Last night we began a new chapter serial, "Batman and Robin"(1949). I didn't know it going in, but this is what the TV Batman was based on. They wear the exact same costumes, they have Alfred the butler, they have a bat cave beneath Bruce Wayne's mansion, but it doesn't have an outdoor opening and they don't have a Batmobile. Instead, they drive a Mercury coupe that they park on the street! But there is a Commissioner Gordon and he does flash a bat signal in the sky. We even see the searchlight machine he has in his office. The sets are deluxe for a Sam Katzman production. The villain is some unidentified person called The Wizard. He wears a counterpart costume to Batman's tights and cape, which makes him look like a Satanist at an Anton LaVey meeting, and he's plenty evil. In the first episode, his henchmen have stolen the invention of "Professor Hammil", a crabby genius in a wheelchair. He's developed a remote control radio device that enables the user to manipulate any moving vehicle within a fifty mile radius, be it planes, trains or automobiles. After The Wizard's henchmen steal the device, which has a mainframe about the size of Robert Fripp's effects rack, they bring it back - by miniature submarine! - to his mansion, where The Wizard discovers that it's powered by industrial diamonds. Because he's in short supply of those (in fact he has none), the next job for the henchmen is to break into a diamond supply house and steal a lifetime's worth of industrials.
By now, Batman and Robin have interviewed Professor Hammil. One step ahead of them is ace reporter "Vickie Vale" (Jane Adams), who hangs out at the mansion. She likes Bruce, but wonders why he's always "tired" whenever she invites him out. "Bruce? Will you accompany me to the diamond robbery scene? I'd like to interview any witnesses." "Oh, Vickie, I'd rather not. All that excitement exhausts me. I'm going to take my vitamins and go to sleep." It's like he's using the old "headache" excuse every time. He has to do this because he's Batman, of course, and he can't be hanging out with her if he gets a call. But on this one occasion, they both are at Professor Hammil's place to question him about the theft. Bruce is there as Batman, along with Robin, so of course Vicky Vale has no idea who they are. After the three of them leave, we see that Professor Hammil has another invention, an electric chair with some kind of wavelength that reinvigorates his neuromuscular system. When he sits in that chair and turns on the juice, he becomes strong and can walk again. That should make him a probable suspect in our search for The Wizard, but somehow I think that's too easy, and the filmmakers wouldn't give us such a clue so early on, except to throw us off.
That's the end of Chapter One, and man is it ever good stuff, especially if you prefer the 1960s TV show over the current "Dark Knight" version, with its ultra bleak scenarios (psychotic violence; "The Joker" was garbage), and the thing is, the violent modern version may not be authentic at all. The filmmakers (those who came after Tim Burton) claim it is the original vision of Bob Kane's comic book series. If that is so, how come this 1949 Batman looks exactly like the TV version? And what about calling him "The Batman", as in the title of the most recent movie? Can you find one early reference to that? I can't. Well, screw it. I like Old Hollywood, not all the new stuff which is cynical, violent and disgusting. Have you seen the bus stop posters for a piece of garbage called "Violent Night", featuring a close-up of an ugly maniac grinning obscenely in a Santa suit? Yeah, that's just what we need in the world right now, advertisements that any kid can see that deliberately drag Christmas into the evil muck. So no thanks. Hollywood promotes cheap, immoral garbage now. But it used to be the greatest.
Two Big Thumbs Up for the 1949 chapter serial version of "Batman and Robin." Sorry for the tirade but I couldn't help it and it needed to be said. The picture is razor sharp. ////
On the lighter side, the previous night we had Nancy Drew again in "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase"(1939). We've been meaning to revisit her, ever since we saw "Nancy Drew, Reporter" last summer. Bonita Granville is so perfect in the role; she's the right combination of smart, exuberant, plucky, frightened and vulnerable, and she makes the perfect centerpiece to the supporting team of John Litel as her high-powered but ever-patient lawyer Dad, and her guy pal "Ted Nickerson" (Frankie Thomas), who acted as her photographer in "Reporter". Here he has a summer job as an ice truck driver while he's getting ready for high school football season. That doesn't stop Nancy from enlisting him in her latest caper, and of course she gives him the brunt of the grunt work.
Two old lady sisters are set to inherit their family mansion, which they want to donate to a hospital foundation. By a stipulation in the will, they've had to reside in it for the last twenty years before they could legally give it away, but they've only got two more weeks to go. Someone doesn't want this to happen, however, because the sisters' chauffeur is found dead next door at their lawyer's house. The snarky shrimp police chief calls it a suicide. The DA says murder. Any time Nancy hears the word "murder", her ears perk up and she puts on her detective hat, especially this time because she wants to save the old ladies' house for the hospital.
The first thing she does is break into the lawyer's house, where she finds a slug from the supposed suicide. It's from a German Luger. Ted's Dad happens to have a Luger souvenir from WW1, with extra bullets, so Nancy makes a scam call to his ice company, to lure him to a remote location (looks like Malibu when it was entirely undeveloped). There she test fires the Luger, to make a pre-CSI ballistics comparison with the slug from the crime scene, and she proves, by the trajectory of the bullet casing, that the chauffeur's death could not have been suicide. Now she and Ted are hot on the case. Once Bonita Granville gets going, she's like a runaway train. She's breaking and entering, sleeping overnight in basements, and anytime there's a risk of getting caught, she delegates the job to Ted. Her dad catches her at the elderly sisters' mansion after its been roped off by the police, and hurries her home, but Ted is still trapped in the basement!
Early on, a man storms into the Drew house and tries to steal the affidavits to the will. Nancy gets out of it by summoning Ted with an Ice Delivery request sign in the windum. Late in the film, she and Ted discover blueprints hidden in a secret cupboard in the basement in the mansion that show an opposing plan for the property. This reveals why the chauffeur was killed, and that's all I'm going to tell ya. But the fun is in how they make that discovery, through forensic trial and error. Nancy and Ted are a great team, and they got just the right actors to play them. Ditto John Litel as her Dad. We love Nancy Drew, and it's no wonder the character has endured through the decades, even with a remake as recently as 2019. One day we will have to check out the Pamela Sue Martin series from the 70s (or was it 80s?). With Jameson Parker Stevenson as The Hardy Boys. Great stuff and Two Bigs for "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase". It's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp. ////
And that's all I know for this evening. I hope you're enjoying your weekend. I'm in between books, so I'm browsing a copy of the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas that I found at the library many years ago. Man, talk about some hair-splitting arguments! All kidding aside, the degree to which his reasoning ability is developed is astounding, and it's fascinating to read (very slowly) his deliberations on the theological proofs of God and other subjects.
My blogging music is the complete preludes of Alexander Scriabin by Dimitri Alexeev, my late night is still "Siegfried" by Wagner. I wish you an awesome day tomorrow and I send you Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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