Batman keeps the world in suspense
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Batman keeps the world in suspense |
| Original title | Batman |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Leslie H. Martinson |
| script | Lorenzo Semple Jr. |
| production | William Dozier |
| music | Nelson Riddle |
| camera | Howard Schwartz |
| cut | Harry W. Gerstad |
| occupation | |
| |
Batman keeps the world in suspense (Original title: Batman ) is an American feature film from 1966, which is based on the classic Batman television series . Directed by Leslie H. Martinson , Lorenzo Semple Jr. wrote the script. William Dozier produced the film with his production company and Greenlawn Productions as well as 20th Century Fox ; Fox also owns the marketing rights. Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin star in the comic book adaptation . Their opponents were played by Cesar Romero , Burgess Meredith , Lee Meriwether and Frank Gorshin , who portray the Joker , the Penguin , Catwoman and the Puzzle Cracker . The film premiered on July 30, 1966 in Austin, Texas . The film was first shown in the Federal Republic of Germany on February 10, 1967.
action
Known as a dynamic duo, the crime-fighting team Batman and Robin, alias millionaire Bruce Wayne and his foster son Dick Grayson, rush to a luxury yacht cruising in the waters off Gotham City . But before they can intervene, the ship disappears without a trace with its passenger, the eccentrically naive Commodore Schmidtlapp, and his mysterious new invention. Instead, Batman is attacked by a shark, which he can ultimately fight and eliminate with his extensive equipment, in this case with the "anti-shark batspray", before the animal also explodes.
A briefing with the highest police officers in Gotham, Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara, as well as corresponding information at the scene of the crime finally lead to the uncovering of the masterminds: the four greatest enemies of the masked heroes - the Joker, the Penguin (in German dubbing "Penguin Man") , Catwoman ("cat woman") and the Riddler ("puzzle cracker") - have teamed up to apparently usurp the world domination with Schmidtlapp's patent.
Batman and Robin go on a search and in the further course of the plot they can find the villains in a harbor hideout, but they escape with the help of a bomb that Batman can get rid of after a seemingly endless chase through the harbor. At the same time, in a subplot, a romantic relationship develops between Bruce Wayne and the Russian reporter Kitanya Arezov, or "Miss Kitka" for short. Little does Wayne and Grayson know that Kitka is actually Catwoman. This is how she gets information and in one case she can even ambush Wayne and have him kidnapped.
Ultimately, the dynamic duo comes too late when the criminal quartet carries out their plan: Schmidtlapp's invention is a dehydration device that can be used to remove all water from a person. With the device and a submarine shaped like a penguin, the four of them penetrate the headquarters of the “United World”, an organization that resembles the United Nations , and dehydrate the nine members of the Security Council, leaving nothing but heaps of dust. These are filled into test tubes, taken away and then used as a means of pressure: the statesmen would only be returned to their original form if a large ransom was paid.
Batman and Robin not only manage to uncover the secret of the missing yacht, but also to avoid another criminal death trap. Ultimately, they make the submarine surface, can fight the bad guys in a final brawl and get the dust samples. However, Schmidtlapp, who was also freed, confused them with his carelessness and sneezing. In painstaking detail, Batman and Robin manage to separate and organize the samples again. The last scene, however, shows that something got mixed up and that the council members who are constantly arguing now speak in the language of another council member. With the optimism of purpose of possible international understanding, Batman and Robin withdraw from the room and go back on the hunt for criminals.
production
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Batman keeps the world in suspense was filmed in different parts of California: Griffith Park , Century City , Westwood , Santa Barbara, and the Desilu and 20th Century Fox studios . Filming ran from April 25, 1966 to May 31, 1966. The film budget is estimated at just under 1.4 million US dollars .
Reviews
“Super detective Batman and his assistant Robin fight against four gangsters striving for world domination, who can use rays to turn people into powder. The infantile film takes up the motif of the old TV series again, not without surprise effects and a trace of occasional irony "
“Shaking backdrops, a joker with a mustache covered with make-up and anti-shark bat spray: unlike The Dark Knight , the colorful naivete of the Swinging Sixties prevails here. Groovy! "
“An imposition even for the children's willingness to accept. If the strip is only to be treated as a successful advertising stunt by a children's toy factory, then it does not belong in the regular program. In its current form it is to be rejected because of its primitiveness. "
“'Batman holds the world in suspense' is fun. It's wonderful to see how Batman, for example, runs through a docks with an ever-ticking bomb and fails to dispose of it; or when the comic 'Pows', 'Bangs' and 'Splashs' pop up in the picture during a fight. Those who get involved in the film can see themselves wonderfully entertained, but some others will not be able to do anything with the deliberately silly (and in absolutely all respects) 'Batman keeps the world in suspense'. But especially in the wake of the current, modern superhero hysteria, this film is very worth seeing again and has gained a bit more topicality. Anyone who is not averse to trashy humor cannot go wrong with 'Batman keeps the world in suspense'. But if you scratch your head in confusion while reading the criticism and interwoven quotes, it would be better to avoid the trash comedy. "
Awards
In 1972 Leslie H. Martinson won a "Golden Gryphon" for the film at the Giffoni Film Festival.
Trivia
- Originally, the strip was planned as a pilot in the series. Ultimately, it was then postponed and shot as a feature film between the first and second season in order to take advantage of the series popularity.
- The actual Catwoman actress, Julie Newmar , could not be hired because she was signing for another production at the same time and she was also not informed about the Batman film in advance. So after Newmar (and later Eartha Kitt ) Lee Meriwether came in as the third actress in this role. She also played later in the series: as Lisa in the double episode Great King of the Nile .
- Reginald Denny, the actor who played Commodore Schmidtlapp, had also worked on the series. In the double episode Riddler's rats rob Boris as King Boris. It was also the last film in which Denny, who died just a year later, participated.
- The UK Security Council member slaps his shoe on the table while he is talking. This is a tribute to the former Soviet head of government Nikita Khrushchev , who also did the same for the United Nation in 1960.
- The American President (who is not shown himself because he is sitting in a high-backed, green armchair with his back to the scene, but is identified by the coat of arms on the wall) is sitting in a small room with three telephones, two armchairs (one has two Basset Hound ) while a simple Persian rug lies on the floor; the walls are empty except for the coat of arms of the President of the USA and two wall lights; It should be one of the shabbiest presidential office backdrops in film history.
synchronization
Although the film and series were shot and broadcast (in the USA) almost simultaneously, only the cinema film came onto the German market at that time and was dubbed in accordance with the 1960s. This was particularly noticeable in the Germanization of the villain names. When Batman's popularity flared up again in Germany at the end of the 1980s (on the one hand due to the broadcast on German television and Tim Burton's 1989 theatrical adaptation ), the original series was also dubbed. But then with other, since newer speakers.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Batman / Bruce Wayne | Adam West | Michael Chevalier |
| Robin / Dick Grayson | Burt Ward | Ulli Lommel |
| Alfred Pennyworth | Alan Napier | Helmut Heyne |
| Commissioner James Gordon | Neil Hamilton | Kurt Waitzmann |
| Chief O'Hara | Stafford Repp | Hans Wiegner |
| joker | Cesar Romero | Martin Hirthe |
| Catwoman / Selina Kyle | Lee Meriwether | Eva Katharina Schultz |
| The penguin / Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot | Burgess Meredith | Hans Hessling |
| Riddler / Edward Nygma | Frank Gorshin | Harry Wüstenhagen |
| Commodore Schmidtlapp | Reginald Denny | Hugo Schrader |
Web links
- Batman keeps the world in suspense in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Batman keeps the world in suspense at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Batman keeps the world in suspense. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ film review on cinema.de
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 104/1967.
- ↑ Criticism on film releases