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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 9, 2019 20:34:32 GMT -5
I've just watched Chapter 1 of the 1949 Batman & Robin serial, and it is OK.
This opening chapter is titled, Batman Takes Over, and runs 27:30, the first chapter being longer than the following chapters, as with the first Batman serial.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 10, 2019 21:41:26 GMT -5
I just watched Chapter 2 of the 1949 Batman and Robin Serial, titled, Tunnel of Terror running time, 16:32. The villain in this one is The Wizard, was in a wheel chair, but , like those chicks Billy Joel and Elton John sang about, when he sat into his electric chair with neon shrouding it (like the neon that once surrounded Sunset Lodge), he recovers from whatever put him in the wheelchair, and he's able to walk around, in a mask and costume, and order his gang to do things, being able to remotely control various vehicles.
The bad guys use trucks, cars, an airplane and a submarine. As the chapter ends, Batman and Robin are pursing the bad guys on top of a freight train just before it goes thru a tunnel. Chapter 3 is titled Robin's Hard Ride, next week at this theater.
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Post by Marxo Grouch on Mar 11, 2019 4:50:54 GMT -5
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 12, 2019 0:55:23 GMT -5
Just Watched Chapter 3. Batman, still on top of the freight train going into the tunnel somehow survived, and continue to fight the bad buys with Robin.
After they got off of the train there were a lot of car and truck chases and wreckless driving. Chapter 4 is titled Batman Trapped.
I don't know how many total chapters are in this serial, and for the present, I don't want to know. So don't anyone tell me. I'll find out for myself when I get ready.
I don't really see this serial as a boring chore to watch, and while some film fans prefer one of the Batman serials over the other one, I can't say that this one is any different quality wise, and I don't really favor one over the other.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 12, 2019 20:07:37 GMT -5
Just finished watching Chapter 4, Batman Trapped. Next chapter, # 5 is titled Robin Rescues Batman.
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Mar 13, 2019 12:48:54 GMT -5
It's remarkable how much the Adam West and Burt Ward costumes resemble the ones in the serial. The look has diverged quite a bit since then.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 13, 2019 23:28:03 GMT -5
12:22 AM Thursday March 14, just finished watching Chapter 5-Robin Rescues Batman. The bad guy rolled his wheel chair to his neon electric chair, unsteadly stood up and sat in it for another treatment, walking normall, and I suppose putting on his Wizard costume, although I don't think that has been shown so far. Vicki Vale the newspaper reporter I remember well from the comic books, is following Batman and Robin around, taking pohtos, one of which the bad guys toss into a fire, but Batman, using his scientific gadgets, restores it, and finds that it shows the bad guys with a woman they had been threatening. Lot of action in this one. I think I read that some people thought the guy who played Robin in the 1949 serial had excessively hairy legs but I have not noticed that myself. In fact, while Robin was definitely bare legged in the comic books, in this serial he looks like he's wearing long, white tights, instead of being bare legged. I'll have to look at the first serial to see if that was also the case in that earlier serial.
Next Chapter, #6, is Target-Robin! I'm finding this serial a lot of fun to watch.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 14, 2019 19:25:49 GMT -5
Just watched Chapter 6, Target--Robin!. Next chapter, # 7 is The Fatal Blast! Chapter 6 ended with Batman and Robin being asphyxiated in a gas chamber. Chapter 6 ended with Batman and Robin being asphyxiated in a gas chamber. |
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 15, 2019 22:45:22 GMT -5
11:41 PM Friday. Just watched Chapter 7 (15 chapters total). Batman and robin got some small oxygen cylinders from their utility belts? and breathed enough to escape the gas chamber after batman cut a hole in the door with a blowtorch also from his utility belt?
Meanwhile, the Wizard, after another neon electric chair treatment, entered his control room thru a door in a giant fireplace, and turned some dials to stop all railroad locomotives from working, in Gotham City? for five minutes(a shtick Klattu would do for an hour in Day the Earth stood still 2 years later).
Batman and robin take off in the batmobile, and force Vicky Vale to stop her car from following them, and batman takes her car keys away from her, but after they drive off, she smiles and takes another car key from he purse.
The Dynamic Duo goes to some house where clocks are acting up and papers are catching fire, probably work of the Wizard. The chapter ends with an explosion. Next chapter, #8, Robin Meets The Wizard.
I'm enjoying this serial, and trying to imagine what it was like to watch it in a movie house.
I know some houses ran serials into the early 1960s, but it was near The End, except for occasional revivals.
Anybody here on the board ever see a serial shown in a movie theater?
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Mar 16, 2019 19:06:00 GMT -5
Is anyone here even old enough? Come to think of it I may have seen an episode or two of "Flash Gordon" on the big screen at a Classic Film Theater presentation in Ann Arbor. Those shitty SFX can never be unseen.
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Post by Deeky on Mar 16, 2019 22:10:56 GMT -5
Serials disappeared in the early Fifties with the widespread adoption of TVs. So probably not.
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Post by Deeky on Mar 16, 2019 22:11:25 GMT -5
Not that I know how old any of you are.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 17, 2019 20:00:44 GMT -5
Yesterday was my first day not watching a Batman and Robin 1949 chapter. Today, I watched Chapter 8 Robin Meets the Wizard. Batman escaped the building which was blown up, and Vickie Vale caught up with the Dynamic Duo, who pretty much ignored her. Some of the bad guys took off in their submarine but I'm not sure where they went. The Wizard issued a threat to the railroad bosses to turn over some ransom money thrown from a train he would continue to stop their trains from running. The bad guys picked up the money while Batman hid in the trunk of their car, after parachuting from the Batplane, with robin piloting it. The car later ran off of the road but Batman got out of the trunk just in time, and he and Robin followed the bad guys to the Wizard's lair, and altho the title is Robin Meets the Wizard, I don't think Robin saw him when the Wizard sneaked up behind Robin and knocked him in the head. Batman and Robiin had tracked the bad guys to the Wizard's lair because they had some radioactive cargo substance in it, which showed up on batman and Robin's tracking device. Next Chapter is The Wizard Strikes Back.
Chapter 8 is below. I've now watched over half of the chapters.
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Post by Killer Goldfish on Mar 17, 2019 21:05:08 GMT -5
These villains interest me. Throw a sheet over a guy's head and give him a ham radio set! The minions will appear in respectable suits and fedoras!
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 18, 2019 9:21:33 GMT -5
I'm sure all of us here are aware of the mid 1960s story of officials in the Catholic Church complaining to ABC-TV, about both Batman and Robin "bulging" too much in their tights, particularly Robin, and all the ridiculous attempts of the TV show's producers to flatten out their baskets, even including taking pills.
That would be a subject for a study, which I am not up to undertaking, and would belong on a thread on the 1966 TV show. Maybe we already have such a thread, and if we don't we probably need one.
In all the still photos I've seen, and in watching the TV show, I never remember anything remarkable about the baskets on Batman and Robin.
And, in this 1949 serial, while Batman's basket isn't remarkable, Robin's basket is quite filled up, but so what?
I seriously doubt if anyone even gave it any thought back in 1949, and can't imagine anyone complaining to, which studio was it, and Sam Katzman.
In fact, I find the complaints to ABC in the 1960, so ridiculous as to be hard to believe, although they apparently were real.
What in the Catholic Church, could have changed in the 17 years between 1949 and 1966?
But, if we do want to get further into this, let's do it in a new, thread about the TV show, because I want to stay on topic with this thread about the 1949 serial.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 19, 2019 20:41:48 GMT -5
Well, I've watched Chapter 9, which has a lot of car chases. Next chapter, # 10 is Batman's Last Chance!
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 22, 2019 8:49:49 GMT -5
Chapter 10 Batman's Last Chance.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 24, 2019 23:51:42 GMT -5
Chapter 11-Robin's Ruse The next chpter, 12 is Robin Rides The Wind.
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Post by Billy A. Anderson on Mar 27, 2019 20:32:07 GMT -5
Here is the link to Chapter 12, Robin Rides The Wind. I have not watched it yet, because I have a bad cold and don't feel like trying to watch it, but will do so when I do feel like I can watch it. Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 09:31 PM.
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Post by Dr. Kobb on Mar 28, 2019 1:27:54 GMT -5
It's remarkable how much the Adam West and Burt Ward costumes resemble the ones in the serial. The look has diverged quite a bit since then. They probably did it on purpose for the kitsch appeal. I'm guessing here. |
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