|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2019 19:35:11 GMT -5
I rewatched the Batman serials (1943 and 1949) a short while ago. I first enjoyed them back when Channel 4 aired them in the 80s. Well, to a certain extent.
I could tell the budgets were low and I sort of forgave that. I did enjoy the cliffhangers and action. Plus, I was happy to see live-action Batman, although my first experience of that was the Adam West series.
But is there a reason they went for generic villains (a hooded villain, The Wizard, and a racist stereotype, Dr Daka)?
Could the budget really not have stretched to Riddler, Joker or Penguin? Might have improved the serials slightly to see one of those.
Also worth mentioning is this: years ago, there was no IMDb or Google. You only learnt about shows either by writing to a publication such as TV Times, who did often reply to readers' queries, or waiting until a book was published. When I first saw these serials on Channel 4, I did wonder if there might be others. I was wondering if they'd made others. Obviously, they hadn't.
Around 1989/90, I did read a magazine which focused on these serials and 1979's Legends of the Superheroes. It was insightful, but did make me wish DC had been better served. Be careful what you wish for, I did buy a copy of Legends of the Superheroes (NTSC version, not sure if UK ever released it). I was looking forward to seeing live-action versions of Hawkman, Green Lantern, Solomon Grundy, etc. It was quite bad, to be honest.
So, thoughts on the 40s serials are welcome, but I can expand this topic further, too. I know this wasn't unique to WB/DC, but thinking about the 40s serials, Legends of the Superheroes and so much else, it sure must have been frustrating for some to be enjoying comics but seeing pretty poor or underwhelming representations on the small screen.
And while I know the 1960s Batman series casts a long shadow - I'm fed up of seeing "Holy!" headlines in tabloids - it at least gave me a colourful depiction of Batman, plenty of villains who appeared akin to the comic versions and so much else, too.
I think we're quite lucky with the likes of Arrow nowadays, don't you?
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2019 19:58:19 GMT -5
I really did not pay much attention to the villains in these Batman Serials and I do have a fondness of the Wizard at the time that I watched it. I really paid more attention to Batman and Robin in these serials and that's was my focal points of all this and I do enjoy both serials equally for what they worth at the time. They were excellent, full of action, drama, and I do like the Bat-Signal in the 49 serial very good.   I still watch these serials and I do have them on DVD ... I watched them on an annual basis for kicks. |
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 7, 2019 20:01:01 GMT -5
If I were to hazard a guess it's because these films were done on very tight budgets and short tight shooting schedules. Generic bad-guys meant a minimum of cost and time in wardrobe, make-up, etc.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2019 20:54:20 GMT -5
What Slam_Bradley said makes the most sense. I don't recall any serials that had a specific villain lifted from the source material. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2019 5:42:13 GMT -5
Yes, I'm sure you're right, although I'd always hoped the budget could have stretched to the Riddler.  As I stated in my initial post, back before Google and IMDb, I saw the serials and thought, 'Are there more?' I had visions of there being more. Back then, we just had few ways to check. A lot of bulky books were devoted to film rather than TV. There was little information out there in the pre-internet age. It's different today. If someone stumbles upon, say, Arrow, they can Google to see if there are other shows produced by the same studio. But not in the pre-internet age. Until the aforementioned magazine article, I could find little about the 1940s serials. I used to buy books such as Halliwell's Film Guide, but that didn't cover serials. Enough reminiscing from me. On a parallel Earth, there's a 1940s Batman serial featuring the likes of the Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, etc. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2019 9:25:35 GMT -5
Enough reminiscing from me. On a parallel Earth, there's a 1940s Batman serial featuring the likes of the Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, etc. What the title ... and I did not know anything about this? I'm curious. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2019 9:26:58 GMT -5
It's me being silly. I'm imagining that there is a parallel Earth out there - in OUR universe - where a 1940s Batman serial featured one of the heavy hitter villains...
|
|
|
|
Post by zaku on Feb 8, 2019 10:30:48 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Feb 8, 2019 10:45:44 GMT -5
Actually, pre-production artwork has surfaced showing that J. Carroll Naish was originally cast as The Joker for the 1943 serial. When the censors decreed post-Pearl Harbor that Batman and Robin had to be government operatives instead of freelance vigilantes, the filmmakers decided to make Naish a Japanese agent instead. If you look closely at the serial, you'll notice that Dr. Daka is wearing Joker's suit,and his pallid make-up still reflects the original design.
Cei-U!
I summon the patriotic switcheroo!
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2019 10:58:30 GMT -5
A good future topic might be about who we'd cast if certain shows had been produced at different times (Jeffrey Hunter as Reed Richards if the FF film had been made in 1962, anyone?).
|
|
|
|
Post by Mister Spaceman on Feb 8, 2019 11:17:12 GMT -5
Actually, pre-production artwork has surfaced showing that J. Carroll Naish was originally cast as The Joker for the 1943 serial. When the censors decreed post-Pearl Harbor that Batman and Robin had to be government operatives instead of freelance vigilantes, the filmmakers decided to make Naish a Japanese agent instead. If you look closely at the serial, you'll notice that Dr. Daka is wearing Joker's suit,and his pallid make-up still reflects the original design. Cei-U! I summon the patriotic switcheroo! Now that's a genuinely fascinating tidbit that I did not know. Boy, would that have made that serial so much better. |
|
|
|
Post by chadwilliam on Feb 13, 2019 13:10:45 GMT -5
Actually, pre-production artwork has surfaced showing that J. Carroll Naish was originally cast as The Joker for the 1943 serial. When the censors decreed post-Pearl Harbor that Batman and Robin had to be government operatives instead of freelance vigilantes, the filmmakers decided to make Naish a Japanese agent instead. If you look closely at the serial, you'll notice that Dr. Daka is wearing Joker's suit,and his pallid make-up still reflects the original design. Cei-U! I summon the patriotic switcheroo! I never knew this! Naish was an excellent actor who would have certainly made a terrific Joker. There's something so gleefully sadistic about Daka which, though based no doubt upon the racial stereotyping involved, would still have worked perfectly for The Joker. As for "patriotic switcheroo", I can't help but find it odd that while Batman had to get involved in the war effort in 1943, Captain America got to sit it out the following year in his serial. I understand that by 1944, audiences were worn down from being constantly reminded of the war, but still, "Fighting the Nazi's on the beaches of Normandy vs. investigating possible insurance fraud here in the States? hmm... sorry boys!" Incidentally, Captain America not only avoided use of The Red Skull, but Bucky, the shield, the war, and Steve Rogers himself and, like the first Batman serial, still works. Actually, when Marvel complained about how unfaithful the Captain America serial was to the source material, Republic responded that nowhere in the package Marvel sent them was any information about a kid sidekick or shield so how were they supposed to know about them. I suspect that that sort of reasoning was applied to a lot of serials back then. "Look, we've got The Phantom, The Spider, Mandrake, Captain Midnight, The Shadow, and who knows who else! You want us to use some guy called The Joker or The Penguin, then you better make that clear up front!" |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2019 13:23:04 GMT -5
Chad, why didn't the studio Google it? |
|
|
|
Post by chadwilliam on Feb 13, 2019 14:09:02 GMT -5
Chad, why didn't the studio Google it? Even if you were rich enough back then to be able to dial your question into Google (a complicated process sometimes taking as long as six fortnights) instead of having to use the old fashioned dot-dash-dot method of morse code, the internet was so crude back then that most answers came either in the form of a nude photo of FDR which then had to be deciphered, or dealt with how to properly destroy a vampire suffering from cholera. Those were time consuming, but patriotic pursuits. Asking about villains for use in the upcoming Batman serial? You might as well have admitted to being a Nazi witch. |
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Feb 14, 2019 14:09:02 GMT -5
Actually, pre-production artwork has surfaced showing that J. Carroll Naish was originally cast as The Joker for the 1943 serial. When the censors decreed post-Pearl Harbor that Batman and Robin had to be government operatives instead of freelance vigilantes, the filmmakers decided to make Naish a Japanese agent instead. If you look closely at the serial, you'll notice that Dr. Daka is wearing Joker's suit,and his pallid make-up still reflects the original design. Cei-U! I summon the patriotic switcheroo! I guess that's one more reason that Batman and Wonder Woman spent so much time battling saboteurs in the Golden Age. |
|
