Reviews & Ratings for
"Batman" The Yegg Foes in Gotham (1966)

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The yolk's on you, Egghead, 25 March 2011

Author: ShadeGrenade from Ambrosia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Another eggs-citing eggs-ploit of the Dynamic Duo.

If ever there was an actor born to play a 'Batman' villain, it had to be Vincent Price. As well as a horror film star, he was also an accomplished light comedian. He was cast as 'Egghead', a smooth-talking criminal genius whose love of eggs matches Auric Goldfinger's fondness for gold. In the preceding instalment - 'An Egg Grows In Gotham' - millionaires Bruce Wayne, Tim Tyler ( Stephen Dunne ) and Pete Savage ( Albert Garrier ) were about to participate in a ceremony conducted once every five years which involves leasing Gotham City from Chief Screaming Chicken ( Edward Everett Horton ). The payment is five raccoon pelts. Egghead has struck a back-door deal with him, putting him in complete charge. The cliffhanger had Egghead about to destroy the brain of Bruce Wayne, having correctly identified him as the Caped Crusader. Robin saved the day by turning up the power, causing the villain's machine to explode.

Egghead's first act is to sack Commissioner Gordon and Mayor Linseed, and outlaw Batman and Robin from the city. Crime escalates in no time at all; a bank manager reporting a robbery is charged with jay walking, a newsreader gets mugged live on air, and Egghead robs the Gotham Treasury.

The adventure ends in a punch-up at Old MacDonalds Chicken Farm, with eggs flying all over the place like bullets. Needless to say, our heroes win out, and Egghead's criminal career is made eggs-tinct. At least until Season 3, when he reappeared in several more episodes, usually in cahoots with the Russian villainness Olga ( Anne Baxter ).

This is wonderful, daft fun, of course, and Price plays Egghead the way you would expect - way over the top. Writer Stanley Ralph Ross went through his thesaurus, making a list of all words beginning with 'ex' or 'ecc' and incorporated them into Egghead's dialogue. The egg theme is even carried over into the names of his henchmen/women - we have 'Miss Bacon' ( Gail Hire ), Benedict ( Gene Dynarski ) and Foo Yong ( Ben Welden ).

The comical native American might be considered offensive now, but you must remember it was a different era.

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