Batman Victorious

There's still another week of January to go. Can you believe it? I feel in a better mood than last week. Fawncy new phone is finally working properly; accommodation in Glasgow booked for the weekend after next; best of all, I only have 14 prelim scripts left to mark.

I woke up a bit later than usual this morning and made a start on the collected Tigra tpb. I have a few graphic novels from Xmas left on my reading pile and I have still to review a couple too, here.
Today's post, however, is about one of my New Year traditions.

For more than a decade, I've been evoking the spirit of late 70s school holidays by watching a black-and-white movie serial, a chapter a day. I started with 70s classic Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe and Buck Rogers and continued to late-40s serials, including Captain Marvel, Batman, the Shadow, Captain America, the Masked Marvel, King of the Rocket Men, Spy Smasher, Vigilante, Blackhawk and Superman. By way of example, here are my thoughts on Blackhawk from two years ago:

https://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.com/2018/01/junk-heap-heroes.html

This year, it was the turn of Batman and Robin, in their 1949 fifteen-episode struggle against hooded and masked villain, the Wizard.

Not this Wizard...

This criminal mastermind took remote control of vehicles to commit robberies in what is clearly a sunlit Californian city, overlooked by hills. Not the festering, nightmarish anthill of Gotham City.

The earlier 1943 Batman starred Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft as the Caped Crusaders, pitted against the "Japoteur" Dr. Daka and his zombie henchmen. The 1949 serial is a little pale, however compared to those post-Pearl Harbour spy-jinks. But where the 1943 serial made its mark by establishing the trim, mustachioed Alfred we usually imagine, the 1949 chapter play feels like a more obvious ancestor of the 1966 tv lampoon.

Robert Lowery gives us a languid playboy Bruce Wayne. You don't feel he would be as successful as  his predecessor Lewis Wilson at impersonating a gangster.On the other hand, swing dancer Johnny Lowery's Dick Grayson is a stocky, young tough of 26 who's often Batman and Bruce's driver. He also has to wear pink tights to conceal his manly legs. They keep a suburban home with Art Deco touches; a West Coast alternative to a stately Wayne Manor. Alfred here plays a very small role: an actual servant rather than a team-mate, confidant or advisor.

Vicki Vale is a Lois Lane figure, a snooping reporter and damsel in distress. Unfortunately, there's very little drama when her hoodlum brother Jimmy is killed, impersonating Batman. The cliffhangers all tend to be a bit humdrum, often featuring out-of-control vehicles, sabotaged by the Wizard, of course. But then the Saturday morning serials weren't intended to be consumed on a daily basis.

There's a pleasing red herring about the unmasking of the Wizard, which feel properly comic-booky. Is it the crippled professor or the radio announcer who seems to have a suspicious amount of information about the Wizard's crimes? What did the butler see?

The serial didn't feel quite the chore that Superman or the Vigilante did but I don't think it's as memorable as its bloodthirsty predecessor. I'm sure I read, however, that screenings of this serial at the Playboy mansion had an influence on getting the camp capers of 1966 on screen.

Coming soon: Thanos, Sorvad and Green Lantern: Legacy

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