BATMAN
(1966)Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Fox Home Video
BATMAN
(1966)WHAM! BAM! POW! OOF! CRUNCH! HOLY TECH7NOLOGY!!!!!! THE ORIGINAL BATMAN IS NOW OUT ON DVD!!!! Yes! Yes! Fans of the original 1966- 68 series can rejoice in Gotham City!!! Twentieth Century Fox Home Video has released the original 1966 theatrical feature (featuring everyone who worked on the series at one time or another) to DVD and all I can say is... Fox Home Video-I LOVE YOU!!!!!
HOLY VILLAINS, BATMAN!!! It seems
that four of Gotham City's most notorious bad guys (girl--in the case of "Catwoman")
are on the loose and plan to take over the world with Commodore Schmidlapp's
(Reginald Denny) latest invention... a dehydrator which can turn humans into
dust by absorbing all moisture out of the body. The fiendish foursome in question
are... "Catwoman"(Lee Meriwether), "Joker" (Cesar Romero),
"Penguin" (Burgess Meredith--I LOVE HIM!! !), and "Riddler"
(Frank Gorshin). Who can stop this gallery of villains? What will become of
the world? Who will save us from being turned into colorful sand? TO THE BATMOBILE!!!!!
Naturally, it falls upon that "Dynamic Duo"--"Batman" (Adam
West) and "Boy Wonder Robin" (Burt Ward) to save the inhabitants of
the world from being all dried up!!!! How do they do that? Well... all I'm going
to say is that it is 105 minutes of pure, unadulterated, campy, cult classic
FUN featuring exploding sharks, fake yachts, exploding missles, heroic dolphins,
a little romance between Miss Kitka ("Catwoman's" alter ego) and Bruce
Wayne ("Batman's" alter ego), the Batcave, the Batboat, the Batchopper,
the Batphone and last (but never least) a terrific climactic battle with all
those great on-screen words like
WHAM! BAM! POW! ZOWIE!
This film was unique for its time in several ways. Most notably the fact that the theatrical film was released while the show was still on the air in first run episodes on ABC. According to Burt Ward and Adam West on the DVD's audio commentary, they made the film just after production wrapped on the first season, so the film already had a built in cult following BEFORE it even came out. Naturally, this helped it succeed at the box office. In 1970, a similar situation happened with HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS. The daytime soap opera, "Dark Shadows," continued to be in production while the film was being made.
Adam West will ALWAYS be the definitive "Batman" as far as I'm concerned and his own love, admiration, (most of all) respect for the role is abundantly clear in his audio comments. Burt Ward (who I'll admit DOES overact "Robin") is so charmingly naïve that one can easily overlook his lack of acting experience. Lee Meriwether as "Catwoman" did NOT originate the role on the television series as some publications have mistakenly reported. That task went to Julie Newmar, but according to Adam West on the audio commentary, she was filming on location in the southwest on Columbia Pictures' MACKENNA'S GOLD with Gregory Peck and couldn't reprise "Catwoman" for the movie. Miss Meriwether (a former Miss America) does a GREAT job in her own right managing to be sexy, alluring (it's easy to see why Bruce Wayne falls so easily into her clutches), but most of all villainous. Miss Meriwether DID appear on a 1967 episode (but NOT as "Catwoman") and I always thought it was a shame she didn't become Julie Newmar's replacement when she left in the second season (the job went to Eartha Kitt). Cesar Romero plays "The Joker" to the hilt much in the same way he would later play the evil Dr. Mallic in Ishiro Honda's LATTITUDE ZERO (1969). Frank Gorshin is an absolute riot as "The Riddler" with that maniacal laugh and those corny riddles. And last, BUT NEVER LEAST is Burgess Meredith as "The Penguin." Meredith began his career in many straight dramas in the 1930s and 1940s, but starting with BATMAN, he became cool and hip to a whole new generation of young viewers with his sinister quacking laugh. Meredith would continue to introduce himself to new generations, not only with reruns of BATMAN, but with his role as "Mickey" in Stallone's ROCKY films and with his role in the GRUMPY OLD MEN films playing Jack Lemmon's 95 year old father who still chases the ladies around town. Rounding out the BATMAN cast are Alan Napier (as Alfred, the faithful butler), Neil Hamilton (as Commissioner Gordon), Stafford Repp (as Chief O'Hara), and Madge Blake (as Bruce Wayne's Aunt Harriet Cooper). Napier, Hamilton. Repp, and Blake have considerably LESS to do in the film than on the television show.
This DVD is a magnificent presentation featuring an anamorphic widescreen transfer (aspect ratio 1.85:1). The print is beautiful for a 35 year old film with sharp and detailed colors (which REALLY show off the art directors' brilliant work). The scenes in the Batcave are particularly excellent with a variety of blues and other colors on the machines throughout the laboratory. Also, the various colorful costumes are also well represented on this DVD. You really get the comic strip feel of the whole thing while watching this DVD especially the scenes with rear projection. They look rather fake today, but that makes it all the more appealing in a campy sort of way. The sound track in Dolby Digital is excellent and one track has stereo English. There is a mono English track as well as a mono French track. Also, there is the already mentioned audio commentary track with Adam West and Burt Ward. Subtitles are in English and Spanish.
The extras on this DVD include a five minute tour of the Batmobile with original designer George Barris, a BATMAN featurette with on camera interviews with West and Ward (who looks like he COULDN'T fit into those tights today!!! !), the original 1966 teaser and theatrical trailers (plus one with Spanish subtitles), and a still gallery. WOW!!! What a show!!! Now if this DVD is a success, we fans can only hope Fox will release episodes of the series on DVD sooner rather than later!!! (Joe Cascio)