BATMAN 19-The Purr-fect Crime and 20-Better Luck Next Time

 

BATMAN-season one, ep 19: THE PURR-FECT CRIME

 

More like the perfect episode. Unlike most other episodes, Cat Woman doesn’t appear on the scene until about seven minutes in. Her first crime on the series is her in the dark (I’m not even sure it’s Julie Newmar in the opening). It’s also not explained if the police man attacked by the cat survives but this opening makes me realize how creepy a concept Batman and his whole world really are. I’m saddened to read that the Bengal tiger used in this episode bit through a wire and was severely shocked. Actor Joey Tata claimed not to know if it died or not but it just went nuts. Awful.

 

What’s not awful is this episode and this episode is probably the best up to know. I realize the footage of the Batmobile pulling up to Gordon’s office is the EXACT same footage EVERY time as the women in the front of the street are the same women.

 

While music was always top notch, the show begins to find a firm footing in the music here and the cliffhanger music is outstanding. The cliffhanger being that Batman has to choose one door for Catwoman and another that might be the tiger. He gets the tiger. Robin has been scooped up by a tube. The address for the Gato and Chat Fur Company is the writer’s address. This episode, smartly so, was the one used for the fantastic VIEWMASTER reels.

 

On a side note, I often wonder if Aunt Harriet already knows that Bruce and Dick are Batman and Robin. How can she not?

 

Newmar DOES NOT blink once during her terrific Catwoman portrayal. There’s none of the sexual tension between she and Batman yet and she seems more bent on a sort of revenge for their past encounters but Newmar is fantastically wonderful in this role and it is difficult to take your eyes off her. She also, despite the meows and corny jokes and dialog seems to come off as highly dangerous and disturbed, none of the redeeming qualities often displayed in the BATMAN movies (bar this version’s movie after season one), comics,  and other TV shows (GOTHAM has her as a hero as does at least one Christian Bale movie). The presentation of her claws first is a good one and a spooky way to introduce her.

 

It’s unbelievable that Catwoman only appears in this story for season one (two eps only) and sad that Julie could not appear in the BATMAN movie and while I love Lee Meriweather in both THE TIME TUNNEL and BARNABY JONES she was not a great Catwoman at all.

 

So, the music is superior in this episode, the first really fantastic female villain makes her scene and frankly, upstages all the past villains including Riddler, Joker and Penguin, though they are great. The plot is fast and the fights quite good though this time, while Robin in in a sarcophagus, the focus of mine is on Batman and his stand in is almost as obvious as Robin’s. The spiked walls were interesting as they moved toward Batman and Robin and we see a power cord run from the atomic furnace to the Batmobile.

 

I’m not sure if we saw this before but here we see from the Batmobile’s perspective as it leaves the cave and goes out the exit. It’s impressive.

 

All in all, a superior episode. 

BATMAN-season one, ep 20: BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME

 

“Catwoman, you are not a nice person!”

 

This is one of my favorite stories so…here goes…

 

Robin weights 132 pounds and 10 ounces. The larger henchman carries Robin to the pit; the shorter one caresses his legs to check the straps!

 

Batman uses stickers to find his way in the maze, something done years later by Tom Baker’s Doctor (DOCTOR WHO) in HORNS OF THE NIMON.

 

Suddenly in between scenes, someone’s taken the straps off Robin! Not that we’ve seen. Jeepers, in the resulting fight, Robin’s pretty useless, he gets choked by a chain, knocked into a chair and more. Oh and the stunt man has hair on his arms. The stunt man for Batman is also pretty noticeable, too, as he is choked over the pit of tigers.

 

Gordon talks to someone named Charlie. When Robin calls him he tells him that they’ve captured one of Catwoman’s mob…but…didn’t they get two of them? As he hangs up, Gordon says, “…and good luck,” then looks right at the camera and says, “…to all of us.”

 

Batman drives down the center of the road. Catwoman’s phrase, “Pussy Willows Galore,” could be  reference to GOLDFINGER. Uhm, Robin’s noticed that Leo’s big feet, “Only one man has feet that big.” What?

 

The music as the Dynamic Duo chase Catwoman through the caves (I’m not sure but I thought this was supposed to be under or near the Batcave but maybe I got that info from the VIEWMASTER book, books which sometimes used the original scripts or ideas as reference?) is outstandingly good.

 

A few things. It seems to me that BATMAN could have saved Catwoman by going to the other side and pulling her up but he seems to just watch as she falls down the pit. He calls the pit bottomless and then two seconds later tells Robin that she probably fell straight to the bottom. It IS touching that Robin feels bad as he calls for Catwoman, hoping she is alive. The truth be told, she’s rather unsympathetic in this story, which she won’t be in future ones (?). And there’s not even a hint of anything romantic between Catwoman and Batman, at all.

 

I like them finding the cat at the bottom and the whole epilog with Aunt Harriet and the cat. Not sure why Bruce suddenly passes the cat to Alfred who passes it to Dick who seems to cuddle it but it’s a nice ending.

 

So this was actually rather a straight forward adventure. No one mentions if Leo’s end was an actual end or not. Catwoman, despite her one dimensional character here, makes an interesting mark and the soundtrack is even amped up more for this story. It’s entertaining and adventurous though the stunt men being noticeable on High Def does subtract from it all. There’s even a mine field for the Batmobile but I think more should have been made out of that sequence and we see the Batwheels get unflat. Oh and there’s no supernatural background for Catwoman at all, in fact, no explanation for her at all. I also wonder if that backdrop in the cavern is from the JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH movie.

 

Next time: the return of the Penguin!