The worst things are about this serial are Batman and Robin's masks, which are indeed atrocious. My experience watching it, however, was that by the end of the 2nd chapter I had gotten used to them, as well as Robert Lowry's gut, and they no longer distracted me from enjoying this better-than-average-late-period Columbia serial.
Overall, Robert Lowry and Johnny Duncan make pretty good heroes. Lowry has a good voice, and is handsome when he is Bruce Wayne, and is convincing when he gets tough. There is a neat part where Batman is standing right up straight to a thug and lets the thug punch him in the face, but Batman doesn't even flinch, simply saying, 'that hurt,' and then slugging and knocking out the thug.
Johnny Duncan has a receding hairline and looks about 30, but he has a build like a college wrestler and is credible as Robin, despite some ridiculous fight choreography for the character: Robin does a lot of really goofy stuff in fight scenes, like riding a thug's back, and getting on all fours to trip a running thug. I guess the idea was that was a how a kid would fight, but with a 30 year old it's just embarrassing. I just hope Burt Ward appreciated the fight choreographers 20th Century Fox provided him for the TV series.
Fortunately, Batman fares much better in the fight scenes, and there are no special Bat-weapons here, just good-old-fashioned fisticuffs, which is appropriate for a serial. (Although it would have been cool if at least our heroes had done some rope climbing or swinging, as there is no such action in this serial).
This serial is faithful to the source material (as it existed in 1949), as there is a Bat-Signal, Alfred the Butler, Commissioner Gordon, and a Bat-Cave. Crooks refer to our hero as 'The Batman,' and generally refer to Robin as 'Batman's pal' as though they are too polite to state what they suspect the true nature of the relationship to be.
This serial introduced the character Vicki Vale, who is probably the most annoying female character ever to appear in Batman comics. The hapless actress who plays her does not fare well, being far less appealing than Jean Rogers, Noel Niell, or Louise Currie on their worst days. Nonetheless, Miss Vale does play an important role in the story, and so we can tolerate her presence.
The villain, the Wizard, is a better-than-average serial villain, but not as good as Ming the Merciless or Lyle Talbot's Lex Luthor. The action is mostly very good, with a nice fight scene staged atop an actual moving freight train at one point (although in an early chapter, our heroes surrender to armed thugs w/o a fight in one scene: this mistake is never made again, thankfully).
The cliffhangers are average to good, with a few of the usual 'cheat' escapes. The plot moves along and there is some fun business as Batman employs some low tech deception to protect his secret identity, and other nifty stuff.
Overall, the plausibility factor here is average to good for serials, and certainly much better than it would be by early 1950's. 1949 and 1950 featured this serial, King of the Rocketmen, and Atom Man Vs. Superman, which were all very good serials, but by 1952 the average serial was too silly even for a serial fan to enjoy much. So I tend to look at this period as kind of the last hurrah of the serial genre.
Also, 1949 was the year that Captain Video and the Lone Ranger premiered on TV, direct competition for the serial's prime audience.
This serial is played straight, as opposed the Adam West and Joel Schumacher versions of Batman, yet does not take it self over-seriously like the last 2 Batman movies have done. It moves along at a nice pace yet is not hyperactive.
I would recommend this to fans of serials, old movies, B-Movies, and fans of golden age comic books. Modern viewers, used to CGI, ultra-violence, and Batmen wearing fake rubber muscles and nipples will probably not enjoy this, and they can keep their sadistic, nihilistic, self-pitying hero. This serial is more enjoyable to me than any of the last 5 Batman feature length films.
Overall, Robert Lowry and Johnny Duncan make pretty good heroes. Lowry has a good voice, and is handsome when he is Bruce Wayne, and is convincing when he gets tough. There is a neat part where Batman is standing right up straight to a thug and lets the thug punch him in the face, but Batman doesn't even flinch, simply saying, 'that hurt,' and then slugging and knocking out the thug.
Johnny Duncan has a receding hairline and looks about 30, but he has a build like a college wrestler and is credible as Robin, despite some ridiculous fight choreography for the character: Robin does a lot of really goofy stuff in fight scenes, like riding a thug's back, and getting on all fours to trip a running thug. I guess the idea was that was a how a kid would fight, but with a 30 year old it's just embarrassing. I just hope Burt Ward appreciated the fight choreographers 20th Century Fox provided him for the TV series.
Fortunately, Batman fares much better in the fight scenes, and there are no special Bat-weapons here, just good-old-fashioned fisticuffs, which is appropriate for a serial. (Although it would have been cool if at least our heroes had done some rope climbing or swinging, as there is no such action in this serial).
This serial is faithful to the source material (as it existed in 1949), as there is a Bat-Signal, Alfred the Butler, Commissioner Gordon, and a Bat-Cave. Crooks refer to our hero as 'The Batman,' and generally refer to Robin as 'Batman's pal' as though they are too polite to state what they suspect the true nature of the relationship to be.
This serial introduced the character Vicki Vale, who is probably the most annoying female character ever to appear in Batman comics. The hapless actress who plays her does not fare well, being far less appealing than Jean Rogers, Noel Niell, or Louise Currie on their worst days. Nonetheless, Miss Vale does play an important role in the story, and so we can tolerate her presence.
The villain, the Wizard, is a better-than-average serial villain, but not as good as Ming the Merciless or Lyle Talbot's Lex Luthor. The action is mostly very good, with a nice fight scene staged atop an actual moving freight train at one point (although in an early chapter, our heroes surrender to armed thugs w/o a fight in one scene: this mistake is never made again, thankfully).
The cliffhangers are average to good, with a few of the usual 'cheat' escapes. The plot moves along and there is some fun business as Batman employs some low tech deception to protect his secret identity, and other nifty stuff.
Overall, the plausibility factor here is average to good for serials, and certainly much better than it would be by early 1950's. 1949 and 1950 featured this serial, King of the Rocketmen, and Atom Man Vs. Superman, which were all very good serials, but by 1952 the average serial was too silly even for a serial fan to enjoy much. So I tend to look at this period as kind of the last hurrah of the serial genre.
Also, 1949 was the year that Captain Video and the Lone Ranger premiered on TV, direct competition for the serial's prime audience.
This serial is played straight, as opposed the Adam West and Joel Schumacher versions of Batman, yet does not take it self over-seriously like the last 2 Batman movies have done. It moves along at a nice pace yet is not hyperactive.
I would recommend this to fans of serials, old movies, B-Movies, and fans of golden age comic books. Modern viewers, used to CGI, ultra-violence, and Batmen wearing fake rubber muscles and nipples will probably not enjoy this, and they can keep their sadistic, nihilistic, self-pitying hero. This serial is more enjoyable to me than any of the last 5 Batman feature length films.