Batman

In Gothan City, in the Word War II, the Japanese spy Dr. Tito Daka (J. Carrol Naish) has a gang working for the Japanese government. He plans to steal a radium load to use in a lethal weapon and hijack an American prototype airplane. The evil Dr. Daka uses a machine to turn people into zombies to work for him. Batman is indeed the lazy millionaire Bruce Wayne (Lewis Wilson), and Robin is his protegee Dick Grayson (Douglas Croft) that are supported by the butler and chauffeur Alfred Pennyworth (William Austin). Bruce Wayne's love interest is Linda Page (Shirley Patterson) and Dr. Daka kidnaps her uncle Martin Warren to help him in his research but turns him into a zombie when he refuses to cooperate with the mastermind of the spy ring. Along fifteen Chapters, Dr. Daka stumbles upon Batman and the boy wonder Robin and they will fight each other.

"Batman" (1943) is the landmark of the first appearance of Batman on the screen and in serial at the climax of World War II. This low budget serial does not have the Batmobile; instead, Batman and Robin use Bruce Wayne's Cadillac convertible driven by Alfred. The plot has anti-Japanese messages and is silly, naive and funny in many moments, but is also highly entertaining and divided in 15 Chapters that were presented in the theaters once a week; now they are available on DVD. (1) The Electrical Brain; (2) The Bat's Cave; (3) The Mark of the Zombies; (4) Slaves of the Rising Sun; (5) The Living Corpse; (6) Poison Peril; (7) The Phoney Doctor (8) Lured by Radium; (9) The Sign of the Sphinx; (10) Flying Spies; (11) A Nipponese Trap; (12) Embers of Evil; (13) Eight Steps Down (14) The Executioner Strikes; (15) The Doom of the Rising Sun. Maybe the funniest scenes are when Dr. Daka communicates with his submarine by radio and they release a coffin with a near-death Japanese soldier only to tell that he should hijack an airplane; and when a spy breaks the window of the airplane to throw off a cargo of radium using parachutes for Dr. Daka's men. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Batman"

Discovering the Batman serial and the strip cartoon at the age of eight must have shaped (warped?) my taste for the rest of my life.

Even pre-pubescent, I could tell this one was superior to the draggy Sam Katzman chapter plays which engulfed my Saturday afternoons. Encountering it again in the sixties when it was a star turn in the low camp boom wasn't an anti climax. The imagery (imagery yet!) of the comic book survived diluted and distorted. Batman silhouetted against a night sky made white by the deep red filter, after Robin strikes fear into the hearts of the henchmen by showing the bat signal on their wall, remains embedded in the memory bank. A disguised Bruce Wayne waves a gun at one stage and we miss the Batmobile but Bob Kane made over his drawings of Alfred the Butler to look like William Austin.

Add on another forty (gulp) years and we've had political correctness an a version removing Knox Manning's narration about the wisdom of a government that locks up it's evil Nipponese citizens in a camp or the fetching Shirley Patterson shrieking "A Jap" when faced with J. Carrol Naisch, his Irish eyes pulled back into the fiendish mask of Dr. Dakar the sadistic son of Nippon feeding henchmen to pet alligators. The baggy forties suits and baggy 4F extras, along with the tackiness of the hand me down sets have become period detail as much as drab. We do notice that they have only two zombie hats so if there are a couple on screen, one has to go out and send another one in.

Along with that however, there are some remarkably well staged action scenes - the chase after that armored car we keep on seeing in old Columbia movies, the fire that showers (The) Batman with burning rafters,apparently staged by western specialist Harry Frazer who gets a writer credit.

Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft and Shirley Patterson must have resented the fact that their careers peaked here but how about poor old Lambert Hillyer who was one of the architects of the classic westerns of William S. Hart and has now survived only as the director of record of this rush job kids actioner.

This serial is nothing short of a total blast, a fun romp from start to finish. You gotta love that the first thing you see at the start of chapter one, is Batman at his desk in his Batcave with bats flying all around, and you only see their shadows, but you also see the shadows of all the thick control wires making the fake bats fly around. That sets the tone perfectly!

No crappy computer effects to muck things up here. Of course this is a serial and it's all great fun, and you have to laugh that the film takes various dramatic license, such as why are Batman and Robin never just shot at, and why they don't fear guns (while always being unarmed themselves).

Truth is, this serial is non-stop, it's virtually always exciting and there's a lot of cool fights. One thing I noticed is that Batman is either always getting his head bashed in, or he's getting into some trouble where Robin has to save him (at the start of the next chapter of course). You'd figure since Robin saves Batman so many times, Batman would treat Robin a little more equally!

And about the 'racist' stuff...it was made in 1943 folks. Consider the climate in America at the time and who our enemies were, and just let it go. No matter how much the revisionists try, you can't change the past, and it should not be hidden, either. And in no way does the tone of the storyline detract from the fact that this serial is such a blast. This should be released on DVD in its original uncut form, the way it was meant to be seen.

As a lover of the Saturday serials I was delighted to see that Columbia/Sony/etc.... was releasing the 1943 "BATMAN" on DVD (co-incidently on the same day that "Batman Begins" is released on DVD). I HAVE seen it at the movies on 2 consecutive Saturdays years ago and thought myself lucky to have "acquired" a bootleg copy through a fanzine (lousy print but when you're a collector you take the good with the bad). While it was unfortunate that our Japanese neighbors received harsh treatment due to the wartime climate, it was still good to see the rough and tumble action that Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft (or to be more precise, their stunt doubles) brought to the screen. I won't dwell on Lewis' less than athletic presence in costume but as Bruce Wayne he was a dead ringer. Rumor has it that the BatCave, the Grandfather's clock entrance and Alfred's miraculous weight loss in the comics were directly influenced by this serial. Some of the second in command gangsters were just as Kane drew them and although Shirley Patterson did little more than scream she was none the less a hottie as Linda Page. Throw in J. Carrol Naish as villain Dr. Daka and you have 4 hours of escapist enjoyment.

This is one of the best of Columbia's serials produced in the 40s. There's no Batmobile or Batplane but hey, this was 1943.

There's the usual assortment of narrow escapes, last minute rescues, zombies, an alligator pit and an endless supply of the villain's henchmen.

Also included are some great stuntwork and excellent fight scenes.

Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft make an credible Batman and Robin and their alter-egos Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Two distinct advantages this serial has is it's wartime setting and the casting of the excellent J. Carroll Naish as the chief villain, Daka who is trying to install "The New Order" in America. Many serial and "B" movie veterans are cast in other roles. Look for George J. Lewis, Tom London and Dick Curtis as various henchmen and Charles Middleton, on the right side of the law for a change.