Batman; Louie, the Lilac

"The flower children think we're cool, man. Like we turn them on, you know?"

Double oh. I criticise the new fomat of mostly single episodes as making each episode too short and rushed to be any fun, and I get a second superb standalone episode in a row. This episode is utterly wonderful. Oh, the perennially unfunny Milton Berle is rubbish as the utterly pedestrian Louie the Lilac, but who cares a script as delightful and fun as this- and, yet again, a cast full of splendid actors of deadpan comedy, with newcomer Yvonne Craig defnitely among them? I don't even care that the way the episode plays out makes a nonsense of last episode's teaser.

Even better, of course, is that 1967 gets its much-needed proper hippie episode of Batman, something which could never have been done properly in any other year. So perhaps Louie's plan to corner the flower market, control the flower children and therefore control the leaders of the future while dispatching his enemies with incredibly slow acting carnivorous lilacs(!) makes absolutely zero sense, but that's intentional: this is Batman. Anyway, the real point is to look at the hippies, the way they look and the way they talk. Interestingly, this is still the Summer (well, Autumn) of Love, and everyone sees the hippies as well-meaning and harmless- desexualised, depoliticised and certainly, well, de-potified.

We're well past the point of pointing out diversions from a set episode structure at this point- the welcome addition of Batgirl has put paid to that. And seven episodes in I'm loving the character, her theme tune (we get a good blast of it towards the end, which is wonderful) and Yvonne Craig's perfecly pitched performance.

Egghead next. Good. Is this season going to continue to make its underwhelming first few episodes look like an aberration?

Batman: The Wail of the Siren

 "Batgirl, Batgirl Batgirl, Batgirl 
Where do you come from? Where do you go? 
What is your scene, baby? Yeah, we just gotta know 
Batgirl, Batgirl Batgirl, Batgirl 
Are you a chick who fell in from outer space?  
Or are you real with a tender warm embrace? 
Yeah, whose baby are you? Batgirl, whose baby are you? Batgirl..."    

It's becoming increasingly clear that this season there's not so much money sloshing around   (Siren's hideout is so very cheap!) and that the need to accommodate an extra character in   Batgirl where there’s only a single episode lasting twenty-four minutes to play with has, we, not exactly improved the show. Nor is the show’s signature wit much in evidence: this could be a kids’ cartoon. It’s enjoyable enough but I’m hoping the third season has more in store than we’ve seen so far.  

That said, though, this episode is an improvement, cartoonish though it is. A shockingly young Joan Collins is sexy and charismatic as the Siren. Barbara Gordon is still talking to her parrot as a neat little exposition device. And... yeah, that Batgirl song- the lyrics absolutely had to be the quote. It’s mad, it fully embraces both its silliness and its sixtiesness, and I love it. How could I not? We also get a line where Batman refuses a soft drink on the grounds it could be “too relaxing”, and the hilarious concept at the end of Siren singing an “antidote note” on the mesmerised Bruce.  

Still, I'm a little alarmed at this point. This episode is fun, yes, but it’s a simple cartoon type show, and that's how the season seems to be going. Batman has seemingly moved from high camp to low camp. Surely this can’t continue?

Batman: Pop Goes the Joker & Flop Goes the Joker

Pop Goes the Joker 

“Why, even a three year old could do better than that!"

Some Batman stories are very good, but only a rare few are sublime. One of those is "Hizzonner the Penguin/ Dizonner the Penguin" which skewers the art of politics. This story does the same for the art of, er, art, and is just as wonderful.

As the title implies, it's 1967, and the age of pop art- something which even reached the covers of Marvel comics (if I may mention them here!) of roughly this time. And even the opening is wonderful- the Joker ruins an exhibition of rather conservative paintings with random splodges of paint, only to be acclaimed as an artist. Even more deliciously, he proceeds to enter an art competition with "Pablo Pincus", "Jackson Potluck", Leonardo Da Vinski" and "Vincent Van Gauche", all of whom proceed to paint with feet, back and, most deliciously, a chimp. But the Joker wins with a blank, untouched canvas- the allusion to a certain fairytale of a scantily clad monarch is hardly subtle, but it's wonderfully done and I love everything about it.

Oh, the Joker has a plot to open an art school for millionaires (I love his comment on their work!) only to ransom them, leading to a knife cliffhanger for Robin, but that's just plot. Cesar Romero gets a real classic script here as the art world is skewered to perfection.


Flop Goes the Joker

“I don't know what it means. It must be very profound."

Yes, the cliffhanger resolution is perfunctory. But so is the convention itself. Much more interesting is the Joker's delightfully cynical buttering up of silly socialite Baby Jane so he can get in and steal various Old Masters from Gotham's art gallery under the pretence of swapping them with his own "masterpiece", a defaced and chopped up antique table. And the hole episode is full of amusing little touches, such as a gleeful Gordon and O'Hara hearing fight at the museum.

The coda with Joker robbing Wayne Manr is also a delight, with a defiant Alfred showing off his fencing skills and the omission of the names from the Batpole turning out to have been a deliberate little Chekhov's gun. And, of course, we end with Alfred's paintings, created to fool the Joker, becoming popular in exhibition themselves. Delicious, wonderful satire and one of the programme's real high points.

Batman: The Sandman Cometh & The Catwoman Goeth

The Sandman Cometh

"Sweet dreams, Sandman."

It's incredible to think but, more than halfway through the second season and, indeed, more than halfway through overall, everything up to and including this story, broadcast on 28th and 29th December in the USA, was first screened in 1966, just one calendar year- and yet sixty-eight episodes and a movie were crammed into that time, which is extraordinary.

Also notable is that the wonderful Julie Newmar is back, probably by now having appeared enough times that she can finally be considered as one of the perennial returning villains. This is a very good thing, as Julie Newmar is sexy and awesome. Also awesome is the excellent Michael Rennie as promising new villain Sandman. And yet...

In teaming the two villains up- including a new villain who needs room to breathe- the result is that we feel short-changed with both baddies, neither of whom gets enough screen time. It's also obvious that Catwoman was crowbarred into an exiting Sandman script at a late stage, not a good thing from any perspective.

A shame, as the underlying story is solid, and this is far from a bad episode, just an overcrowded one. I love the character of J. Paul Spaghetti, but all Catwoman actually dos here is lie on a mattress while Sandman drives a plot clearly themed around him. What she does, unfortunately, with Julie Newmar being amazing, is completely ruin this promising new baddie.


The Catwoman Goeth

"Where's Robin?"

"Who...?"

This episode is better, with Robin in Catwoman's cramped looking maze and the hilarious sight of a run down factory being called "Run Down Factory"- and Batman getting into near-trouble for traffic violations. There's a rather perfunctory cliffhanger escape, but that's nothing new. I love the description of J. Pauline Spaghetti's previous husbands and their absurd deaths. We even get a by-now rare outing for the Batboat.

And yet we still have the same problem- Catwoman ruining what should be Sandman's story by outshining him. Yet again there's some delicious Batman/Catwoman flirting, and Alfred hilariously giving Batman a lift on his silly "Alf-cycle". Behind the ill-advised inclusion of Catwoman there's a decent couple of episodes here, but alas that's not what reaches the screen.

Batman: Green Ice & Deep Freeze

Green Ice

"A reporter's lot is not easy-making exciting stories out of plain, everyday people like Robin and me..."

Mr Freeze is back, but this time he's been not only re-cast (as respected director Otto Preminger, none of whose films I've yet blogged, shamefully) but re-designed with a costume which more echoes the 1959 comic boom version as Mr Zero. And he's kidnapped Miss Iceland, naturally, from that not-so-feminist institution of a beauty contest. He then puts her in a cell and tells her she will learn to love him. Brr. Creepy.

It's a great episode for exciting set pieces, with the Commissioner and O'Hara frozen almost to death in Gordon's office. There's also yet another campaign to smear Batman, and yet another hostile female journalist. But the recycled plot threads are at least done with panache. And the cliffhanger- turning our heroes into frosty freezies (pineapple and lime) is splendidly absurd.


Deep Freeze

"Boo, Batman!"

The cliffhanger resolution is certainly a deliberate climax- our heroes find a tap inside! The smear campaign continues, and Mr Freeze's plan is revealed: to demand $1 billion (the biggest ransom demanded by any villain so far) or he'll freeze the whole city. This is proper sci-fi.

The resolution echoes that of Mr Freeze's previous story, but it's all entertaining enough. And Batman regains the faith of a contrite Commissioner Gordon who, it's fair to say, holds a bit of a candle for him. I wonder- is there any TV themes Batman/Commissioner Gordon filthy fanfic? I dare not look...

A fairly so-so two-parter, then, by Batman standards. But this is still both enormous fun and very watchable stuff. And next week we have the Joker- illustrated by a photograph which really accentuates Cesar Romero's moustache...

Batman: An Egg Grows in Gotham & The Yegg Foes in Gotham

An Egg Grows in Gotham

"All the King's horses and all the King's men won't be able to put you together again!"

This is one of the best two parters so far with a sparkling and gloriously silly script and a splendidly camp and charismatic Vincent Price as the eggceptionally pun-tastic Egghead. I enjoyed it hugely. Eggcept... I have to be that person who points out that something from decades ago is a little bit incredibly racist but, well, look at the portrayal of Chief Screaming Chicken here, a whopping big "Red Indian" stereotype played by an eighty year old white man.

But there’s no denying how eggstremely fun this is, from the shameless puns coming to the extremely silly idea of Gotham City only being leased from the Mohicans with nine raccoon pelts as rent each year. And of course the Wayne’s are one of the founding families. Unfortunately the one remaining Mohican in Gotham, Chief Screaming Chicken, is said outrageous stereotype (“How?” “When?” “Where?”) and is credulous enough to be manipulated by Egghead. Yes, there’s a line from Batman acknowledging that “Indians” have a lot to be aggrieved about, but you certainly couldn’t show this on telly today.

Annoyingly, though, this is brilliant. All the nonsense about “fish” being spelled “ghoti” and the superb comic acting from Adam West and Burt Wars as they counteract the laughing gas with sad pills Is hilarious.

The cliffhanger is delightfully silly- Egghead draining the mind of Bruce Wayne to discover whether he’s Batman is refreshingly unusual.


The Yegg Foes in Gotham

"I guess I laid an egg..."

So what’s a “yegg” then?

Ok, the cliffhanger resolution is rubbish, but they often are. Conveniently Egghead gets just enough info from Bruce to discover that he has “a mind full of trivia” and it’s “inconceivable that he could be Batman”.

Unfortunately, the raccoon pelts have not been paid over by midnight, so the lease of Hotham has reverted back to Screaming Chicken- whose new police commissioner is Egghead. The Dynamic Duo are exiles while the police are comical unable to stop the ensuing crimewave. Fortunately, there’s a loophole, and this plotline is abandoned the moment full comic effect has been reached. Now Egghead is robbing the Treasury (did American cities in the ‘60s not just deduct taxes from salaries?)  followed, of course, by the robbery of eggs from Old MacDonald’s Chicken Farm. Because of course. And the episode ends with the most pun-tastic fight ever.

Take away the dodgy racial bits, and this would be a contender for best story yet. Unfortunately the dodgy racial bits (“My face is so red.”)  can’t be ignored.

The Wolf Man (1941)

“All astronomers are amateurs. When it comes to the heavens, there's only one professional.”

It’s very obvious that this was made about ten years after the Universal horrors I’ve seen so far- it’s so much slicker and pacier, and of course the cars and the fashions are very different, especially Evelyn Ankers’ very 1940s hairdo. One thing is very odd, though; this story is set in Britain, and appears to be in the present day (1941). So why is there no indication of there being a war on?

The whole thing looks great, with plenty of misty, stylised forest scenes, and it runs along at a decent pace, but I’m not sure about the wolf make-up- it looks a bit generic and half-arsed to me. It certainly doesn’t make Lon Chaney Jr look anything like a wolf, just like a hairy bloke with sharp teeth. I have to admit, though, that the set-piece transformation scene, with its foot fetish, is very well-shot, as is the whole movie. Visually, the whole movie is strong enough to survive a bit of lacklustre make-up.

Chaney is superb as the nice-but-dim Larry Talbot, but to put the focus on a character like that- simple, honest and straightforward- seems a little odd in the context of what the film seems to be about. We’re told, blatantly enough and often enough for the word “subtext” to be thoroughly inappropriate, that lycanthropy here is a metaphor for the “duality” of human nature between good, evil, and the shades of grey that lie in-between. Except that none of this applies to Larry, a simple soul who appears to be carrying no mental baggage and whose only character flaw is to unwittingly flirt with a woman who’s engaged.

Claude Rains is also great as Sir John, a superficially jovial and caring father whose great flaw lies in his snobbery, and his obsession with his family name. Larry, to him, is important not as a beloved son but as someone who will ensure another generation of Talbots. He’s not as nice as he seems, and in the end it’s appropriate that it should be him who kills his son. The fact that Larry calls his father “Sir” should probably tell us that this isn’t really as cosy a father / son relationship as it appears.

And then there are the gypsies. They are presented with all the casual racism that might be expected, with a dig at their allegedly “pagan” religious practices, and generally treated as an exotic “other”. Bela Lugosi gets an arse-clenchingly embarrassing cameo as the imaginatively named “Bela the Gypsy” because, of course, it’s perfectly normal for a British gypsy to have a Hungarian name.

The plot’s a bit par for the course and rather blah blah, but there are a couple of rather interesting scenes early on, after Larry uses the telescope to spy on the villagers and things start to go all Rear Window. Not only does he use the telescope to perv on Gwen through her bedroom window, but he later admits that to her! And I can’t understand how she can not be freaked out by this weird stalker chatting her up in the shop and pretty much forcing her to go on a date with him. I can’t understand how Larry is not immediately arrested for the murder of Bela the Gypsy, either, but I’m beginning to notice that the police not suspecting the hero of an obvious crime is something of a trope when it comes to old horror films.

The film has style, I suppose, and noticeably so when compared to some earlier Universal horrors, but ultimately it’s style over substance.