fashioned crank. Yeah, they got to like crank it open.
01:29:11
Speaker
And, you know, Commissioner Gordon, everybody, they're looking, they're not looking at Batman and Robin saying, you know, what did y'all do? You know, they're looking at the World Council members, you know, and Batman and Robin, they throw the ropes out the window and they just quietly slide down.
01:29:30
Speaker
Oh, man, that's such good fun. Yeah, yeah. And then also, like you mentioned, the idea of them is going out conspicuously while they're in broad daylight in these bright satin capes walking down the side of the most famous building in the world. And see, that's another thing about this movie.
01:29:51
Speaker
There is only one scene that takes place at night. Batman is usually associated with the nighttime. Yeah. But there is only one scene that takes, this is a Batman that operates mostly during the daylight out. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:30:04
Speaker
You know, he's, you know, he's flying around in the house. There's a part where they're in the back copter. And these four cops, you know, they look up and they see and they take off their hats. You know, they hold over, you know. And there's a guy that's in the park with his wife and he says, oh, he gives the guy a good feeling to know that they're out there doing their job. So this is a very public.
01:30:25
Speaker
You know, Batman, I mean, everybody knows, well, you know, that's Batman. Yeah, yeah. Which makes a, even though we know it's Catwoman posing as her, like, it makes Kitka seem all the more realistic, because she's like, because she comes from a foreign country, and she's like, what is wrong with you fucking capitalists? Yeah, yeah, you know, this guy's running around in a costume dressed as a bat, and you let him, you know, be a lawman. Yeah. You know, I mean, seriously, what's going on? And this is,
01:30:55
Speaker
probably, well, this is Los Angeles standing here for Gotham City. And as a result, this is the most subtly cheery Gotham City we've ever seen portrayed on film. Well, in the beginning, when they're in the back copter, right? They're flying over one of those buildings. There's a rooftop pool. And all these women in bikinis are waving at them. Yeah. And there's a guy that looks suspiciously a lot. I know it's not him, but it looks suspiciously a lot like Jacqueline. No, it is him.
01:31:20
Speaker
That is Jack lee. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah. Okay. This was, um, yeah, he had a can, it said he had a can, it was a cameo he had in this. Oh, okay. And also, also, do you know who did the voice of the president? No. Ben Williams.
01:31:36
Speaker
Oh, the Green Hornet. Yeah, yeah. Van Williams did the voice of the president. You know, I've seen this movie maybe like a dozen times, and every time I see that part, I always say, man, that guy looks a lot like Jacqueline Lane. But I figured, nah, that's not him, you know? No, that's him, yeah. Oh, OK. See, cool.
01:31:54
Speaker
Okay. Is there anything else we have to say about this movie? I think we kind of pretty much covered most of it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we covered most of it. I mean, we hit the high points. Again, for those of you who weren't paying attention.
01:32:10
Speaker
For me, the high point of this movie, pay attention to the performance of Adam West as Batman and as Bruce Wayne. He does a lot in this movie. He gets to do a lot of stuff he didn't get to do in the TV series. And I think it shows in his performance in this movie. He's obviously enjoying himself during the fight scenes, during the romantic scenes with Dean Merriweather.
01:32:40
Speaker
Yeah. You know, I really enjoy his performance a lot in this movie. Yeah. Frank Gorshin. Frank Gorshin is amazing in that. He steals this movie. And every scene he's in, pay attention, because he does something amazing in this movie every time. And for me, and I think that in a way that's, you know what? Yeah, Jim Carrey tried, but
01:33:05
Speaker
So far, no. Frank Gordon is the definitive Riddler. And unless we figure out a way to get a time machine and go back and get them, or to take his DNA and clone them, it's going to be hard press to find somebody who defined the role the way that he does.
01:33:22
Speaker
I think if he had, if Warner Brothers hadn't been such petty little shits and they had given the role to Robin Williams, I think he probably would have redefined the role. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Robin Williams is the only one that I could see matching the manic intensity that Frank Gorshin had. And unlike, you know, and he wouldn't have done the Jim Carrey thing where he like tries to, he tries to do like a Frank Gorshin imitation. Like Robin Williams would have made it his own thing.
01:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. He would have played his own character. That, you know, and don't get me wrong, I like Jim Carrey and I love Tommy Lee Jones, but the two of them were so horribly miscast in that movie. And they were such a disappointment. Yeah, absolutely. Agree, totally. All right. But yeah, but yeah, those two performances,
01:34:17
Speaker
stand out for it again. I love the fact that they actually
01:34:24
Speaker
crafted a story that was big enough to justify the running time and having the four major Batman villains in this movie. This actually does feel like a movie. It does not feel like just a 90-minute episode of the TV series. They put in a little bit of money. We get to see stuff like the Batboat, the Batcopter. We have some other locations. We get to see a little bit more Wayne Manor than we don't see.
01:34:53
Speaker
in the tv series so yeah you know this feels like an actual honest to bob k batman movie uh oh also something else i just realized when you mentioned the vehicles i was thinking the bat cycle and yeah that's right yeah you know what the thing i thought was funny that when they're going to the bat copter in the bat cycle and then they're approaching the bat copter and then it's like detach the side car and it just rolls around for like five feet and then they get off it and get in the bat copter
01:35:23
Speaker
Yeah, so it goes to Robin's side of it, you know? Yeah. I mean, I always thought that it's supposed to have its
The Fun of Batman's Vehicles
01:35:30
Speaker
own little control so that when it separates, Robin can run it by itself. Well, I think it is, because he's, and, um, but I think it just, it was just so, and I think that's why they did that, just to show that it could. Yeah, right, exactly. You said, well, you know what, we spent the money, I mean, you know, building the Daggone thing. Why not, you know, show what it can do? Yeah, yeah.
01:35:52
Speaker
And of course later on they used it, you know, or else they just use clips from this movie. Oh yeah. A lot of the Bat Cycle stuff was just recycled clips from this movie. Cause they didn't have the budget to reuse any of those vehicles.
01:36:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know what? They spent it for the movie. And like I said, I appreciate the fact that they did it because it made Batman's world a little bit larger. Like you said earlier, when they go to the airport, and apparently Batman has a crew to watch his shit. He's a back cop there. He's got a crew there, which you never would think of. You say, oh, wow. Because yeah, like you said, in the comics and in the movies, Batman keeps everything in his cave.
01:36:34
Speaker
It kind of opens up things a little bit more. But again, it goes back to the notion that this is a more public, more accessible Batman than what, you know, than the Batman that we've seen in recent movies. So, yeah, I mean, why not? He keeps his, you know, Batcopter
01:36:52
Speaker
in the airport and he keeps the bat boat at a dock and he keeps the bat cycle in uh under a shrub by the road and yeah yeah for whatever reason don't ask me why hey hey he's batman yeah that's how we that's how we explain away everything in this movie folks he's batman yeah
01:37:16
Speaker
So yeah, in summary, it is campy, but that's part of the fun of it. This is not your comic book, Batman, not from the modern comic books, but it's still a lot of fun. And for all intents and purposes, there is not going to be a summer movie season at your local theater. I guess it appears that
01:37:43
Speaker
That's dead. Although I have heard that Christopher Nolan's Tenet is going to be released in, you know, the theaters or something. Yeah, yeah. Oh, you know what else too is my girlfriend saw that because here they're starting to open stuff up because we didn't get hit that hard.
01:37:58
Speaker
And she was leaving from work the other day. She passed by the theater. And for their reopening, they're showing some Marvel movies. They're showing Black Panther on the big screen. They're showing Guardians of the Galaxy on the big screen. Some other stuff, too. I think there were some Disney movies as well. They're showing up on there. They're bringing back these movies, re-showing them to try and get people to come back to the grand reopening.
01:38:20
Speaker
Yeah, well, listen, I'm having my summer movie season at home. You know, I've got, like, I've got a whole bunch of Blu-rays and DVDs that are still in the wrapper. I haven't even opened them yet. Oh, God, yeah, I've got like, and plus, like, this month, especially, I've got a bunch of people who are doing Japan on film episodes with me. So I'm going to be, like, recording, like, nonstop watching Japanese movies this month.
01:38:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, my summer movie season is gonna be at home. And for you listening, if you're gonna have a summer movie season at home, I can think of no better movie than to kick it off than with the 1966 Batman. Especially if you've got kids. Oh yeah, if you've got kids, yeah. You know, sit down and watch this movie with them. You love it and they'll love it. Absolutely, yeah.
01:39:10
Speaker
Okay, so now we're going back to me for the next one. And I thought... Uh-oh, here we go.
01:39:21
Speaker
No, I thought because you were devious, so is so you. No, no, no, it's nothing like that. Nothing like that. But I was thinking that with everything that's going on right now, it's good to have something that makes you laugh.
Choosing the Next Movie Discussion
01:39:32
Speaker
And also, Father's Day is coming up. And so I thought I'd pick a movie that meant a lot to both of us that we've talked about with our relationships with our fathers. And that's Guardians of the Galaxy, volume two. Oh, OK, cool.
01:39:49
Speaker
Cause that's a, it's a, it's a feel good movie. I think everyone could probably use something to feel good about right now. And you and I, we both talked about like this movie brings up memories of our fathers. So, so I think, and with father's day coming up, I think it is kind of like the perfect movie for this month. Okay. Yeah. Good. Listen, good enough.
01:40:10
Speaker
All right, so that about does it for us. You know, head on over to Facebook. You can join our group, Superhero Cinephiles. A lot of activity going on over there. A lot of people posting up superhero movie news. Derek posts up his reviews. We do occasional polls and that kind of stuff. A lot of fun stuff going on over there. A lot of chatter going on now about the whole Batwoman recasting thing. Yeah, that's such a weird thing. Like when they decided they're going to,
01:40:40
Speaker
Instead of recasting her, they're going to create a brand new character to become Batwoman, which I think is just really, I'm hoping it's just like, you know, some sort of rumor or something and it's not real, but who knows? Okay, here's the thing, Perry. This is what I understand. It's not like the woman
01:40:58
Speaker
was doing the role for like five years or something like that, then I could see, okay, well, you know, we're gonna do that. We're gonna bring in a new character. It's only one season. And it's not like she's defined the role in a way that like Robert Downey Jr. defined Tony Stark for a seven defined Captain America. Exactly. Like nothing against her. I've only seen like, I saw the pilot and then I saw her in the else world's crossover and crisis. And there's nothing bad about her performance. She does a really good job, but there's nothing, you know, groundbreaking about it either.
01:41:28
Speaker
Right. That's the only thing I've seen her into. I saw the pilot episode and I saw her in the crossover. And then I said, I liked her, you know, but all I'm saying is, you know, that yeah, it's only been one season that she's been in. Yeah.
01:41:43
Speaker
It's not like, yeah, this was not like a career-defining thing where we can say, oh, yeah, well, only Ruby Rose can, you know, she's Batwoman,
Creating a New Batwoman
01:41:53
Speaker
you know? Yeah. No. I mean, because whoever they bring in is probably going to be with the show for longer than she is. And that's the person we're probably all going to remember as Batwoman if she stays with it. So I, you know, I'm...
01:42:09
Speaker
Me, personally, I'm not a big fan of having to explain, okay, well, now we gotta explain why this role is now played by a different actor, you know? No, just recast and just go on, you know? Look at the Batman TV show we've been talking about, right? You had Julie Newmar in the first two seasons, then Lee Merriweather in the movie, and then they get a Black woman to play her in the third season with Eartha Kitts. Yeah, I posted that up on the group today. Okay, the TV show gave us three cat women and never explained why they were all different women.
01:42:38
Speaker
even change the race and nobody would be better than I. And Batman and Robin treated her just like she was the other cat women. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, you know what? It's not that deep. Just get a new actor and say, okay, well, let's go on and, you know,
01:42:57
Speaker
And I had said in my other group that one of the things I appreciated about the Mad Max movie, the last one we had, you know, the Fury Road, that George Miller didn't waste a lot of time trying to explain why Mad Max is now Tom Hardy. Exactly. Also, Iron Man 2 did the same thing with Rhodey, right? Iron Man 2, he walks in, he's like, Rhodey? He turns around, he looks, and it's Don Cheadle walks in. And Tony Stark stands up. And it's almost like a meta moment where Tony Stark's like,
01:43:27
Speaker
the look on Downey's face like, wait, you're not, you're not, you're not the roadie I remember. And then Don Cheadle gives this very meta line, look, I'm here, it's done with, let's just move on. Right, exactly, exactly. It's like the
01:43:43
Speaker
uh the jay's mom thing when george lassenby you know when he took off he has that terrific line where he says well this never happened to the other guy and that's that's the only thing they do to acknowledge that he's a new guy and then okay let's go yeah yeah and that's all you need yeah that's a nice little you know wink to the audience you know well this never happened to the other guy which i love i don't know there's something audiences these days they want everything over explained
01:44:10
Speaker
And I just don't see why. Like, well, how can that be the same guy? They're obviously two different actors. You're some suspension of disbelief, you fuckers. You got an imagination, don't you? Which I don't understand. We've had like a dozen guys play Tarzan.
01:44:25
Speaker
Yeah. It's Tarzan. It's the same guy. It's just different actors, but it's the same guy. So I don't see what's so hard about that concept, whereas when you have a different actor come in, you feel it necessary. You have to explain why this different actor is now playing the role. That's not how they did it in Hollywood in the old days, when they had a movie series and one actor decided he wanted to leave for whatever reason was. There's that saying, one monkey don't stop no show. They just hired a different actor. OK.
01:44:55
Speaker
Adam West wrote in his biography that he asked for more money for them to do this movie. And the studio flat up told him, we can always hire another actor. Bingo, yeah. Yeah, because who was it? Lyle Wagner from The Carol Burnett Show. He was this close. I'm holding two fingers together. He was this close to playing Batman. Oh, wow.
01:45:19
Speaker
Yeah, he tried out for the role and you know, they liked him and everything like that, you know, cause they were considering, you know, a couple of guys. Yeah. You know, for this to have to be, yeah. But that's what they did back in the old days. If somebody, if somebody acted up or, you know, they started acting like a diva, they just simply said, you know what, we'll just hire somebody else. You don't have to put up with your bullshit. Yeah.
01:45:44
Speaker
All right, so kind of got back on track a little bit there, but yeah, back to finishing up the show. That pretty much about does it. The only other thing to add is that I've got a new book that just came out. I've mentioned it last week, but it's now live on Amazon. It's called Ronin Born. It's a cyberpunk superhero novel set in futuristic Japan. So that just came out, we're recording this on Thursday here.
New Book Release: 'Ronin Born'
01:46:11
Speaker
Basically it came out like yesterday, two days ago.
01:46:13
Speaker
So yeah, thank you. Thank you. I head on over to Amazon. You can pick that up. I think I, I don't know if I post a link to it in the group, but I'll probably go and do that once I finish up here. Do so. And I heartily encourage all of you. I haven't read it yet, but having read Perry's other stuff, I have no doubt that it's up to his usual standards of high adventure.
01:46:36
Speaker
exciting characters and clear, concise writing. Well, thank you. Thank you. Hopefully, I hope it does. So, but yeah, that about does it for us. Come join us next week. We'll be talking about Guardians of the Galaxy. And also if you're someone going out there protesting, what happened to George Floyd, what's going on right now?
01:46:59
Speaker
All my encouragement for you, just be careful out there. There's a lot of fuckery going on, as we say. Yeah, be careful, be safe, watch what you're doing. And if you're one of these assholes who's trying to intentionally cause trouble, fuck you. Oh, well, we got nothing for you.
01:47:21
Speaker
I got nothing for you. You can just stop listening then. Yeah, don't listen to us no more. You go someplace and you fall off a cliff and die. Yeah, yeah. That's how we attract listeners here. We tell them to go fuck off and die. Yeah. Hey, it's a beautiful world. OK, thanks so much. And we'll talk to you next time. OK, good night. God bless. Stay safe.
01:47:52
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Superhero Cinephiles Podcast. If you have any questions or comments about this or any other episode, or if you have a superhero movie or TV show you'd like us to cover in a future episode, you can email us at superheroescinephiles at gmail.com, or you can also visit us on the web at superheroescinephiles.com.
01:48:12
Speaker
If you like what you hear, leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Each review helps us reach more potential listeners. You can also support the show by renting or purchasing the movies discussed, or by picking up our books, all of which can be accessed through the website, as well as find links to our social media presences. The theme music for this show is a shortened version of Superhero Showdown, a royalty-free piece of music, courtesy of fezlionstudios.com.