Batman

The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin & Catwoman have joined forces to wreak havoc on Gotham City......and then the World! Can Batman & Robin save the day?

Remember when Batman was fun? Not a serious scene in sight, no tales of revenge or personal demons to burst from the screen in a day glow burst of thunder. For many of us who grew up in the 60s and 70s this was the only Batman that mattered, pure unadulterated fun, all campy veneer and skin tight Technicolor suits. This full length outing for the dynamic duo is of course just an extended episode from the joyous TV series, just add a bit more money and you got a Bat Boat, a Bat Helicopter and erm, erm, Bat Shark Repellent! It's just wonderful I tell you.

How any of the actors kept straight faces is anyones guess, but they did, and they collectively delighted millions of children and like minded adults in a way that can't be described to the none believers, thank holy god for the caped crusaders that always kept us safe. 8/10

Footnote: Watching now in my middle years I ask any red blooded male this; is there anything more sexy than Lee Meriwether in the Catwoman suit? No wonder my Dad was a fan of the show back then...........

1966 was, among many other things, the year of "Batman". This campy color TV series (very) loosely based on the classic comic strip, was originally planned for a fall debut. But the ABC network which commissioned the show, had already seen several of their new programs fail dismally in the ratings. Desperate for some promising new material. they gave "Batman" the green light, and it premiered in January. Thanks to it's 'hip' humor, an eye-popping kaleidoscope of bizarre color backgrounds and a cast of "guest villains" second to none: Julie Newmar, Cesar Romero, Anne Baxter, Burgess Meredith (the list goes on and on) the show was an immediate smash. Suddenly, America became "batty" and it's popularity was so great that stars scrambled for a chance to appear on the program. Along with its ratings, success came the brilliant merchandising campaign - everything from bubble gum cards and records to underwear and cereal. Inevitably, a movie was planned, supposedly either to introduce audiences to the show (which wasn't necessary after all, because the program was picked up first) or to sell the series overseas. It's main function, of course, was to cash in on the Batmania flooding the country while it was still hot. So, with a slightly bigger budget - mainly to accommodate the construction of the batboat and the batcopter, a feature version of the show was quickly filmed between the end of the first season and the beginning of the second. By the time of the movie's release in August 1966, however, the Batman craze had already begun to fade. The critics, for the most part, dismissed the film and audiences chose to ignore it. And, in recent years, there has been some speculation as to what happened. Although it has been written that Twentieth Century-Fox did little to inform the public that this was a project made exclusively for the big screen and not (as with "The Man from Uncle") a compilation of previously seen television episodes edited into a feature. In fact, the movie was promoted both in advertising materials (trailers, posters, etc) and magazine features as being "All New, Made Especially for the Giant Motion Picture Screen". It appears that the viewing public felt that it was probably just more of the same, figuring there was no point in paying to see what they got for free at home. So, despite mass bookings in every theater available, the film came and went. But, seen today, "Batman" holds up well, capturing perfectly what was one of the biggest fads to come along in the sixties.

Adam West and Burt Ward personify the clueless but virtuous Superheroes - always ready for a challenge, and, as usual, lionized by their puny police force led by Commissioner Gordon (Neil Hamilton) and Chief O'Hara (Stafford Repp). Alfred, alter-ego Bruce Wayne's faithful butler (Alan Napier) and Harriet Cooper (Madge Blake), aunt of Robin's alter ego Dick Grayson are on hand as well. The chief delight here though, are the four Supervillains - The Catwoman (Lee Meriwether, subbing for Julie Newmar), The Penguin (a rakish Burgess Meredith), The Joker (onetime Latin lover Cesar Romero) and The Riddler (a manic Frank Gorshin). The plot, the usual nonsense involving this crew's attempt at world domination, serves as a suitable background for sight gags and pratfalls galore. Meriwether and Meredith are the Villains with the most footage, each getting to disguise themselves during the course of the story. Posing as Russian reporter Miss Kitka, and sporting a commendably convincing accent, the incredibly lovely Meriwether is (understandably) successful in a scheme to lure Bruce Wayne into a kidnapping, hoping Batman will dash to the rescue! Meredith is not quite as able, in his guise as the villain's hostage Commodore Schmidlapp, though he does manage to get into the secret Batcave. And the plot thickens...West and Ward perform their chores with appropriately deadpan dispatch, but, as usual, the devils have the best parts, with Lee Meriwether offering a deliciously different interpretation of The Catwoman, and Burgess Meredith, who was born to play The Penguin, standing out. Batman is great fun both for younger viewers (who won't pick up on the intentional parody) and older ones (who will). "Holy time capsule!" Sevaral years ago, a wide screen DVD was released. It boasts an excellent transfer, Stereo sound and many extras, including a running commentary track with West and Ward, trailers, still galleries, and new featurettes about the film, and the Batmobile, with creator George Barris. A MUST for Batfans!

If you can't appreciate the sublime glory that is the 1966 version of "Batman," I pity you, brother. There's nothing quite like Adam West dashing around a pier, holding a bomb with a ridiculously long fuse, declaring, "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!" There's nothing quite like Cesar Romero's refusal to shave his moustache before putting on his Joker makeup. There's nothing like Romero and Frank Gorshin getting in a cackling contest as the Joker and the Riddler. For that matter, there's nothing like the Joker and the Penguin deciding that they need to don masks in order to commit crimes...

Comic book dorks whine and complain about the 60's-era Batman - I say that such people don't recognize how great the 60's Batman really was - the best fictional characters are the ones who can stand up through the decades to dozens of different interpretations. There's room in the world for Tim Burton's Batman, Adam West's Batman...heck, maybe even Joel Shumacher's Batman. Like "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai," "Rocky IV" or "Flash Gordon," this version of Batman is one of the great goofy pleasures of movie-watching.

Having, losing, gaining... to a generation of kids this WAS Batman. Only when Tim Burton reinvented the big screen perception of the "caped crusader" did it become outdated.

The third of the new films, Batman Forever parodied this film and the series with a "holy" joke. Unfortunately the movie in question was the first to be directed by Joel Schumacher, and so was consequently brash and bereft of wit. Yes, thanks to ShoeMaker this version of Gotham has suddenly become the coolest yet again.

It's all such brilliant fun, awash with the irony so gloriously absent from Batman & Robin. Michael Keaton was a wonderfully dark Batman, but the other two were planks. Adam West is knowingly hammy as the title role, and relishes the deliberately cheesy lines. He has a potbelly and a costume that looks like it was made out of an old binliner. Anyone who cannot see the genius of that is beyond help. Burt Ward's brilliantly overacted Robin is also hilarious, and far less irritating than the asinine Chris O'Donnell version.

The Batmobile is ace, too. I remember having a chunky Corgi model of the car that shot out matchsticks across the room. Much better than a CGI-enhanced penile extension. Even the rubbish filmed backdrops are fun. Everything's a bat-something in this film, a rope ladder having a large "Bat Ladder" sign tied to the end.

This is a fantastic movie, how could anyone not love it? Some hilarious scenes include the shark fight, the trap door spring and Batman with the biggest (and longest-fused) bomb in history. Look at this dialogue exchange where they try to work out which supervillain is behind the mayhem: "But wait! It happened at sea. See? C for Catwoman." "An exploding shark ... was pulling my leg." "The Joker! It all led to a sinister riddle. Riddle -er. Riddler?"

Fortunately, it turns out they're all involved, along with Burgess Meredith as the Penguin. The scenes set on the villains' hideout are shot with the camera at slanted angles, an inspired touch. All the poor things about this film work in its favour - Cesar Romero as the Joker looks about 80 and clearly hasn't bothered to shave off his moustache, but it works, as does the full-bore "acting" of Meredith and Merriwether. Only Frank Gorshin as the Riddler slightly disappoints; though that's because he's nowhere near as over the top. He is, of course, infinitely preferable to Jim Carrey. Anyway, they all work superbly together and the film doesn't feel top-heavy. A huge flaw of the new series, where more than one villain never quite clicked, can you imagine Nicholson, Pfeiffer, Carrey and DeVito all in the same movie? Of course it'd be impossible not just in budget but in egos, so having modest TV actors here serves the story well. One strange element of characterisation is seeing the Joker getting bossed around by the Penguin, something that would never happen in the comics.

Some of it's so wilfully silly it almost goes too far. If you put your tongue into your cheek you may choke, and seeing a Pentagon head playing tiddlywinks eggs the joke a little, though the whole thing is so well-meaning that you simply can't hold it against the movie. The plot, though, really isn't up to much at all, something I never noticed as a child (but then I never realised it was a comedy when I was a child, either). A repetitious sequence of events that sees the villains constantly trying to destroy Batman and Robin from afar, the heroes trying to locate their secret base. It goes round in circles, but a glorious "Biff! Pow!" fight on a submarine and a sideways swipe at eugenics make sure it all ends in style.

Lastly, look out for the scene where Ward and West run up and down on the spot ("Luckily we're in tip-top condition!") while a film background of a street and the theme tune play - a classic. Simple, silly fun and almost relentlessly appealing. So much so I nearly added another point to the total... 6/10.

A wise man once said "The 60s Batman movie is the greatest ever." I should know, because I was that wise man.

OK, it might not be the greatest movie, but it is one of the awesomest movies ever. Only in 'Batman' could intelligent writers come up with some of the most illogical situations and cheesiest dialog committed to screen.

A Yacht disappears in Gotham Harbour ("How can a yacht simply disappear... unless, it was never really there!"). On board was a 'superdehydrator', a machine that can extract the moisture from any living being, and in of the most logical displays of logic ever, Batman and friends logically come to the (correct) conclusion that the culprits are the combined forces of Penguin, Joker, the Riddler and Catwoman, apparently intent on world domination.

'Batman is scene-after-scene of pure brilliance - great situations, and the greatest dialog ever. 'Batman' is very funny, but only if you appreciate and enjoy the style, otherwise you will hate it. But only those who lack a sense of awesomeness would not like it, and who is really so un-awesome, that they can't even find the captioned fights just that little bit amusing?

8/10 - Awesome, simply awesome