BATMAN (1966)
Article #153 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 8-16-2001
Posting date: 12-30-2001

Four supervillains combine forces to attempt to take over the world by taking hostage the security council of the United Nations. Batman is called onto the job to defeat them.

I have friends who despise the 1966 TV series for its failure to be true to the dark, somber persona of Batman as they know him from the comic books. Though they would most likely defecate adobe at my next comment, I feel it necessary to admit at this point that, despite my life-long love of cinematic fantasy/horror/science fiction, I’ve never been a fan of super heroes and/or comic books; if anything, I prefer parodies of that whole genre to serious entries in it. That being the case, I quite enjoyed the “Batman” TV series of the sixties; watching it recently, I remember cracking up at a point where Batman parks the Batmobile, and is about to run into the building with Robin, but stops and says “Wait a minute, Robin. We forgot to put a nickel in the meter!”, followed by a conversation about how superheroes must first be responsible citizens. Call me a heretic, if you wish, but I found that bit priceless.

I’m not quite as fond of the movie, however, as it runs on way too long for its own good; what is effective in thirty minute chunks can be quite tiresome in an hour and forty-five minute movie. Nonetheless, I do enjoy the array of familiar names and faces of the supervillains, and the high point of the movie for me has Batman trying to dispose of a bomb (you can tell it’s a bomb because it’s perfectly round, black, and has a lit fuse on the top; this is the only time I know of outside of cartoons where a bomb actually looks like that), but he can’t find a place to throw it because he keeps running into people who would be hurt, like a pair of nuns, a woman with a baby carriage, a salvation army band, and a flock of ducks.