#81
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Batman, Episodes 17 and 18 - "True or False Face" and "Holy Rat Race" Holyrat.jpg Trueorfalse.jpg While I'm no fan of false face,( a slightly ordinary villain with talent so mundane it makes O'Hara look animated, although when False Face became O'Hara, he seemed slightly less stupid than normal).Of course, no episode is complete without the villain's henchwoman falling for the bat's charms, and Blaze is no different here, in fact, she pretty much betrays False Face almost from the start, and gives our superheroes clues on where to catch her villain boss. Her character pretty much does a 360-degree turn and is reformed pretty miraculously,(although I think this is a ploy to get into the Batmans tights), but realising she can never be Mrs Batman, Blaze goes off to New Zealand to be shepherdess with her brother...eh...The second episode in the story is a lot better than the previous, with some decent action scenes in an abandoned film lot, and a nice homage to HG Lewis She-Devils on Wheels, takes place, where Batman tries to decapitate False Face on a motorbike by stringing some bat rope across the street, of course, no heads were actually decapitated he just falls off in the nick of time.,and of course it was no homage but still..The highlight in this episode is a great bit of comedy between Chief O'Hara and Billy Curtis as the diminutive henchman of False FAce, Curtis has to be dragged off O'Hara as he gets the better of the Chief in a fight..
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
#82
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Episodes 19 and 20 - "The Purr-fect Crime," and "Better Luck Next Time" cw.jpgcat.jpg There is something particularly odd about seeing Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara going all soppy over the delivery of a kitten, there like two little kids, until it occurs to are two coppers that this is the calling card of Catwoman, who else of course. The arrival of Julie Newmar as The Catwoman is a real boost to the series and as a villain,, she is equal and in some cases a much better character when dealing with the relationship between bats and his opponents. Her flirtatious ways and almost coy mannerisms when she is dealing with the caped crusaders are pitch-perfect and you can tell that Newmar's having a lot of fun with this character. its a great start to introducing this character, in fact in some scenes they hint at an almost supernatural element to her persona, hinting that she might be able to change into an actual cat, one-minute there's an actual cat, the next Catwoman pops out of thin air. You do wonder what the writers were doing when Catwoman utters the line to one of her henchmen "You can brush my pussywillows.", er hold on guys this is a family show, perhaps this was the inspiration for Mrs Slocombe's antics in Are You Being Served??? You have to say the Catwoman certainly gives Emma Peel a run for her money in the costume department.
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. Last edited by Inspector Abberline; 24th July 2019 at 10:44 PM. |
#83
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^ Julie Newmar, the best Catwoman. |
#84
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Episodes 19 and 20 - "The Purr-fect Crime," and "Better Luck Next Time" cw2.jpg At one point Catwoman tells Batman that she does not like the sight of blood, which is very surprising considering the traps she has left for the caped crusaders, a sliding wall with spikes on both sides..(Army of Darkness anyone???), and a choose the door competition, where the participant wins a fight with a bloody great tiger, at least the spikes in the room were rubber.. The scene where the stuntman (although I assume it was an animal trainer dressed in the bat costume) is one of those moments that could have gone horribly wrong for the guy annoying the beast (named, Tinkerbell) and it would have been all recorded in glorious gory colour if it had all gone Pete tong..Luckily for Batman, he can climb up walls and send some audio waves out shatter Tinkerbells tiny little brain. Speaking of tigers, Catwoman henchmen are suitably attired in tiger-striped jackets, to be honest, you really could not look any camper if you tried, also they resemble the cat in the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons which makes it even odder. Catwoman's lair is also very impressive, not many supervillains have their own tiger Pitt to throw your opponents into. A great pair of episodes, of course, Julie Newmar steals the show and looks total gorgeous lounging around on the back of her sports car...It has quite a poignant ending as Catwoman loses one her nine lives, all due to her greed I must add kids, Robin, in particular, is upset at her seemingly demise into a cavernous pit, methinks we actually get some real acting from the boy wonder...
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
#85
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Episodes 21 and 22 - "The Penguin Goes Straight," and "Not Yet, He Ain't" thYQ79HUQN.jpg What's this, the Penguin going straight, fighting crime with his umbrella, and in the process starts dating socialite Sophia Starr, while guarding her jewellery in the process. Well, the crime fighters smell something fishy,(well they wouldn't they), as the Penguin outwits several outlaws. Well, it does not take a genius, or a Police Commissioner to work out this is obviously a scam by our sardine-loving super-villain...Its an interesting story of role reversal, that makes for some funny moments, with the Penguin taunting our dynamic duo, also check out the scene where Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara are interrogating a criminal,their strong-arm tactics are particularly laughable,and only when the shadow of Batman comes into view does the criminal seem to buckle. There's a great appearance from Harvey Lembeck as one of Penguins henchmen, he will be familiar to anyone who watched Sgt Bilko /The Phil Silvers Show and Billy Wilders brilliant Stalag 17 (1953), nice to see him in colour for a change as well. Obviously Burgess Meredith is wonderful in the role,and there's no doubt that he relishes the role, probably a bit too much, as the scene where he is eating out of a massive jar of imported sardines, is quite disgusting, as he spoons mouthfuls down his throat.(I'm no expert but why is his sardines white??)...Also very peculiar to see the penguin and his boys driving around in the Batmobile....
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
#86
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Episodes 21 and 22 - "The Penguin Goes Straight," and "Not Yet, He Ain't" Notyet.jpgPenguinstraight.jpg 008.jpgbatbike.jpg Previously on Batman, are dynamic duo were strung up behind a shooting gallery by the Penguin and his men, but wait what's this Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara are taking there aim and fire at the two targets, Holy blood splattered death by firing squad...Don't worry they escape, although the solution to there predicament was so silly its not worth repeating, lets just say they have bullet proof soles of there feet, I know ridiculous. The 2nd episode in the story really manages to push the limits of credibility to its maximum. Batman and Robin are so disillusioned by the whole plot they literally go batshit crazy, in one scene they face the Penguin, threatening to do him harm, while twitching and convulsing like two over acting mental patients...In fact they over act so much there is nothing left for the police to do but chase are dynamic duo down a dark alley way and machine gun the both of them to death...Of course this all one big ruse to ruffle the feathers of Penguin and his men and find out what he is actually up to. While you assume the Police were in on this con trick, I did wonder why when Chief O'Hara presents Commissioner Gordon with the bill for all the blank ammunition, Gordon does a double take, either the blanks were two expensive or Gordon wasn't in on this either...This storyline certainly throws a few curve balls to say the least, Penguins romance and wedding caper, the dynamic duos decline in mental health and subsequent shooting, Penguin's hijacking of the bat phone in Commissioner Gordons office, but the best was the inclusion of the Bat Cycle and sidecar for Robin of course, love those gadgets...The ending has Penguin arrested of course, but just to humiliate his bride even further, when confronted with Sophia Starr who wants to reform the Penguin, and still wants to marry him even after all the things he has done, the Penguin rejects her and demands to go back to his cell ,isn't love grand...
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
#87
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Quote:
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#88
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Apparently in the same vein, the bat mobile was only able to do about 40 mph, so they had to speed up the film to make it look like it was going fast...
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
#89
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23 & 24: The Ring of Wax/Give 'em the Axe Ringwax.jpgrm.jpg The Riddler smuggles into Gotham some Universal Wax Solvent, that can eat its way through any substance, and from then were are bombarded with puns and gadgets that have some connection with wax or glue...my word this is a pretty poor story by any ones standards, and to be honest makes no real sense at all...For some reason they seem to have run out of ideas, as for what they can do with The Riddler character, so its really up to Frank Gorshin to up his manic levels just to inject some life into this plot, which he does very well indeed. What also helps to distract the viewer from the dreary events is the wonderful Riddler sidekick Moth played by the lovely looking Linda Gaye Scott , whose costume bears a striking resemblance to what Bat Girl will where in the third series, suitably tight fitting of course. Again the parole board drop a major clanger,releasing the Riddler two soon mehinks, he has only been out of prison two weeks according to Commissioner Gordon and he is already up to his old tricks...Still we as always get some rather great looking sets, like Riddler's wax factory and a library that for some reason has a massive vault for its rare books and not forgetting Madame Soleil's Wax Museum.. Batman with a straight face asks the librarian whether she has seen anyone wearing unusual garb??? I think most of Gotham City is wearing unusual clothing...
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
#90
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Episodes 23 and 24 - "The Ring of Wax," and "Give 'Em the Axe" Axe.jpgRingwax.jpgwax.jpg This is more like it, Batman and Robin strung up together, dangling over a pot of hot bubbling molten wax, holy paraffin batman this will be a close one...exclaims Robin, stating the bleeding obvious...Still on the bight side Moth has taken a shine to Batman so that's another notch on his utility belt...The second episode has the Riddler go after some ancient treasure being stored at the Gotham City Museum, of course he leaves a riddle for Batman to solve, so the caped crusaders can go and catch him, do you see a flaw in the Riddler's schemes, no one wonder he keeps getting caught...Speaking of getting caught, Robin has to go into the museum alone, because Batman was to fat to get through a window, and of course gets himself caught and strapped to a medieval wrack, for his troubles. But do not worry the Bats swoops in and gives the Riddler and his gang a good kicking, in fact he is quite vicious towards the Riddler, giving his usual give up crime speech while trying to break his fingers then sticks him on some medieval wheel for a spin...I have to say not that impressed with this story, but Gorshin and his sidekick the Moth, made a nice team up, and seeing the dynamic duo hung over some boiling wax is always fun to watch, because they can be guaranteed to come up with some credulous escape plan...
__________________ Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.. |
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