Batman serials: Encyclopedia II - Batman serials - The Batman 1943

Batman serials - The Batman 1943

Batman was the first DC comic character to star in a serial. The film, simply titled The Batman, was released in 1943 and starred Lewis Wilson as Batman and Douglas Croft as Robin. J. Carrol Naish played the villain, an original character named Dr. Daka. Rounding out the cast were Shirley Patterson as Linda Page (Bruce Wayne's love interest), and William Austin as Alfred.

The film is notable for being the first filmed appearance of Batman. Also, the film introduced "The Bat's Cave". The name was altered to the Batcave for use in the comic books as well as the Grandfather's clock entrance. Also, the comic Alfred was overweight and clean-shaven prior to the serial's release. Austin was trim and sported a thin moustache. The comic Alfred's appearance was altered to match that of Austin's, and remains the same to this day.

The film's plot dealt with Batman and Robin's struggle against Dr. Daka, a Japanese spy who invented a device that turns people into pseudo-zombies.

The film was made during World War II, and like numerous works of popular American fiction of the time, contains anti-Japanese slurs and comments (in one scene, Robin tells Daka, "You're as yellow as your skin!"). The film also suffered from a low budget, indicative of many Columbia serials. No attempt was made to create a Batmobile, so a black Cadillac was used by Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, as well as Batman and Robin. Alfred chauffered the Dynamic Duo in both identities.

The serial was released on home video in the late 1980s in a heavily edited format that removed the offensive racial content. A reviewer for the magazine Cinefantastique commented, "The changes aren't surprising when you see that Columbia is now owned by Japan's Sony Corporation. It appears that some of Daka's operatives escaped Batman's justice and were rewarded with positions at the new George Orwell department at Columbia." It should be noted that the edited version was not released by Columbia, but Goodtimes Home Video, an independent distributor.

However, in the early 1990s, the cable network American Movie Classics, aired both Batman serials on Saturday mornings, with the 1943 serial uncut and uncensored.

Sony released the serial on DVD in October 2005. The DVD release is an unedited version.

Lewis Wilson's son is Michael G. Wilson, producer of the James Bond movie franchise.

Batman serials - Chapters

1. The Electrical Brain
2. The Bat's Cave
3. Mark of the Zombies
4. Slaves of the Rising Sun
5. The Living Corpse
6. Poison Peril
7. The Phony Doctor
8. Lured by Radium
9. The Sign of the Sphinx
10. Flying Spies
11. A Nipponese Trap
12. Embers of Evil
13. 8 Steps Down
14. The Executioner Strikes
15. Doom of the Rising Sun

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Batman 1943", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki