REEL RETRO CINEMA | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Mar09

1943’s BATMAN Serial: The Highs and Lows of the Dynamic Duo’s Screen Debut

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Mar 9, 2020

1943’s BATMAN Serial: The Highs and Lows of the Dynamic Duo’s Screen Debut

ROBIN WEEK: An INSIDE LOOK at the Boy Wonder’s — and his mentor’s — first time on celluloid… — Welcome to ROBIN WEEK! One of the greatest heroes in comics history debuted 80 years ago this month — and we’re celebrating with a series of features saluting the Boys, Girls and Teens Wonder. For the complete index of features, click here. — It’s ROBIN WEEK, so it only made sense to take a look at the Boy Wonder’s first time on screen — which, of course, was Batman’s first time on screen, as well. Dig this look back at 1943’s Batman serial, by REEL RETRO CINEMA columnist Rob Kelly: By ROB KELLY DC Comics’ Dynamic Duo made their live-action debut in Columbia Pictures’ 15-chapter 1943 movie serial Batman, starring Lewis Wilson as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Douglas Croft as Robin/Dick Grayson, and J. Carrol Naish as the nefarious criminal mastermind Dr. Daka. Dr. Who? More on him in a minute. As we have already covered in other movie serial-centric profiles for REEL RETRO CINEMA, movie studios barely seemed to care about the source material when translating comic book characters to live action. In Batman, our heroes are straight up officially sanctioned government agents who are on the lookout for Japanese saboteurs following the attack on Pearl Harbor. After Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend Linda (Shirley Patterson) tells Bruce that her uncle has been kidnapped, the investigation discovers it’s the work of Dr. Daka, who has a plan to steal Gotham City’s radium supply so he can use it to power his ray gun that can dissolve anything. Daka sends his goons to get the radium, and it’s up to Batman and Robin to stop them. But Daka (and the screenwriters) have come up with an interesting twist: accompanying the henchmen is a sort of zombie that Daka controls via an electronic brain implant! After Batman and Robin apprehend one of Daka’s goons, they oh-so-subtly suggest that the real live bats fluttering around “the Bat’s Cave” are hungry. The terrified goon gives up the secret that the radium has been taken to The House of the Open Door, located in the mostly-deserted Little Tokyo section of the city. This sets up the basic formula, where Daka’s goons show up to a location, Batman and Robin try and stop them, and then Daka comes up with...

Jan16

The Kitschy Greatness of THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jan 16, 2020

The Kitschy Greatness of THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD

REEL RETRO CINEMA: New looks at old flicks — and their comic-book adaptations! — UPDATED 1/16/20: Caroline Munro turns 71 today. This piece first ran in 2016 but it’s as fitting now as it was then. Enjoy. — Dan — OK, so there’s a special reason Rob Kelly’s latest REEL RETRO CINEMA column is focused on this Sunday-matinee staple. See, over the last year or so, ever since Sir Christopher Lee died, he and Caroline Munro have become minor obsessions of mine. It’s because I’m convinced that the two of them should have been Ra’s al Ghul and Talia in a ’70s Batman movie that should have been made but wasn’t. (Read about that here.) This is an idea that goes back to childhood. (Read about that here.) Anyway, we’re right now in the thick of NEAL ADAMS MONTH (again, click here) in which the legendary artist provides us with daily commentary on every variant cover he’s done for DC in February, each one based on one of his Bronze or Silver Age classics. But during our lengthy discussions, I made sure to ask him about the Lee-Munro idea — and he was really into it. (You can read about that here.) So the timing seemed right to revisit The Golden Voyage of Sinbad in all its Munrovian glory… — Dan — By ROB KELLY “Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel.” 1973’s “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” was producer Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen’s second Sinbad film, following 1958’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. This time around, John Phillip Law (Diabolik himself!) plays the world-traveling, sword-wielding adventurer. Let’s set sail! Directed by Gordon Hessler (who helmed many fine films, plus KISS Meets The Phantom of the Park), the movie opens aboard Sinbad’s ship as it cruises the high seas. A small winged homunculus flies above, dropping a golden tablet. Sinbad wears it around his neck, and that night has a strange vision of a mysterious woman with an eye tattooed on her hand. A strange storm blows the ship off course, and Sinbad and his crew find themselves at a coastal town in the country of Marabia. While on land, Sinbad is accosted by a stranger in black who demands the tablet, showing off his sword for emphasis. Sinbad refuses, escaping to the city. There he...

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