Customer Reviews

Batman and Robin - The Complete 1949 Movie Serial Collection

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

How does Bruce Wayne convert his car into the Batmobile? Why, he simply puts up the rag-top, of course! Yeah, okay, so the 1949 Batman Serial was not exactly "cutting edge" or "mind-blowing" or "good", but it has its charm. The dialogue is ridiculous, the fight scenes are clumbsy, and the costumes are ill-fitting at best, but for some reason, I absolutely love it. This floppy-eared incarnation of the Dark Knight is more a film noir private investigator than the shadowy, rooftop avenger that we know today. He and the Boy Wonder spend less time lurking in the Bat Cave and more time beating up the Wizard's greasy haired, fedora wearing thugs. Oh...and the Wizard! This guy is actually a pretty good villain. He is cloaked head-to-toe, has blank, glowing eyes, appears from time to time as a phantom, and remains a mystery through most of the serial. Pretty creepy dude, if you ask me, and a fitting opponent for Batman and Robin. If you're thinking about buying this one, take off your critic's hat and enjoy this gem for what it is: an old-school Bat-brawl. It's fedora bashin' fun!

Upon viewing the first chapter, it's obvious that "Batman and Robin" (1949) will not emerge as one of the all-time great serials. With producer Sam Katzman at the helm, it's bargain-basement all the way - right down to the cheap costumes and an incredibly poor excuse for a Batmobile. Despite low-budget shortcomings, there's plenty of hokey fun as Batman and Robin face one contrived cliffhanger after another. The mysterious Wizard makes for an interesting villain, since he never appeared in the comic books. Robert Lowery does a good job as Batman, but John Duncan's Boy Wonder looks like a juvenile delinquent. It's nice to see character actor Lyle Talbot as Commissioner Gordon, even though he has a tendency to activate the Bat Signal in broad daylight. Flaws and all, "Batman and Robin" is an undeniable guilty pleasure.

This 1949 serial will be of interest mainly to Batman and/or serial fanatics. It is fun to watch, though much of the fun comes from the improbabilities and inconsistencies. For instance, there's no Batmobile, just a car which can be identified as Bruce Wayne's car. Nobody except Bruce Wayne's girl friend, Vickie Vale, seems to notice this.

There are very few good chapter endings here. Most of them are either lame or boring or borderline cheating.

The characters are interesting, though. The villianous Wizard's
identity is of course kept secret until the last chapter, and you're given several red herrings to puzzle over, one of which is a bit overly done.

A serial based on as popular a comic book hero as Batman should've been much better, but those who really enjoy the genre will probably want this, chiefly because it's one of the two serials featuring the Dynamic Duo.

Just finished playing this DVD and it lived up to its expectations. Typical classic moments include Batman's cowl (Face Mask) being to large for Batman's (Robert Lowery) face, with the result that it slips down past his eyes and he regularly compensates by having to raise his face to the sky to see underneath the eyeholes. An absolute classic moment!!!
As well as this when the Dynamic Duo go one to one with the bad guys in a fight they more often than not get duffed up.
The Batcave consists of a filing cabinet to store their costumes (where else) and a microscope to play the part of a laboratory.
I could go on and on but buy or rent this DVD as it merits a wider audience to appreciate it "hamminess" and appeal to a more innocent time. Loved it.

In response to another review below, someone mentioned that he remembered the first episode being about 10 minutes longer than the VHS release. I have seen both the VHS release and the dvd and can verify that, yes, the first episode of the dvd edition is about 9 or 10 minutes longer. The additional footage helps it make a bit more sense, though nothing critical was left out.

The picture quality is good for something this old. It's still pretty hokey, but it's good for what it was. It's fun to see Batman in the 1940's, just 10 years after his creation and to see how the character has evolved over the years.

I wonder why they didn't use the box art from the vhs release?

I too would like to see the 1943 movie serials released on dvd, and the 1960's Batman television show as well. With the new Batman Begins movie about to open in theaters, what better time?

In the 1990s, Columbia released this 1949 Batman and Robin serial on VHS. About 10 minutes were missing from the first chapter. It was with great uneasiness that I awaited the new DVD re-release, and I am happy to say that the missing minutes have been restored.

From reading other reviews and from my own observations, I now see all the holes in the plot and other absurdities that my seven-year-old mind could not grasp when I originally saw this in the theater in 1950. But I don't care. It is still entertaining, and watching it and listening to the Mischa Bakaleinikoff music score bring back fond memories of that remote time.

Now how about the 1943 Batman serial? It is full of political incorrectness that one VHS version almost completely censored and modified. Let's have the real original, unretouched; but maybe with some commentary to help point out the anti-Japanese wartime posturing that was there then.

I'll admit I'm not familiar with the 1943 serial. The serials I *am* familiar with (including the creaky Poverty Row Lugosi ones) are really MUCH worse than this, at least for pure **entertainment** value. But perhaps my "entertainment scale" is different - I can't recall such a high knee-slapper/howler ratio in anything other than an Ed Wood movie. The dialogue isn't just stilted - it's moronic on every conceivable level! (After Batman gets the stuffing beat out of him and is picking himself up off the edirt, Robin helpfully points out that the crooks "are getting away in their car". Gee - THAT'S why they call him the "Boy Wonder" (though he looks closer to 30 than 20). Frequently, the actors look as though they are improvising or just saying whatever comes into their head. And although the action is downright FRANTIC (numerous fistfights, burning buildings, spectacular car-off-the-cliff crashes, gunfights, airplanes exploding, etc.), the actual plot never moves forward. Things I learned: radioactive money bursts into flames when removed from it's envelope. Getting a daily beating doesn't affect your handsome good looks. Changing into a bat costume in the back of a convertible doesn't attract any attention. "Remote control" machines run on diamonds. The "Bat Signal" works at high noon. Gotham City doesn't have any buildings - it's out in the middle of the California desert somewhere. Batman's "utility belt" can hold a full-sized acetylene torch, including the tank, without showing. "Wayne Manor" is right next door to the Cleaver's house. The "Bat Cave" is underneath that, but is about the right size for a basement. (And it includes the shadows of rubber bats flitting around, too.) I could go on, but I hope that you get the idea. I was a little worried that I'd be sitting through some "Commando Cody"-style drek, but please, take my word for it - this is some of the best, most riffable material I have EVER seen. My absolute highest recommendation. (If you like that sort of thing, that is!!!)

The first Batman serial from 1943 was a very good serial of it's day. Dated by today's standards but it did a wonderful job of capturing the look and flavor of the Bob Kane gritty batman. Add to that that it had a strong lead in Lewis Wilson, great villian in character actor J. Carrol Naish, and a talented Director in Lambert Hillyer and it made for a great serial.

Batman and Robin has none of that, unfortunately. Robert Lowery, much like Dick Purcell in the Captain America serial is FAR too out of shape for the role and he makes Adam West look like Schwarzenegger. Spencer Gordon Bennett was a veteran of directing movie serials but he was strictly less than a "B" director. The film looks cheap in every way. Serials were almost always low budgets but good directors had a way of getting the most out of what they had to work with. Not the case here as all the sets look cheesy, the script is laughable, the acting stiff as a board, and the costumes look like your Aunt Rose sewed them together in her basement the night before the costume party.

The plot involves some typical 1940's hokum about a remote control device that can take control of any moving vehicle that is stolen by a masked villian known as The Wizard. On top of that the machines needs diamonds to fuel it!!! So we get Batman & Robin trying to track down the wizard and foil all of his plots. The stupid villian had a device that allowed him to spy on Batman but for some reason never used it when Batman was about to bust up one of his schemes.

John Duncan fares slightly better as Robin than Lowery does as Batman. He at least looks slightly athletic even if the stunt double is completely obvious. Oh and there's no batmobile...not even an attempt to make one. Just the caped crusaders driving around in an off the lot convertible.

It's not completely horrible. There are some nice cliff-hangers and pretty decent action sequences. The Wizard is suitably scary for kids if a bit over the top. One just wishes that more care and money would have gone into the production to make it at least a B serial.

While I love Batman, I didnt know if I Should buy it or not. People seemed to bash this left and right for stupid reasons. Considering it was made in 1949, it was still very entertaining and enjoyable. I recently picked it up and I love it! Its cheesy and has some holes in it, but its fun. I highly recommend it if you like Batman, you wont be disappointed.

This is the second Batman serial and it is a tad better than The Batman. This one had me guessing all the way through. A great serial. AMC aired this and all I did was watch this serial. Great fighting sequences. I wish this was in yahoo.com's database. I can't find it there. Its here and you should buy it.