BATMAN (1943), BATMAN AND ROBIN (1949) - the early screen Bats

'Cliffhanger' serials were a popular part of cinema programmes for decades. Short, action-heavy films that always ended with the hero about to die. Audiences would then have to wait a week to find out what happened next. Cliffhangers took off when film was still silent, often with a women in the middle of the danger - The Hazards of Helen, The Exploits of Elaine, The Perils of Pauline...

But comic book heroics provided the perfect characters for the greatest cliffhangers of the early sound era with Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, The Green Hornet, Tarzan, The Phantom all made their onscreen debuts in these serials in the 1930s and 40s. The fast action and slim plots eventually influenced the screen thrills of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Star Wars mimicked the opening 'story so far' exposition from the cliffhanger format, right down to the rolling text used at the start of every Buck Rogers serial (of 1940).

Before the era of the cliffhangers ended, the two earliest movie visions of Batman appeared...

BATMAN
(1943, USA)

"Fasten him in the zombie chair!"

The first onscreen adventure of the caped crusader is blighted by its wartime depiction of the Japanese villains. Dr Dakar (J. Carroll Naish in 'Japanese' make-up) sits in his evil lair over an evil pit of crocodiles (watch out for that hidden trapdoor!), sitting in front of a huge evil statue of Buddha (what?) as if that would make him more hateable. Dakar has also chosen to hide his secret headquarters behind a sideshow ride, showcasing waxwork tableaux of Japanese army atrocities! A choice of 'covers' which has always puzzled me.


Batman even dishes out the hate-words ("slanty-eyed Jap murderer", that sort of thing) reminding us of the public level of hatred around at the time. Also how easily the enemy in any war is demonised by the media.

If you can stomach all that, you get can see Batman and Robin in action in some fun, fast-paced, furious fistfights, peppered with eye-opening stunts. The baddies have energy guns, a rather nifty car that changes colour, and machines that turn the living into mindless zombies and even re-animate the dead!


Batman on the other hand is curiously without gadgets. He has, er, his fists! Beating the baddies into submission in a series of punishing brawls. He only has Robin to help him. This Robin is usually the first to be knocked down in every fight. He also has big curly hair and baggy underwear worn, as is traditional, on the outside. With Batman's big, floppy, pointy ears, they don't look sufficiently dynamic as a duo.

There isn't a Batmobile, unless you count Bruce Wayne's sedan, which at least has blinds on the inside so that they can change into their Bat-costumes. The car styles are of the same bulky vintage as the vehicles seen in Batman: The Animated Series (1992).


Then there's the smallest Batcave ever - it only has a desk and one chair in it (Robin has to stand). And some rubber bats on strings. Not a good look. Alfred the butler is a fairly useless English clown. Gotham City is near L.A. (it appears on a letter addressed to Bruce Wayne).

Obviously not the best screen Batman ever, but it is the earliest, and a chance to sample a typical cliffhanger serial, with it's cheaty endings, punishing stunts and mad storylines.


In the past there have been 'politically correct' cut down versions on home video, clearing out the anti-Japanese language. But this currently available 2-DVD set (from Columbia Pictures) has all 15 episodes uncut. It's presented fullscreen 4:3, the way it was shot, and is of course black and white. The quality is fine but the tease at the end of episode 2 is missing a few closing lines.

BATMAN AND ROBIN
(1949, USA)

The second Bat-cliffhanger serial looks and feels more modern, tighter, right down to the tights. Only made six years later, this looks like it was made in a different decade. The duo actually look like a dynamic crime-fighting force.

Their bigger Batcave actually has science stuff in it. The baddie is closer to being a super-criminal, right down to a mask and a strenuous dual identity. The Wizard has the power of long-distance remote control! Cars, vans, machines, even people...


This serial also features the screen debuts of Commissioner Gordon, Vicki Vale, and the Bat-signal. There's less Alfred, less boring Bruce Wayne, and more of the Bat. The desert locations, forever a stamping grounds of westerns and serials are the polar opposite of the gothic or even metropolitan stalking grounds later associated with Bat-stories, but this is still a huge improvement over the first.

We also have this serial to thank for the next screen incarnation of Batman. The story goes that Hugh Hefner was showing this at his mansion to an enthusiastic audience, and a Fox TV executive was inspired to suggest that it would also make a good TV series... Three successful seasons followed, and a feature film, also confusingly called Batman (1966). This classic show, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, was one of the biggest phenomenons in TV history, but has yet to appear on home video in any format...


Batman and Robin is available as a complete serial on a 2-DVD set. Again fullscreen and black and white.


If you like cliffhangers, the must-see is Flash Gordon (1936), the most expensive of the serial genre. It's an adaption of the same comic strip that was used as the story for the tongue-in-cheek 1980 movie.

Further classic serial cliffhangers out on DVD are being reviewed here on the Chapterplays site.

To find out what happens next on this blog, you'll have to come back next week, at this theatre!

BLACK SUNDAY (1977) - an epic terrorist thriller

BLACK SUNDAY
(1977, USA)

The Baader-Meinhof Complex meets The Hindenburg...

If you're expecting a disaster movie, which this was certainly sold as, you might be disappointed. Which I was when it was first released. Like Two Minute Warning, there's a very long wait for anything vaguely disastrous. Far too much emphasis was placed on the admittedly spectacular and expensive movie prop - the Goodyear blimp - which completely and literally overshadows a realistic counter-terrorism thriller. Based on a book, it was the story that grabbed the imagination - nowadays, we'd be just as interested in the author, Thomas Harris, now famous for The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, Hannibal...


A big-budget terrorism blockbuster, it's an epic story almost two and a half hours long. Counter-terrorist agent Kabakov chases Black September terrorist Dahlia across the world, trying to make sense of the scraps of information she fails to cover up. We begin almost as much in the dark as Kabakov as to what they're planning. The film spends as much time with the terrorists as with the police.

There are many standout scenes, some punctuated with violence that's almost too strong now. I remember seeing it in the cinema and being shocked by bystanders getting hit in the complex street shootout. I prefer the earlier section of the story with Kabakov slowly discovering their plot. The desert test is one memorable highlight, as much for the sunlight as the surprise. There's quite a change in tone when the action switches to Miami and another gear change as the Super Bowl kicks in.


Marthe Keller is a key piece of casting in understanding what they were aiming for. At times Black Sunday approaches the same level of gritty suspense as the tremendous Marathon Man, in which she also starred. The story centred around Nazi war criminals, Black Sunday has terrorists. While the 1970s had seen plenty of plane hijackings, assassinations and bombings, none had happened on American soil. This made the film an entertaining fiction, the same way disaster movies were fun as long as they were unlikely. The story wasn't meant to be a warning, as much as a fanciful 'what if?' for the sake of a good thriller.

Today it's more terrifying, and benefits from the matter-of-fact look at how terrorists operate and recruit, as well as how far counter-terrorist forces will go to track them down. Robert Shaw lands the great role as Kabakov, who can't afford to be less than ruthless in trying to save lives. He plays an action hero that seems very real - no wisecracks after the kills. He'd also played a steely killer in From Russia With Love and a very different hunter in Jaws. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Deep... Shaw had been in many great seventies films, so I was saddened and shocked when he passed away before the decade was out.


Marthe Keller is the other standout star as Dahlia, the terrorist sent to recruit a disaffected Vietnam veteran (Bruce Dern) whose job is the linchpin of their plot. While Keller reaches her emotional extremes, I was distracted when Dern occasionally fails to sell his moments of distraught mania.

This is classic John Frankenheimer, from the director of a long line of highly-regarded action movies and political thrillers. Seven Days In May, The Manchurian Candidate, The Train, Seconds, Grand Prix, The French Connection II, Ronin are all recommended variously for large-scale action, gritty drama and edgy stories. His use of locations and handheld camerawork in Black Sunday add realism to a story we now wish wasn't quite so accurate.

Much of the finale was shot during the actual 1976 Superbowl (Pittsburgh Steelers vs Dallas Cowboys). Frankenheimer dares to include a couple of ambitiously complex crane shots to tie in the plot with the event. There are many shots of Robert Shaw in front of crowds that are too huge to fake, with the game going on behind him.


The Paramount DVD is an anamorphic 2.35 widescreen presentation, with optional 5.1 audio. I found the picture to be slightly too squeezed - faces looking too tall and thin - but that's just a niggle. Surely it's time to market it as a political thriller rather than keep on using the bloody blimp! Presumably they still haven't seen Woody Allen's Every Thing You Wanted To know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), as this artwork always reminds me of the sketch where the giant killer boob goes on the rampage...


John William's soundtrack has just been released for the first time ever, on CD - more details from Film Score Monthly here.

SATELLITE IN THE SKY (1956) - early British spaceshot sci-fi!

SATELLITE IN THE SKY
(1956, UK)

Miss Moneypenny beats Bond into space!

I recently assumed that The Day of the Triffids (1963) was Britain's first colour sci-fi film. A correction immediately came back - this widescreen spaceshot drama made in 1956! With a handsome budget, extensive FX work and some familiar faces, it proved to be both fascinating and enjoyable. I love fifties sci-fi and would have chased this up sooner if I'd known it existed.

In the fifties, I'd always thought that George Pal had cornered the market in realistic visions of space pioneering. He imagined America's first space voyages with Destination Moon (1950) and Conquest of Space (1955). Satellite in the Sky is similar in approach, but has with more engaging characters and a pacier, more controversial plot. The film was also made at a time when Britain was actually in the space race - when the method of propelling man into space was still 'out to tender' around the world...


It's the story of mankind's first trip into space, launched from England, of course, (note that even the first unmanned satellite didn't make it into space until 1957 - the Russian Sputnik). After the initial tests are successful, the mission gets a green light. But what the crew don't realise is that the government have plans for a secret payload to be installed in the huge rocket ship.

The early scenes of the homelives of the various astronauts have few payoffs in the story, but thankfully zip by and we're soon in space halfway into the story. But the mission doesn't run nearly as smoothly as the ship's artificial gravity...

Of course, many of the story's 'prophecies' haven't come true - it took decades to get a Brit into space, courtesy of the Space Shuttle. The long launch ramp is presumably based on the same rumoured Russian plans that were also depicted in When Worlds Collide. Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL5 used a similar launching method in 1962, probably because it looked more exciting than a vertical take-off. But the rocket of Satellite in the Sky uses less runway, and has a similar tilting launch platform and exhaust vents that Thunderbird 2 would later use.


The extensive modelwork and matte paintings, Cinemascope and colour make this a definite 'A' picture, unlike much of 1950's sci-fi. The visual effects are fairly obvious today, but I was impressed with their scale and design and how favourably they compared to George Pal's films. The viewing ports that emerge from the sides of the ship looked a little flimsy, but predate Dark Star's bubble and Ash's observation window in Alien.


It's marvellous to see Lois Maxwell in a leading role, playing a nosy reporter who's against the expensive project (a concern that hounds space exploration to this day) but is intrigued by the captain. Six years later she lucked into the bit part for which she's famous, Miss Moneypenny, flirting with James Bond in all the Sean Connery's and Roger Moore's. Few other members of the cast manage a mid-Atlantic accent as good as hers. Her Canadian accent also lead her into voicing Atlanta Shore for Gerry Anderson's Stingray (1964), a TV series also aimed at US sales.

Black Hole favourite, Kieron Moore (The Day of the Triffids, Dr Blood's Coffin) is the rocket captain, delivering a typically entertaining uncharismatic performance. He's very 'take charge' and pro-active in an emergency, but his characters are always so abrubt that he's not much of a prize for the love interest. (More about Moore at Brian's Drive-In Theater).

Lurking in the wings is grand thespian Donald Wolfit (Blood of the Vampire, Svengali) posing a threat by daring to scene-steal from Kieron Moore's screentime.

Another crewmen is a very young Bryan Forbes, cheeky stalwart of classic British war movies (The Wooden Horse, The Colditz Story), he was also in the movie of Quatermass II (Enemy from Space). You probably know him as a director - notably The Stepford Wives (1975), Deadfall (1968) and Whistle Down The Wind (1961).

Once again there's a chance to see Donald Gray (Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons) in action. I caught him in another movie last week, Timeslip (1955).


Satellite in the Sky should really have a far higher profile in British sci-fi history, or even as a classic British movie. Perhaps if it had a better title? As it stands, I've never seen this on TV, and the DVD release is of course from the US, in a double-bill with World Without End (also from 1956). Both films are presented in anamorphic 2.35 widescreen (from Warner Home Video).

THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE (1974) - bloody Italian zombie horror!

THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE

(1974, Italy/Spain, aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie,

Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti)

Slow-moving undead, outbursts of graphic gore, gothic atmosphere... the next step forward from Night of the Living Dead in the evolution of zombie movies

For years, Italian movies were seen as thinly-disguised remakes of popular US hits. Certainly the intention here was to remake Night of the Living Dead, (according to an interview in the DVD extras), but the result is a very different zombie movie, mostly because director Jorge Frau wanted something more original.

The result is similar in setting to Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead (1980) and is at times as violent as Dawn, or even Day of the Dead. But crucially Manchester Morgue predates these films by several years. This is one of the first high-strength zombie films made in colour. Only Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971) comes close for creepy and gory action, but there the undead are more skeletal than zombie.

It begins with a young man riding a bike into the British countryside for a weekend trip. Looking for directions, he encounters a farmer experimenting with machinery designed to eliminate pests from his crops. The huge gadget amplifies the insects' desire to destroy each other... Soon after a young woman wrecks his bike, and together they meet more trouble in the form of a corpse roaming the countryside...

I was very aware of the film when it was released in the UK in 1975, because of the spread in World of Horror magazine (issue 7), which made it look rather fierce! But I only got to see it years later when it appeared on VHS, and then it didn't look so essential, with all the gore missing, a cropped aspect and a murky transfer. Since then, the film kept re-emerging in different countries, in various formats, under different titles with different amounts of uncensored gore.


Seeing the new Blue Underground Special Edition has really opened my eyes to this movie. It's now not only a great zombie movie to watch, it's really early in the 'modern zombie' timeline, that started with Night of the Living Dead. The explicit brightly-coloured gut-ripping took zombie cinema to a new level, making it essential viewing. This was notably released halfway between Night and Dawn of the Dead, stealing some of Romero's thunder, not to mention leading the Italian zombie movie genre by several years. Dare I say, I might have been less impressed with Dawn of the Dead, if I'd seen Manchester Morgue when it was released.

Instead of Night of the Living Dead's Vietnam subtext and the underlying racial conflict, the main theme of Manchester Morgue is the very wide generation gap of the seventies, where the young (well, youngish) people mistrusted authority, especially the police, and the feeling was mutual. Here the detective in charge of the murder case (Arthur Kennedy)suspects the young couple for committing Manson-style black magic ritual killings. Certainly a more plausible theory than reanimated corpses...


One of the most distracting things about Italian horrors is usually the dubbing. Here is a rare case where the revoicing improves the film. Ray Lovelock's Italian accent is replaced with a London one with a sarcastic tone that would feel at home in Shaun of the Dead. I'd really like to know who the voice actor is who dubbed him, he really helps the character. Like Al Cliver in Zombie Flesh Eaters, Lovelock (who can be seen beardless in The Cassandra Crossing) looks the part, acts the part more than convincingly, but their new voices seal the illusion that they're actually English-speaking! The combination results in a uniquely short-tempered, anti-establishment zombie fighter!

The other unusual aspect that I really love is the use of the British countryside and the city of Manchester. It's always a thrill to see classic European horror films shot in England, an honour really! The key locations of the hospital and the church are made to look like the scariest places on Earth. I'd always thought that the interiors were filmed in real buildings until I saw the DVD extras, which confirm they were actually shot in Italy.


A whole disc of DVD extras includes very watchable interviews about the making of the film and the make-up effects. There's an extensive tour of the original locations with the director himself. It's also great to finally have the film with the original UK title that I know and love (I already have the Anchor Bay edition called Let Sleeping Corpses Lie). Blue Underground have also now released this new special edition on Blu-Ray.

An original trailer is here on youTube...

TIMESLIP (1955) aka THE ATOMIC MAN - British B-movie still packs a punch!

TIMESLIP
(1955, UK, aka THE ATOMIC MAN)

The best reason to watch this is for leading starlet Faith Domergue at her most delectable, here proving she's also good at light comedy. She starred in Timeslip in the same busy year she also headlined in two absolute classics - the incredible, must-see This Island Earth (alien-abduction, bug-eyed monsters) and Ray Harryhausen's giant octopus rampage It Came From Beneath the Sea.


Timeslip isn't as spectacular as either of those, but compensates for its B-movie budget with a snappy story full of new-fangled ideas, for the time: nuclear radiation, atomic terrorism, plastic surgery and even a far-fetched sci-fi concept... The various twists are easy to see coming now, but are realistically handled and sprung on the audience as a series of surprises.


A man with no memory is fished out of the Thames. He seems confused and certainly doesn't think he's the nuclear scientist which ace reporter Mike Delaney thinks he resembles. Despite being told to lay off the case, Mike and his photographer/girlfriend investigate further this dangerous, possibly catastrophic plot...

The nuclear sub-plot still preys on our paranoia today, and is dealt with as a realistic thriller, rather than the giant monster mutations in Tarantula or Quatermass. It's low-budget, but never looks as tatty as its B-movie status, helped by an A-list cast taking it seriously. I actually found the climax exciting...


Like the Quatermass films, the story of Timeslip had previously been produced on TV (in 1953), but was nothing to do with the 1970 children's series of the same name. The original story was written by Charles Eric Maine, who also wrote the sci-fi novel that was later adapted as The Mind of Mr Soames (1970) starring Terence Stamp.

Admittedly I watched this because it was made at Merton Park Studios, but it's more tightly made than many of their later horror films. No surprise that the director Ken Hughes went on to helm such huge productions as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Cromwell (1970). He was also one of the five directors on the zany Casino Royale (1968) and ended his career with a horror - Terror Eyes (1981).


Faith Domergue gels effortlessly with co-star and love interest Gene Nelson, who plays a renegade reporter (and wannabe detective action hero). There's certainly one careless and unintentionally funny moment - after Nelson has been carefully nursing a wounded arm for scene after scene, his stunt double suddenly leaps into a fight with both fists flailing! Nelson stayed with acting for decades, mainly on US TV, but also directed episodes of many classic shows, including the classic Star Trek episode 'The Gamesters of Triskelion'!

Peter Arne is one of the most recognisable faces, (Straw Dogs, The Oblong Box, Return of the Pink Panther) here in a pivotal dual role as the mysterious 'Isotope Man'. Arne gets some great showcase scenes and his scarred, scared face reminded me strongly of Leslie Banks as Count Zaroff in The Most Dangerous Game.

Another actor surprised me by just opening his mouth. Out came the distinguished voice of Colonel White, from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967)! Donald Gray also voiced the eerie Captain Black in this special effects heavy TV series. I'd listened to his voice for 40 years but never seen his face in action before! The series was rebooted recently using CGI motion-capture rather than 'Supermarionation' puppets, and with an all-new voice cast.

Brit-com fans may delight in seeing a pre-'Carry On' Charles Hawtrey providing a couple of moments of very loud, scene-stealing comedy relief.


I thought it would be hard to find Timeslip nowadays, but Turner Classic Movies (in the US) have it for sale, and hopefully even show it occasionally. (The frame-grabs you see here are from an old TV broadcast, and not the DVD).

But beware, there's also a Sonny Chiba film being sold in the US under the title Timeslip, though it was called G.I. Samurai in a previous DVD release. The UK children's TV series Timeslip is also out there on DVD - which certainly caught my attention in the 1970s, though the method of time travel was a little primitive - crawling between two posts! Rather like Phantasm, now I come to think of it...

For more films shot at Merton Park Studios - see my recent article...