The Clock King's Crazy Crimes

The clock is ticking for Batman and Robin. One of Gotham's finest jewellery shop has been robbed.

The culprit is the Clock King (Walter Slezak) helped by his assistants Second Hand and Millie Second.

Batman deduces that the Clock King had been dealing with an art gallery as Mr Chronos. Now he is pretending to be a Pop Art expert.

The episode was co-written by Bill Finger, instrumental in the Batman comics.

This is certainly a trippy piece. Very much of its time with reference to Pop Art. A window cameo from Sammy Davis jr. The Dynamic Duo go to a fast food outlet that serves BatBurgers.

With all the clock jokes, it does wear out is welcome. The finale has them trapped in a giant hourglass.

"The Clock King's Crazy Crimes" marked the only two part episode scripted by Bill Finger, who helped Batman creator Bob Kane develop the character, in collaboration with Charles Sinclair, later responsible for cult movies "The Green Slime" and "Track of the Moon Beast." Walter Slezak makes for a weak villain in The Clock King, but supplied the internationally known actor required for the role, with Michael Pate, an excellent actor, awkwardly cast as bumbling assistant Second Hand Three. With time of the essence, the Dynamic Duo have to contend with CK's alter ego of Progress Pigment, 'king of Pop Art,' his masterpiece 'Time Out of Joint' designed to achieve his ultimate goal at the Parkhurst Galleries, drilling a hole in the wall to allow him access to steal a priceless painting. The highlights find the Caped Crusaders dining on Batburgers at a local drive-in, and a special Batclimb cameo from Sammy Davis Jr. (rehearsing in the same building where Clock King is hiding out!). Herbert Anderson (DENNIS THE MENACE) would also be cast in a third season episode, "A Horse of Another Color." The death trap is a gigantic hour glass, the sands of time running out for our heroes, stripped of their handy utility belts: "some people kill time but this time, time is going to kill you!"

This is a bit of an oddball two-parter. A scene with Batman and Robin sitting down to have a bat-burger is memorable and okay I guess. The background music sounds different than usual and it is used more often, almost constantly for the whole 25 minutes in fact.

There is one problem area and he comes from my home land Australia: Michael Pate as Clock King's oddball co-worker in crime! Pate is seriously mis-cast as the fool and it is rather uncomfortable watching him do this role. Pate did better work around this time and at the same 20th Century Fox studio with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Time Tunnel.

Clock King himself is just an okay bad guy, at this stage in the series we the viewers had seen so many Bat-bad-guys and Clock King does not compare to characters like The Joker and The Riddler.

This is good but not great.