Batman (1943)
Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939, and this Columbia serial was his first appearance on film.
I’m about halfway though, and was pleasantly surprised from the start as a shot of Wayne Manor, accompanied by a voiceover, lead us to the brooding Batman sitting at a desk in the cave below, complete with flying bats. (Now
that’s a sure recipe for a thick coating of guano).
The narrator sets the scene:
High atop one of the hills which ring the teaming metropolis of Gotham City, a large house rears its bulk against the dark sky. Outwardly there's nothing to distinguish this house from many others, but deep in the cavernous basements of this house is a chamber hewn from the living rock of the mountainside, strange, dimly lighted, mysteriously secret bat cave headquarters of America's #1 crime fighter, Batman! Yes, Batman, clad in the sombre costume which has struck terror to the heart of many swaggering denizens of the Underworld. Batman, who is even now pondering a plan of a new assault against the forces of crime, a crushing blow against evil, in which he will have the valuable aid of his young, two-fisted assistant, Robin, the Boy Wonder. They represent American youth who love their country and are glad to fight for it, wherever crime raises its ugly head to strike with the venom of a maddened rattlesnake. Batman and Robin strike also, and in this very hour when the Axis criminals are spreading their evil over the world, even in our own land, Batman and Robin stand ready to fight them to the death.
The wartime propaganda is clear from the outset. It’s 1943 and this was another anti-Japanese production.
Later we're shown an empty street, and the narrator reports:
This was part of a foreign land, transplanted bodily to America and known as Little Tokyo. Since a wise government rounded up the shifty-eyed Japs, it has become virtually a ghost street, where only one business survives, eking out a precarious existence on the dimes of curiosity-seekers.
I noticed on IMDB that this quote was later changed to “Since a wise government rounded up the immoral hoods…” This may have been for the 1965 theatre re-release
An Evening with Batman and Robin?
However, the copy I have is complete with plenty of racial slurs, such as “squint-eye” or “That's the kind of answer that fits the colour of your skin.”
After Pearl Harbor it’s apparent that American children were being taught at the cinema that a whole race of people were evil. It’s not much different to 1930s Germany where children were being taught that Jews were subhuman.
However, that single business operating in the “ghost street”, during the period of Japanese internment, is a ghost train of sorts called the “Japanese Cave of Horrors”, which takes visitors past exhibits of the cruelty inflicted by Japanese forces. Part way round there’s a hidden door guarded by a watchful living waxwork. The door leads to Prince Dr. Daka’s secret lair. He’s a Japanese agent working for The New Order, tasked by Emperor Hirohito to bring about the enslavement of the American people.
The objective so far is the mineral ‘Radium’, which Japan needs to create an Atom Smasher big enough “to make retaliation by the United States impossible.”
Dr. Daka is also a mad scientist who turns people into “zombie” slaves by means of an electrical brain implant. They gain in strength and lose the will to resist Daka’s commands as he speaks to them via microphone. One “zombie” is ordered to simply step off the top of a tall building. Which he does, to the screams of a woman on the street below.
The zombies also have a curious third-person camera, so that wherever they are Daka can see them and their surroundings. It’s the same idea used for the Republic Robot in
Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940).
The "zombie" making machine:
J. Carrol Naish, as Daka, is a lot more convincing as an Asian villain than some others of the period that I could mention. Yet, there is one funny moment when an unsuspecting visitor to the “Japanese Cave of Horrors” is brought before Daka, and assumes that he’s just an actor playing a part in the exhibit: “Pretty good, Sake, your accent’s a little off, but your makeup was perfect.” (!)
He has a definite sadistic streak. Beneath his lair is a pool of alligators. A zombie stands holding a basket of meat, which Daka gleefully feeds to the reptiles. When he realizes the alligators are still hungry, but the basket is empty, Daka looks to the zombie with evil intent, and tells his pets he’ll let them have something “special”. Just at that moment the door buzzer sounds and the zombie is spared Mola Ram’s fate.
A turncoat member of The New Order is not so lucky a little while later, as Daka releases the trapdoor and the ‘gators get their treat.
Lewis Wilson is capable as the playboy millionaire who doesn’t wake before noon. But he hasn't yet “struck terror” into the criminals as the nocturnal Batman. There may be good reason for that, since it was allegedly stipulated that Batman had to be seen as a government agent, rather than a vigilante in this serial.
The first Batmobile on film is this 1939 Cadillac Series 75 Convertible Sedan:
Alfred is the very English butler and chauffeur, but he’s generally played for laughs. While Batman and Robin are scrapping with the criminals Alfred is hiding behind a desk. Flustered, he picks up the telephone and asks for “Scotland Yard”. A revolver falls his way and he fires eight shots into the air without looking. After scaring off the villains he asks:
Alfred Pennyworth: How many did I kill?
Bruce Wayne: Seven.
Alfred Pennyworth: But there were only four of the ruffians.
Richard Grayson: You killed three of them twice.
Alfred Pennyworth: Where are the bodies?
Bruce Wayne: We threw them out the window.
The fight scenes aren’t as energetic as Republic’s, but there is a bit of furniture smashing. So far there aren’t many ‘death-defying’ stunts either. However, in chapter three a stuntman does fall headfirst through a skylight.
In the following episode Batman and Robin are chasing his 1942 GMC COE 2-ton Money Security Van:
Robin pulls alongside and the Batman jumps onto the van. The next scenes, during which he makes his way to the cab are shot with back projection.
During the fight with the driver the van goes over a cliff, but, of course, Batman jumps out in time. When Robin catches up he tells Batman: “I’ll go over and see if I can do anything for the men in the armoured car.”
Batman responds grimly: “I’d better do it. It won’t be a very pretty sight.”
To be continued…
