Thursday 6 February 2020

Batman: The Purr-fect Crime & Better Luck Next Time

The Purr-fect Crime

"You can brush my pussy willows before you leave..."

We finally meet the last of Batman's iconic foes to appear- and Julie Newmar is incredible- charismatic, sexy and downright kinky, first seen threatening her two minions, both dressed as cats, with her cat o' nine tails.Even the opening teaser is nicely done, with a bit of cat burglary, and we get one of the wittiest high camp scripts yet as the Dynamic Duo are led to Catwoman's lair to be toyed with as a kitten does to a spider.

Batman's deadly straight goody-goodiness has never been more splendidly apparent- Robin is reminded that "you haven't fastened your safety bat belt" but approvingly told that "I'm gad you're up on your foreign languages, Robin. They come in handy when fighting crime".

But it all leads inexorably to the exquisite set of traps set by the sexy, clever Catwoman, whose witty puns and classical allusions (she mentions Damon and Pythias) show her to be a cut above lesser villains.


Better Luck Next Time

"Pets are a responsibility!"

It actually looks, in the scene with Batman at least, that this is no stock footage and Adam West was acting with a real tiger. I don't know whether to be impressed, alarmed or both. But this whole early segment where the Dynamic Duo are subjected to feline deathtraps is enormous fun. So is the fact that Catwoman says "TTFN"; apparently this was actually a thing in 1966. So, indeed, is the fact that Robin's reaction to being covered in catnip and gradually lowered into a pit containing two hungry tigers  is "Catwoman, you are not a nice person."

We end with Catwoman pursued by the Dynamic Duo and their gadgets as, having betrayed her underlings, she finds some buried treasure- only to plunge to her apparent doom purely because of greed. We don't see a body, naturally.

That was magnificent. This Catwoman is sexy but fiendishly clever with it, with not a whiff of the tendency this programme often has to reform its female baddies. This is one of the best stories yet.

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