BATMAN-25-THE JOKER TRUMPS AN ACE and 26-BATMAN SETS THE PACE

 

BATMAN-25-THE JOKER TRUMPS AN ACE and 26-

BATMAN SETS THE PACE

 

Dan Seymour playing the Maharaja played in many of the classic ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN and was in VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA’s THE PRICE OF DOOM. The first episode is particularly glossy looking as some of it takes place on a daylight golf course and I give props to Romero for getting on a fork lift and the camera work as the Batmobile pulls up to the toy truck is impressive. The Joker truck’s logo, “Let GAY FELLOW TAKE YOU THE CLEARERS” is most funny today.

 

 Joker’s clue in this first episode seem to smack of Riddler’s riddles a bit and Batman has more of a hand in solving them this time than Robin does. Having read a few pages from Burt’s biography BOY WONDER, I learned West was upset that the writers were making Robin look smarter than he but for me, that was part of the humor. I don’t yet see Ward’s claim that West stood in front of him a lot but whatever.

 

It seems standard now that the hench girl is supposed to sort of fall in love with Batman if not Batman AND Robin and Jill hear actually cries when she thinks the boys are gassed to death. The cliffhanger has Joker trap them in a tank that has a chimney that he intimates he will flood with water but floods with gas. The music used in the cliffhanger and the resolution is most well done and with a touch of the weird and eerie, almost a Catwoman theme. BTW Jill, in part two, is the first henchwoman, to get away unscathed it would seem.

 

The boys get out of the trap by sitting back to back and walking up the sides of the chimney. At first, it looks ludicrous because the stunt man for Robin is in evidence again and he’s also seen in part two’s fight scene quite a bit. While the fight scene in the first part is well done…amid the chaos and I love Robin using Joker…as he sits on top Joker’s shoulders and then kicks when Joker tries to grab him from behind…to beat down henchmen.

 

In part one, it seems as if there are MANY henchmen but in part two they beat down and tie up only four. The plot is pretty good, though a bit convoluted, though the fact that the Maharaja was never there was a good one but…doesn’t the bank have security measures to prove the Maharaja is the Maharaja? In any case, a fun episode.

 

The whole fat bit with Harriet chastising Dick for wanting another cookie or piece of cake would never be allowed today. A blogger wrote this about it, “Batman Sets the Pace” was wrapping up like most of the double header Batman episodes do. After handily defeating the Joker, who was impersonating the big boned Maharaja of Nimpa (not a real country – I checked) so he could get Batman to write him a cheque (this episode had a lot of layers), Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are enjoying some post-crime-fighting tea. Dick reaches for what appears to be a cookie and...” she hits his hand away and tells him he might get as fat as the Maharaja and he pulls his hand away. She goes on to say that someone as fat as that and as rich as that should have enough money to get a diet from his doctor! Nowadays we would never see this on TV, we accept fat people for who they are and that they will shorten their lives by their eating habits and never embarrass them to save their lives and tell them the truth.

 

SO the first ep’s fight scene is great but the second is the most inept one ever. It’s also embarrassing to say that Robin getting behind Batman and using Batman’s elbows to hit criminals or give Batman a helping hand DOES NOT WORK at all and is embarrassing in itself. It’s a hard to watch fight that does not work and is probably the worst fight scene of the first season…at least up to now. The stuntman for Robin is in clear view again after a few eps where he wasn’t that noticeable. Still, this episode does have its charms and merits, both parts.

 

Another startling thing is in part two after his gas trap seems to have killed Batman and Robin (this time he checks but before he does…), Joker and his crew get ready to leave and HE WORRIES about any passers by getting killed so has one of his men shut the gas off! This would not happen in the modern movies where the Joker is a total uncaring homicidal jerk. I don’t know why he didn’t have his men get rifles to shoot Batman and Robin down…like they wanted. I guess he wanted to humiliate Batman with his silly plan.