Black Widow Strikes Again
"Frank and I are both categorically against evil."
"Miss" Tallulah Bankhead (as she is credited) may have been at death's door in this, her final ever role as mind controlling bank robber the Black Widow but, with her sultry voice and considerable charisma, she hugely elevates what would otherwise have been an average couple of episodes in which Batman and Robin are perhaps a little too passive.
Her first appearance establishes her shtick, and the intrigue, as her plan is simply to mind control bank manager after bank manager to give her huge piles of cash- fortunately helping Batman to predict her next move by robbing them in alphabetical order. You'd get that in absolutely no other programme. And I love that the first bank manager is called "Mr Cash".
There's also an amusing, and very 1967 scene, in which Aunt Harriet decides to go "mod" and almost bought a miniskirt, leading Alfred to comment that "Carnaby Street has come to Wayne Manor, ma'am". This one story after Bruce is called "one of the hippies".
The cliffhanger, with silly plastic black widow spiders, is silly, predictable but I suppose inevitable..
Caught in the Spider's Den
"You sophisticated but evil woman!"
Escape by utility belt yet again, and then Black Widow, er, reverses the polarity to mind control Batman for the entire episode, both sidelining him and having Gordon and O'Hara suspect him of crime for a while. This is somewhat annoying and makes for a somewhat less entertaining second episode, but at least we get to laugh at how Black Widow's disguise as Robin is so perfect she's played by Burt Ward.
I also love how Black Wdow, in prison at the end, demands "the wine list", and seems to get it. She's a fine villain, and it's a shame we didn't get to see her in a better story.
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