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Just watched the complete 1943 Batman movie serials. Checked the DVDs (a 2-disk set) out of the library. (Though, actually, I had some of them on tape. Was a bday gift from my sisters that I never got around to watching.)
It's kind of... different.
Batman is a secret government agent. (His origin is not given, though the comic books are mentioned in the opening credits.) He gets coded messages from Washington. But (despite the fact that he has a key to the police box telephones on the street) the local police only know that he's a costumed vigilante who delivers hand-wrapped "packages" with notes pinned to their lapels and little bat-shaped stickers on their foreheads. The chief wants to catch him and unmask him, but at the same time acknowledges that he does better work than any officer - and then, to any outsider, claims that Batman is the best detective under his command and takes credit for all his collars.
The city is never named after the first episode, and there are some continuity glitches between the first ep and the later ones. When we get a brief look at a letter addressed to Bruce, it says "Los Angeles."
Bruce has a fiance, though heaven knows why. He's a lazy playboy who never helps her when she needs it, forgets half their dates, and, when he does show up, is always late. Even the bad guy knows he's a worthless fool.
Speaking of the bad guy... At the start of the story, we're shown a small section of town known as "Little Tokyo." It's uninhabited now because "our government wisely rounded up" all the Japanese people. Except there's one left. A mad scientist and Japanese agent who runs a secret organization dedicated to destroying America and claiming the remains for the expansion of the Japanese empire.
Batman and Robin have no gadgets beyond rope, grappling hooks, and, in one case, a smoke bomb. They do, however, have a crime lab which they use to analyze a few clues. That was nice to see, as was Bruce taking on an extra disguise as a street thug from out of town. And there's a "bats cave" - a secret room underneath the mansion (accessible through the back of a grandfather clock in the living room) with a desk, a few chairs, some scary-looking bats (which we only ever see as flitting shadows), and maybe one or two small surprises. Batman and Robin bring captured crooks there and threaten to leave them alone with the bats if they don't talk. Sometimes it works, sometimes they have to be a little more devious, sometimes they just leave the crooks there while they go chase down some other lead.
The thing is, though, that they aren't very good at the job. Batman notices little clues and has the crime lab. Sometimes, he's smart enough to smell a trap before he walks into it. But they drive around (generally chauffeured by Alfred) in Bruce Wayne's car, and change in the back seat as needed. They repeatedly call each other "Bruce" and "Dick" even when they're in costume (unless there are conscious people clearly in sight). Alfred is clearly seen with them several times, and, at one point, even runs up to Batman and calls him "master".
More than that, it's a 15-part serial, which means that 14 parts end on a cliffhanger. Specifically, with Batman facing certain doom. We see him driven off a cliff, thrown off a building, knocked out in front of a speeding train, trapped inside an exploding mineshaft, an exploding cabin, a spiked pit with closing walls, a burning factory, etc. To set that up... Batman and Robin outsmart the bad guys, or just stumble on to them. (There's a lot of luck and very coincidental timing involved.) They generally have the advantage of surprise. But (except for the one smoke bomb), they don't do anything with it except charge straight into a mob of half a dozen thugs... and get beaten up. They're pretty good fighters - better than anyone, one-on-one - but when they go charging three times their number without any kind of plan they get clobbered (though never with any lasting injuries or bruises). Then, at the beginning of the following week's story, Batman escapes (sometimes cleverly, sometimes because Robin saves Batman at the last second, sometimes by blind luck, and once he just manages to come out of a wreck unbruised with no explanation at all) and they do it again. Fifteen times.
It gets to the point where the bad guy concludes that there must be a whole organization of guys in bat costumes because his agents keep reporting that they're certain they left Batman for dead.
Still, despite the disturbing propaganda and marked incompetence of our heroes, it's an interesting plot. And an entertaining spectacle. And it was Batman's first appearance outside of comic books. Cool to see how it was, back in the "golden age."
If you're interested, I've uploaded a clip of the intro.
It's kind of... different.
Batman is a secret government agent. (His origin is not given, though the comic books are mentioned in the opening credits.) He gets coded messages from Washington. But (despite the fact that he has a key to the police box telephones on the street) the local police only know that he's a costumed vigilante who delivers hand-wrapped "packages" with notes pinned to their lapels and little bat-shaped stickers on their foreheads. The chief wants to catch him and unmask him, but at the same time acknowledges that he does better work than any officer - and then, to any outsider, claims that Batman is the best detective under his command and takes credit for all his collars.
The city is never named after the first episode, and there are some continuity glitches between the first ep and the later ones. When we get a brief look at a letter addressed to Bruce, it says "Los Angeles."
Bruce has a fiance, though heaven knows why. He's a lazy playboy who never helps her when she needs it, forgets half their dates, and, when he does show up, is always late. Even the bad guy knows he's a worthless fool.
Speaking of the bad guy... At the start of the story, we're shown a small section of town known as "Little Tokyo." It's uninhabited now because "our government wisely rounded up" all the Japanese people. Except there's one left. A mad scientist and Japanese agent who runs a secret organization dedicated to destroying America and claiming the remains for the expansion of the Japanese empire.
Batman and Robin have no gadgets beyond rope, grappling hooks, and, in one case, a smoke bomb. They do, however, have a crime lab which they use to analyze a few clues. That was nice to see, as was Bruce taking on an extra disguise as a street thug from out of town. And there's a "bats cave" - a secret room underneath the mansion (accessible through the back of a grandfather clock in the living room) with a desk, a few chairs, some scary-looking bats (which we only ever see as flitting shadows), and maybe one or two small surprises. Batman and Robin bring captured crooks there and threaten to leave them alone with the bats if they don't talk. Sometimes it works, sometimes they have to be a little more devious, sometimes they just leave the crooks there while they go chase down some other lead.
The thing is, though, that they aren't very good at the job. Batman notices little clues and has the crime lab. Sometimes, he's smart enough to smell a trap before he walks into it. But they drive around (generally chauffeured by Alfred) in Bruce Wayne's car, and change in the back seat as needed. They repeatedly call each other "Bruce" and "Dick" even when they're in costume (unless there are conscious people clearly in sight). Alfred is clearly seen with them several times, and, at one point, even runs up to Batman and calls him "master".
More than that, it's a 15-part serial, which means that 14 parts end on a cliffhanger. Specifically, with Batman facing certain doom. We see him driven off a cliff, thrown off a building, knocked out in front of a speeding train, trapped inside an exploding mineshaft, an exploding cabin, a spiked pit with closing walls, a burning factory, etc. To set that up... Batman and Robin outsmart the bad guys, or just stumble on to them. (There's a lot of luck and very coincidental timing involved.) They generally have the advantage of surprise. But (except for the one smoke bomb), they don't do anything with it except charge straight into a mob of half a dozen thugs... and get beaten up. They're pretty good fighters - better than anyone, one-on-one - but when they go charging three times their number without any kind of plan they get clobbered (though never with any lasting injuries or bruises). Then, at the beginning of the following week's story, Batman escapes (sometimes cleverly, sometimes because Robin saves Batman at the last second, sometimes by blind luck, and once he just manages to come out of a wreck unbruised with no explanation at all) and they do it again. Fifteen times.
It gets to the point where the bad guy concludes that there must be a whole organization of guys in bat costumes because his agents keep reporting that they're certain they left Batman for dead.
Still, despite the disturbing propaganda and marked incompetence of our heroes, it's an interesting plot. And an entertaining spectacle. And it was Batman's first appearance outside of comic books. Cool to see how it was, back in the "golden age."
If you're interested, I've uploaded a clip of the intro.