The Spell of Tut
“Gosh, Batman! What are they dressed like that for?”
After a strangely underwhelming pre-titles it's time to jump with joy- King Tut, the first and still the bst original villain created for this series, is back. Not only does the wonderful Victor Buono chew the scenery as magnificently as ever but his, ahem, "Chief Apothecary" is none other than the splendid, and now sadly departed, Sid Haig- who, at this point, is a mere stripling in his twenties, a scary thought. With baddies like this, frankly, we simply don't care how unconvincing and obviously plastic the crocodiles are. Nor do we care about the so-so quality of the script; some performers elevate material just by being there.
Not only that, but we get the second instance of the Dynamic Duo encountering celebrities in a window while climbing, as you do. This time it's the Green Hornet and Kato, in a splendidly bizarre cameo. Yep; this episode features both Sid Haig and Bruce Lee.
The plot is nonsense, of course- scarabs in amber being revived to make a mesmerising liquid- but seeing Tut and his underlings performing an operation in surgeons' scrubs is just so damn fun and Buono, quite rightly, is hamming it up so much more. This is great.
Tut’s Case Is Shut
“On your knees, Helot!”
“You got the wrong Helot.”
“On your knees anyway!”
I've just noticed- the signature onomatopaeic fighty words are now on separate frames. Has this been the case from the start of the new season?
This episode simply carries on the fun. Never mind the rubbishness of the cliffhanger resolution; we get a mesmerised Chief O'Hara performing acrobatic feats on a flagpole several stories up while singing "Molly Malone". We get mesmerised acting from Adam West, with arms held out in front like a zombie. There is no way you can not love this.
We even end with a hilarious look at the camera by Commissioner Gordon. Batman episodes simply don't get any more Batman than this one. Brilliant.
No comments:
Post a Comment