Bootleg #15 is Off to the Printer. On Another Subject...

... everyone here's seen the 1960s Batman movie, right?

Two moments stand out in my mind from that movie.

The master plan of the unholy alliance of Catwoman, Riddler, the Penguin and the Joker centers on a scientific technique of totally dehydrating a person without killing them. This instantly, through the magic of jump cuts, turns the person to a pile of powder- which can be reconstituted as a living human being through the simple addition of water (and another jump cut).

At one point Penguin and Catwoman use the technique to powderize a bunch of minions as part of their scheme to infiltrate the Batcave. I remember it because the line ends on the Penguin telling Catwoman, as she sweeps up each little pile, "Careful, there- every one of 'em has a mother." Hard for current comics fans to imagine Oswald Cobblepot having any consideration for anyone whatever.

The other scene is, of course, Batman and Robin fighting off the invasion of the Batcave. That sticks in my mind for what ISN'T in it. Batman and Robin discover that their punches cause their enemies to- jump cut!- vanish, or disintegrate, or whatever. (This is because hard water was used to revive the goons, making them unstable. Ah, comicbook science.) Evidently- so far as I remember- there's nothing left of the goons to revive. They're dead- and they died from a punch or kick from Batman and/or Robin.

Yet neither Batman nor Robin seems in any way upset by this- or even really cognizant of the fact.

This is the ultra-moral, ultra-ethical, Duly Deputized Enforcers of the Law Batman and Robin... who have just killed five or six men, albeit unintentionally... and yet they don't try to save them, they don't show any remorse or regret, they barely even register surprise. They're too busy realizing that the plot calls on them to save the bacon of the World Union delegates.

And after that scene, the fate of the disintegrated-reintegrated-obliviated goons is never. Referred. To. Again.

The 1960's Batman movie is classic kitsch and comedy, but that scene to me is just damn CREEPY...

Bootleg #15 is Off to the Printer. On Another Subject...

... everyone here's seen the 1960s Batman movie, right?

Two moments stand out in my mind from that movie.

The master plan of the unholy alliance of Catwoman, Riddler, the Penguin and the Joker centers on a scientific technique of totally dehydrating a person without killing them. This instantly, through the magic of jump cuts, turns the person to a pile of powder- which can be reconstituted as a living human being through the simple addition of water (and another jump cut).

At one point Penguin and Catwoman use the technique to powderize a bunch of minions as part of their scheme to infiltrate the Batcave. I remember it because the line ends on the Penguin telling Catwoman, as she sweeps up each little pile, "Careful, there- every one of 'em has a mother." Hard for current comics fans to imagine Oswald Cobblepot having any consideration for anyone whatever.

The other scene is, of course, Batman and Robin fighting off the invasion of the Batcave. That sticks in my mind for what ISN'T in it. Batman and Robin discover that their punches cause their enemies to- jump cut!- vanish, or disintegrate, or whatever. (This is because hard water was used to revive the goons, making them unstable. Ah, comicbook science.) Evidently- so far as I remember- there's nothing left of the goons to revive. They're dead- and they died from a punch or kick from Batman and/or Robin.

Yet neither Batman nor Robin seems in any way upset by this- or even really cognizant of the fact.

This is the ultra-moral, ultra-ethical, Duly Deputized Enforcers of the Law Batman and Robin... who have just killed five or six men, albeit unintentionally... and yet they don't try to save them, they don't show any remorse or regret, they barely even register surprise. They're too busy realizing that the plot calls on them to save the bacon of the World Union delegates.

And after that scene, the fate of the disintegrated-reintegrated-obliviated goons is never. Referred. To. Again.

The 1960's Batman movie is classic kitsch and comedy, but that scene to me is just damn CREEPY...