However, lest we forget this film is now 52 years old (it came out after the success of the first series of the TV show) and I'd say it's probably at least 25 years since I last saw any of the '60s Batman TV series. Part of me has always kind of wanted to revisit it but at the same time there's a part of me that's always been scared it was going to look horribly naff compared to the big hitter superhero movies like...well, Dark Knight for a starters but also stuff like Iron Man and the Avengers which pretty much ushered in the era of really good superhero movies. However, thanks to this blog, it now looks as if I'm about to find out. Gulp...
In all fairness though, the opening 15 minutes or so of this film pretty much involves everything that made '60s Batman so great. Batman and Robin receive an emergency call that someone is about to attack a yacht bringing a top secret invention from Britain to the States off Gotham harbour. They promptly floor it out to the docks in the batmobile...
...where the BATCOPTER is waiting for them! Cue shots of ordinary Gotham citizens including a group of girls in bikinis waving to our caped crusaders.
After a quick flight out to sea, the duo see the yacht just off the coast. Batman prepares to board using the BAT-LADDER! (labelled just in case anyone forgets what it is)
...only for the yacht to disappear and Batman to emerge from the waves with a (less than convincing) shark attacking his leg! Robin quickly grabs the Bat Shark-Repellent! (handily stored in a cabinet with other similar items)
...allowing Batman to spray the shark which promptly explodes once it hits the ocean!
Back in Gotham, the Dynamic Duo are giving a press conference where a Russian journalist, Miss Kitka, asks if they could remove their masks. The pair understandably refuse and promptly go into a meeting with Commissioner Gordon. Bringing up a computer report of current Batman villains not in captivity, it's revealed that the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin and Catwoman are all currently at large.
...and as it turns out, the whole operation is a four-way joint effort between them! Also, it turns out that Miss Kitka was in fact Catwoman in disguise, spying to see whether Batman and Robin had figured the villains' plot out. The commodore of the yacht has in fact been kidnapped by the villains and thinks he's still stranded somewhere off the coast in the fog.
Batman and Robin quickly figure out that the illusion they came across earlier must have been the work of a buoy in the sea near where they encountered the shark. Cue the BATBOAT! Unfortunately it turns out that Joker, Riddler and Penguin are tailing them using a PENGUIN SUBMARINE! The buoy has a giant magnet inside it which promptly pins the Dynamic Duo to it using their utility belts and Joker fires three missiles at them. Batman manages to use a sonar wave to detonate the first two before they reach the buoy but the third one gets through. Cue the villains celebrating...
...we then cut to Batman and Robin driving safely away with Batman explaining that a suicidal porpoise threw itself in front of the missile thus saving them. Again, if you were in any doubt that this story was taking itself seriously, this should prove that it very much isn't. And that's why we love it/hate it (delete according to preference).
The Fearsome Foursome of villains decide to revert to Plan C with Catwoman disguising herself as Miss Kitka in order to honeytrap Bruce Wayne who they intend to kidnap (not realising Batman and Bruce are one and the same). Sure enough, she persuades him that she's being tailed by the Riddler and the two of them go out on a date so that Bruce can keep an eye on her. Robin and Alfred tail them in the Batmobile but decide to (understandably) turn off the bug transmitter when they get to Kitka's flat.
Sure enough, the other three villains and their henchmen promptly turn up on GIANT FLYING UMBRELLAS and overpower Bruce. However, Bruce being Batman he promptly escapes (albeit still not realising that Kitka is Catwoman) by beating up the baddies with one of the henchmen being sprung through a window and blown up by an exploding octopus (sadly off camera).
Batman and Robin promptly return to the docks but the villains have long since done a runner and vacated the lair leaving behind a giant bomb for Batman to find. There then follows a sequence which is much funnier than it really has any right to be with Batman looking for a place to dispose of the bomb only to be thwarted by the inexplicable appearance of a Salvation Army band, some kids, some nuns and a family in a rowboat among others! "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!" must surely be the line of the film so far...
Having finally got rid of the bomb in the water, the duo are surprised when Penguin turns up disguised unconvincingly as the commodore (wait, so Batman and Robin can figure this out but couldn't work out that Miss Kitka was Catwoman despite them having the same face?). The pair see through his disguise and take him back to the Batcave for questioning. However, it was all a trap by Penguin who's nicked the real Commodore's rehydrator device and used it to turn five of his goons into piles of powder. As soon as he gets the chance, he quickly rehydrates them but unfortunately he does so using the heavy water from the Batcave's atomic pile and the thugs dematerialise as soon as Batman and Robin punch them!
The pair drive Penguin back to the docks in the Batmobile but accidentally-on-purpose leave him in it alone allowing him to steal it. However, this was part of a cunning plan by Batman who promptly grabs the BAT BIKE and uses it to transport him and Robin to the airport to the Batcopter so they can find out where Penguin is headed. However, en route they end up getting accidentally shot down by one of the Riddler's missiles but luckily end up being saved by falling on to a giant pile of rubber foam in a clearance warehouse!
The villains, now with Penguin back in the fold, have meanwhile headed to a meeting of the United World Organisations Security Council (whose members seem to be consistently arguing) where they dehydrate everyone and do a runner with the members trapped in test tubes! Batman attempts to stop them but Catwoman warns that Kitka will be killed if he tries anything (for someone so clever, Batman isn't half daft when it comes to spotting female double agents)
The villains escape to the penguin submarine with Batman and Robin giving chase in the Batboat. They lure the vessel to the surface using depth charges and engage the crew in a fight - cue the neon signs...
Eventually, Batman and Robin win the fight by tying Joker, Riddler, Penguin and their goons to the side of the sub using a tow rope. Catwoman attempts to escape into the sub but trips over and is caught by Batman. Her mask falls off and Batman finally (!) works out who she is. They manage to retrieve the test tubes but unfortunately the commodore comes blundering in, trips into Batman and sends the test tubes crashing to the floor where they break and the powder gets intermixed.
After a long night working with the machinery in the Batcave, Batman and Robin manage to separate the dust and take it back to the UWOSC building for rehydration. The council members are brought back successfully but seem to have all taken on each others' characteristics (so the American guy is speaking Russian, the British guy has become Japanese, the Israeli guy has become French etc). They decide to leave them to it and quietly make an exit out of a side window using the bat ropes to continue their fight against crime...
Okay, safe to say straight away that this is very much not the Dark Knight trilogy. But, in it's own way, it's a great film. Unashamedly silly, with in-jokes by the score and performances which are brilliantly OTT without getting too grating, it still has some tremendously fun action sequences (compare it to the '70s Marvel films which it well and truly leaves in the dust and you'll see what I mean). I think the key with this film is just to not take it too seriously, appreciate it on its own merits and enjoy it for what it is. Once you do, you'll see why it's one of the best early comic-based films and well worth a watch.
The Batman TV series would run for another two years after this film. Unfortunately, after being one of the top viewed TV shows during its first two series, viewing figures tailed off in series 3 and it was cancelled in 1968 before another film could be made which is a shame really - one thing's for certain, after watching this film I'm definitely making it a mission to revisit the old TV episodes I grew up with when I get a chance. As for this blog though, we won't be encountering Batman again until 1989 when things will be very different...
FINAL SCORE: 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇 (8/10)
DC LEAGUE
1. Batman (1966) (8/10)
2. Superman and the Mole Men (1951) (5/10)
NEXT WEEK: The first Wonder Woman film and a look into how the TV series might have turned out...
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