As difficult as the vintage Batman TV series has been to obtain (finally in 2014 after decades of frustration) that's just how easy the 1966 Batman movie has been to get. It was one of the very first things I bought on VHS for my home library and I've since replaced it on DVD of course.
But now at long last I've been able to view this flick in the context it was intended, a summer big-screen offering between the first and second seasons of the original TV show run. Created to entice foreign distribution of the TV show, the movie has all the elements of the show, just turned up to eleven.
Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin are just as straight-faced and corny as they are in the TV show. The satire of the movie might be a bit more pronounced in the movie as the yarn unrolls over a leisurely one hour and forty-five minutes or so. That has a lot to do with the gaggle of villains (Cesar Romero as Joker, Frank Gorshin as Riddler, Burgess Meredith as Penguin, and debuting Lee Meriwether as Catwoman) who cavort with bristling energy whenever they hit the screen.
Great moments abound such as the attack of the leg-munching shark, Batman's classic dash about the pier to try with little luck to dispose of a bomb, the outlandish romance between Bruce Wayne and Miss Kitka, the dehydrated henchman who pop like balloons in the Batcave, and many more.
Now I'm properly ready for Season Two of the regular series.
Rip Off
The movie was a hoot! I laughed my socks off when I first saw it on TV back in the '70s. That may've been the first time I realised that the TV show was meant in a similar vein, 'cos when I was a kid I thought it was serious drama. If you couldn't have the TV episodes to watch (luckily I've got them), then the movie delivers everything you need to remind you of the show, And Lee Meriwether as Catwoman rocks. I may even prefer her over Julie Newmar.
ReplyDeleteFor many years the movie was all that we had in home to reference the series. It's pitiful it took so long for the series to become available in a home format. Now the same plight holds the Green Hornet and Kato hostage. I'd love to see those episodes again and maybe a bootleg is the answer.
DeleteI was a kid when it premiered in theaters, I loved it then as that kid, and I appreciate the humor as an adult. Only two things that bugged me then & now is: no Julie Newmar, and where was the Batman theme music? One of the most iconic themes in TV or movies.
ReplyDeleteThe classic theme is missed but I found Lee Meriwether quite a good substitute. But no doubt Newmar is the classic.
DeleteThe summer of '66 brought us not only Batman, but big-screen adaptions of The Flintstones and The Munsters as well (The Man Called Flintstone and Munster, Go Home!, respectively). And as with this film, they come off resembling an extended episode (albeit with a larger budget and slightly better production values), rather than something exceptional that would stand out from their series. I believe that's why these three movies underwhelmed at the box office, and why the TV-to-movies trend fizzled out afterward.
ReplyDeleteGood points. I keep reading that the movie was intended as a pilot of sorts for the series in other markets, so they'd have wanted to keep it true to form for the most part. But we are entering the era when movies needed to be more than just what one could get on TV despite the success of repackaged TV shows as B-movie items.
Delete"It was one of the very first things I bought on VHS for my home library and I've since replaced it on DVD of course."
ReplyDeleteI wish you had saved the VHS.
It presented the movie in "unmatted" format.
The movie was shot using standard TV-format (4:3) film cameras and "matted" top-and-bottom when projected on movie screens to give a "widescreen" presentation!
The VHS (which was meant to be seen on older 4:3 TVs used the "umatted" version which gave more image top-and-bottom!
ALSO, until HBOFamily went Hi-Definition, that was the version they broadcast!
I still have my VHS copy though sadly my last working VHS player bit the dust a few years back. It's like treasure which is in a box I no longer have a key to.
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