Very disappointing...

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

In Gothan City, in the Word War II, the Japanese spy Dr. Tito Daka (J. Carrol Naish) has a gang gangsters working for the Japanese government. He plans to steal a radium load to use in a lethal weapon and hijack an American prototype airplane. The evil Dr. Daka uses a machine to turn people into zombies to work for him. Batman is indeed the lazy millionaire Bruce Wayne (Lewis Wilson), and Robin is his protegee Dick Grayson (Douglas Croft) that are supported by the butler and chauffeur Alfred Pennyworth (William Austin). Bruce Wayne's love interest is Linda Page (Shirley Patterson) and Dr. Daka kidnaps her uncle Martin Warren to help him in his research but turns him into a zombie when he refuses to cooperate with the mastermind of the spy ring. Along fifteen Chapters, Dr. Daka stumbles upon Batman and the boy wonder Robin and they will fight each other. "Batman" (1943) is the landmark of the first appearance of Batman on the screen and in serial at the climax of World War II. This low budget serial does not have the Batmobile; instead, Batman and Robin use Bruce Wayne's Cadillac convertible driven by Alfred. The plot has anti-Japanese messages and is silly, naive and funny in many moments, but is also highly entertaining and divided in 15 Chapters that were presented in the theaters once a week; now they are available on DVD. (1) The Electrical Brain; (2) The Bat's Cave; (3) The Mark of the Zombies; (4) Slaves of the Rising Sun; (5) The Living Corpse; (6) Poison Peril; (7) The Phoney Doctor (8) Lured by Radium; (9) The Sign of the Sphinx; (10) Flying Spies; (11) A Nipponese Trap; (12) Embers of Evil; (13) Eight Steps Down (14) The Executioner Strikes; (15) The Doom of the Rising Sun. Maybe the funniest scenes are when Dr. Daka communicates with his submarine by radio and they release a coffin with a near-death Japanese soldier only to tell that he should hijack an airplane; and when a spy breaks the window of the airplane to throw off a cargo of radium using parachutes for Dr. Daka's men. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Batman"

The 'serial world' has, as I've been for some years vaguely aware, its own fanbase which overlaps to a degree with that of vintage film in general; but on the basis of this, my first serial experience, I can't say that I'm a convert just yet.I wasn't expecting anything very sophisticated, and I can live happily with elements that others mock: non-ironic dialogue, costumes, special effects. Supposedly beyond-the-pale racism doesn't worry me much in the context of a wartime adventure, although I did boggle at the story-internal logic of the American government's carrying out a praiseworthy internment of all the slant-eyed Japs it could find, then apparently being surprised that those who evaded this round-up should be hostile! Inevitably, in low-budget live action, the imagination is expected to supply translation of certain trappings into their comic-book equivalents -- swirling capes, super-athletic leaps, sinister electric apparatus -- but to do actors and studio justice, they often manage quite well. Batman and Robin climb nimbly, drop convincing distances and do their best to sprint and leap in suitably heroic costumed pose; in the absence of modern fabrics, this Batman's tights have an admitted tendency to wrinkle, but he really doesn't merit the sarcastic 'Fatman' epithet. And as an actor, Lewis Wilson does a good job of differentiating charmingly ineffectual Bruce and his masterful alter ego.No, my problems with this serial were mainly with the sheer mind-numbing boredom that began to set in around Chapters Four to Ten. It was the massive degree of padding -- inside this fifteen-chapter epic, there is a reasonably-paced six- or seven-chapter story waiting to come out. It was, once the novelty of a superhero who loses his fights had worn off, the tedium of endlessly-repeated episodes in which Batman and/or Robin get beaten up and left for dead in order to provide the cliff-hanger of the week; in fact, it was, above all, the monotonous succession of flatly-resounding fists and bruisefree knockdowns that seemed to be the serial's staple diet. Whatever happened to insanely complicated evil schemes? What became of tying victims to train tracks, attaching them to rapidly-ascending hydrogen balloons, suspending them over pits of snakes with acid eating through the cord, or subverting their defences with irresistibly alluring Oriental houris? Watching a constant diet of rough-hatted gangsters trading punches got very dull very quickly. I felt like cheering every time a character actually got killed -- especially when this involved being eaten by ravenous crocodiles! The villains are, of course, regrettably stupid (the most interesting episodes are those in which they actually make some advance, posing a genuine threat to the heroes, rather than being constantly foiled). Perhaps the crowning example is when a man is put into suspended animation and revived momentarily by high technology before dying... all in order to *hand* over a message which could have been delivered far more simply in the same package without him! The scenario might at least have made it a cryptogram with a verbal key carried only by the doomed bearer...Daka is the most interesting opponent as he is the only one who is actually intelligent (he comes up with the more plausible theory that there is in fact a whole rival organization of uniformed Batmen, rather than a single one who perpetually survives reports of his certain demise!). Even when apparently defeated, he is constantly devising further expedients to reverse the situation, and our heroes, being lovable non-violent types, manage to dispose of him only by accident as Robin hits the wrong switch on the control panel; a twist that actually struck me as an ingenious in-character solution that preserved the respective abilities of both parties. (For originality, it certainly beats fighting the Evil Overlord on the edge of a precipice so that he can stupidly tumble in without your connivance.) The beginning of the serial looked mildly enjoyable, at an inoffensive 6/10. The final chapters, ten or so weeks later, pick up again on quality. But the middle chapters, where the villains have lost their superweapon in Chapter 1 and spend all their time trying to get fuel for a replacement and punching people in the interim, become a soporific and lengthy exercise in spending time getting nowhere. It isn't bad enough to be entertaining in itself -- it's just boring.Watching the entire run in one marathon cinema session is not, of course, the way this serial was ever intended to be seen, and it brings an unfair emphasis to the inevitably repetitious formulae of the genre. But to be honest, if I hadn't been thus trapped in front of the screen I doubt if I would have bothered to keep following the chapters week after week in the hopes that the plot would finally progress. Like certain recent TV series I could name, it would just have annoyed and bored me too much to stick it until the promised grand finale. I'm not the greatest of fans of the season-long 'plot arc', and I don't think I'm cut out to be a full-fledged member of the serial squadron just yet...

How great a chapterplay is this? The evil Dr. Tito Daka (obviously a distant relative of the Jackson Five) is planning to help Japan destroy America with a group known as The League of the New Order. The New Order is made up of "dishonored" businessmen (all specialists in their field)--basically crooks who did jail time and then turned traitor at first opportunity. The New Order also has zombie slaves and almost every Serial Henchman you can find working for them: George J. Lewis, Jack Ingram, Robert Fiske, Tom London, Kenne Duncan (well, he works for them as a zombie anyhow), Stanley Price, Dick Curtis, and George Cheseboro are among the crooks running rampant in it. Charles Middleton's also in it, but as a good guy for a change.Opposing them are Batman and Robin, who are working secretly for the US government. Exactly why they have to be G-Men is a mystery, but it's all good.The League of the New Order's main plan involves building a radium death ray gun. To do so, they (of course) need a large supply of radium. Batman keeps fouling up their attempts to get said radium, much to Dr. Daka's ever growing annoyance. A decent number of these attempts involve Bruce Wayne's girlfriend Linda Page (the ultra-hot looking Shirley Patterson), who's uncle Martin Warren has been turned into a zombie by Daka. Plenty of wild action ensues, including plane crashes, burning warehouses, exploding buildings, and Batman being fed to Daka's pet alligators! Woo-hoo! Some random thoughts: Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft become the first screen Batman and Robin and they're both pretty darn good. Croft is actually a kid as opposed to a 30 year old playing a kid (Jack Armstrong anybody?) and is a lot of fun to watch as Robin. He's also nowhere near as annoying as most serial kids--none of your "gee whiz!" antics. Wilson plays Bruce Wayne and Batman to the hilt, playing off the idea of Bruce Wayne being a worthless playboy better than almost anyone else ever has. His Batman's plenty tough, too and it looks like he had a blast with the role.Just how mean a baddie is Dr. Daka? One of the most memorable scenes occurs when he tells his men at one point "not only have your comrades failed in their mission, they lost their worthless lives as well"! Daka is surely one of the nastiest villains in all of serial history, easily belonging on the same plane as Doctor Satan, Fu Manchu, and Ming the Merciless.Though Middleton is only in four chapters, he practically steals every scene he's in. His character is reminiscent of the miner in the first Dick Tracy serial, but he plays it much better. He's definitely one ornery cuss, that's for sure.Knox Manning's narration is an absolute hoot! Especially the bit about the "wise U.S. government"! Love it! Love it! The "racist" dialogue is also a bit of a hoot. People who get upset by it tend to forget that this was World War II, Japan was the enemy, and this was a morale booster of a film. The context definitely needs to be remembered when watching this film.The Columbia DVD looks pretty damn good (even if Chapter One is a little washed out) and better still, it's uncut. Having only ever seen this in lousy prints before, I can tell you it was a real treat to see it look this good. It's also an outrageously enjoyable serial, well worth seeking out. I'd also say its one of the top five comic book serials ever. BATMAN is the serial that proves the Columbia naysayers wrong (as if proof were needed!).

As a lover of the Saturday serials I was delighted to see that Columbia/Sony/etc.... was releasing the 1943 "BATMAN" on DVD (co-incidently on the same day that "Batman Begins" is released on DVD). I HAVE seen it at the movies on 2 consecutive Saturdays years ago and thought myself lucky to have "acquired" a bootleg copy through a fanzine (lousy print but when you're a collector you take the good with the bad). While it was unfortunate that our Japanese neighbors received harsh treatment due to the wartime climate, it was still good to see the rough and tumble action that Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft (or to be more precise, their stunt doubles) brought to the screen. I won't dwell on Lewis' less than athletic presence in costume but as Bruce Wayne he was a dead ringer. Rumor has it that the BatCave, the Grandfather's clock entrance and Alfred's miraculous weight loss in the comics were directly influenced by this serial. Some of the second in command gangsters were just as Kane drew them and although Shirley Patterson did little more than scream she was none the less a hottie as Linda Page. Throw in J. Carrol Naish as villain Dr. Daka and you have 4 hours of escapist enjoyment.