Batman is a 1943 American 15-chapter theatrical serial from Columbia Pictures, produced by Rudolph C. Flothow, directed by Lambert Hillyer, that stars Lewis Wilson as Batman and Douglas Croft as his sidekick Robin. The serial is based on the DC Comics character Batman, who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. The villain is an original character named Dr. Daka, a secret agent of the Japanese Imperial government, played by J. Carrol Naish. Rounding out the cast are Shirley Patterson as Linda Page, Bruce Wayne's love interest, and William Austin as Alfred, the Wayne Manor butler.
The serial's storyline involves Batman, a secret U.S. government agent, attempting to defeat the schemes of Japanese agent Dr. Daka operating in Gotham City at the height of World War II. Serving Daka are his American henchmen.
Batman is notable for being the first appearance on film of Batman, and for introducing story elements that quickly became permanent parts of the Batman character's mythos, such as the Batcave and its secret entrance through a grandfather clock inside Wayne Manor. The serial also changed the course of how Alfred's physical appearance was depicted in future Batman stories. At the time Batman was released in theaters, Alfred was drawn as a portly gentleman in the comics. Subsequent issues suddenly depicted Alfred as slim and sporting a thin moustache, following actor William Austin's appearance.
The serial was commercially successful and in 1949 spawned another Columbia serial, Batman and Robin. The entire 1943 Batman serial was re-released to theaters three times: in 1954, 1962, and 1965. The latter reissue, now titled An Evening with Batman and Robin with all the chapters shown consecutively, proved very popular. Some theaters showed the 15 chapters as a weekend matinée, seven chapters on Saturday, and the remaining eight on Sunday. Its success inspired the action-comedy series Batman (and its 1966 theatrical feature film spin-off) starring Adam West and Burt Ward.
Plot The Batman / Bruce Wayne and his ward, Robin / Dick Grayson, secret government agents following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, become aware of a Japanese sabotage ring operating in Gotham City. Bruce's girlfriend, Linda Page, asks for his help in finding her uncle, Martin Warren, who was abducted by the ring after he was released from prison.
Dr. Tito Daka, the Japanese leader of the ring, plans to steal the city's radium supply to power his invention, a hand-held raygun that can dissolve anything hit by its powerful beam. He forces Warren to reveal the location of the vault where the radium is stored. Daka sends his American henchmen, along with a zombie that he controls by microphone via an electronic brain implant, to steal the precious metal. Batman discovers the plot and eventually routs the gang after a battle.
In his secret Bat's Cave, the Batman interrogates one of Daka's henchmen, who reveals the radium was to have been taken to The House of the Open Door, located in the mostly deserted "Little Tokyo" section of Gotham City. Batman and Robin infiltrate the gang's lair (also Dr. Daka's laboratory), hidden inside a still-open business, a Fun House ride. There, they find Linda bound, gagged, and unconscious. After she is rescued by the Dynamic Duo, Daka transforms her uncle Warren into a zombie and plots the derailment of a heavily laden supply train. Once again, Dr. Daka's sabotage efforts are stopped by Batman and Robin.
Traps and counter-traps follow in the succeeding chapters, as the Dynamic Duo continue to thwart the plans of the Japanese agent and his henchmen. Batman and Robin finally prevail, overseeing the capture of Daka's men and finally the death of the Japanese agent as he tries to escape.
Chapter titles Chapter Title Release # Release date Length(feet) Running time 1 The Electrical Brain 5120 July 16, 1943 2423′ 26.9 minutes 2 The Bat's Cave 5121 July 23, 1943 1606′ 17.8 minutes 3 The Mark of the Zombies 5122 July 30, 1943 1638′ 18.2 minutes 4 Slaves of the Rising Sun 5123 August 6, 1943 1664′ 18.5 minutes 5 The Living Corpse 5124 August 13, 1943 1565′ 17.4 minutes 6 Poison Peril 5125 August 20, 1943 1538′ 17.1 minutes 7 The Phoney Doctor 5126 August 27, 1943 1467′ 16.3 minutes 8 Lured by Radium 5127 September 3, 1943 1525′ 16.9 minutes 9 The Sign of the Sphinx 5218 September 10, 1943 1500′ 16.7 minutes 10 Flying Spies 5129 September 17, 1943 1618′ 18 minutes 11 A Nipponese Trap 5130 September 24, 1943 1447′ 16.1 minutes 12 Embers of Evil 5131 October 1, 1943 1333′ 14.8 minutes 13 Eight Steps Down 5132 October 8, 1943 1322′ 14.7 minutes 14 The Executioner Strikes 5133 October 15, 1943 1441′ 16 minutes 15 The Doom of the Rising Sun 5134 October 22, 1943 1840′ 20.4 minutes Source:Batman: the Dailies 1943--1946, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2007,
Cast Lewis Wilson as Bruce Wayne / Batman Douglas Croft as Richard "Dick" Grayson / Robin J. Carrol Naish as Dr. Tito Daka/Prince Daka Shirley Patterson as Linda Page William Austin as Alfred (uncredited) Robert Fiske as Foster (uncredited) Gus Glassmire as Martin Warren (uncredited) Karl Hackett as Wallace (uncredited) Tom London as Andrews (uncredited) Charles Middleton as Ken Colton (Episodes #6-#8) (uncredited) Harry Tenbrook as Bartender (uncredited) Charles C. Wilson as Police Captain Arnold (uncredited)
Production The serial was made at the height of World War II and, like numerous works of popular American fiction of the time, contains anti-Axis powers sentiments and dialogue reflecting anti-Japanese sentiment. Early narration in the first chapter (at minute 9:20–9:30) references the U.S. government policy of Japanese American internment to explain the abandoned neighborhood where Daka's headquarters are located in Little Tokyo in Gotham.
Just like many other contemporary serials, Batman also suffered from a low budget. No attempt was made to create the Batmobile, so a black 1939 Cadillac Series 61 convertible was used, chauffeured by Alfred when Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were either in their civilian or Batman and Robin identities. It is driven "top-up" when it is the Batmobile, and "top-down" when it is Bruce Wayne's car. Batman's hometown of Gotham City, analogous to New York in the comics, becomes analogous to Los Angeles in the film.
While many serials made changes as part of their adaptation, Batman fared better than most, with only minor changes. In this serial, special utility belts were worn but never used, the villain was not taken from the comics' stories, there was no Batmobile, and Batman was a secret government agent instead of an independent, crime-fighting vigilante. This last change was due to the time period's film censors, who would not allow the hero to be seen taking the law into his own hands. Naish was originally cast as The Joker, but the character was changed to a Japanese supervillain that was suitable to the patriotic wartime plotline.
Several continuity errors occur, such as Batman losing his cape in a fight but wearing it again after the film only briefly cuts away. The opening narration in chapter 1 states that Wayne Manor is in the fictional Gotham City, but his mail in chapter 5 is addressed to Los Angeles. In the first chapter, Batman, when hearing the name of Dr. Daka, asks, "Who is that?" Then, in the last chapter, Batman tells Daka he and other enforcers have been looking for Daka since he killed two agents trying to deport him—an element never mentioned in any earlier chapter. In the transition between chapters 5 and 6, it is unclear how Batman survived the plane crash, which killed two villains who were on the plane with him.
Press releases announced Batman as a "Super Serial", and it was Columbia's largest-scale serial production to date. The studio gave it a publicity campaign equivalent to a feature film.
Release Theatrical releases Batman was first released to theaters one chapter per week, beginning on July 16, 1943. Columbia re-released it to theaters in 1954 and 1962.
In 1964, film buff Hugh Hefner screened all 15 chapters of the serial at the Playboy Mansion. The trendy event received much notice in the press, prompting Columbia to offer the unedited serial to theaters in 1965 as An Evening with Batman and Robin in one long, marathon showing. This re-release was successful enough to inspire the development, by Lorenzo Semple Jr., under the auspices of producers William Dozier and Howie Horwitz, of the 1960s television series Batman. The series starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, the Boy Wonder, and was produced as a lampoon, being driven by guest-star villains, flamboyant action, and tongue-in-cheek comedy.
Home media
A silent abridged version was released in 8 mm and Super 8 formats during the 1960s, with the complete serial edited into six chapters running 10 minutes each. Four three-minute reels with action scenes were also issued.
In the 1970s, the complete 15-chapter serial in its original unaltered format was released in a Super-8 Sound edition.
In the wake of the success of Tim Burton's Batman, the serial was released as a two-part VHS series in 1990 by GoodTimes Entertainment in a heavily modified form that dubbed over most of the original, racist dialogue. Dan Scapperotti of Cinefantastique commented that he was not surprised by those revisions as Columbia came at the time under the ownership of Japan's Sony corporation. Alterations made by Sony were limited to the soundtrack itself, and no frames or scenes were cut. Radio and TV announcer Gary Owens provided a new narration track, while additional lines of a racist nature were replaced by voice actors bearing little similarity to the original voices.
In October 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment unveiled a two-disc DVD of the serial. This release restored the original, vintage-1943 dialogue but is missing the last minute of Chapter Two. The cliffhanger is intact, but the "teaser" for the next chapter is missing, as is the original end title. In the new video version, the cliffhanger fades out, followed by a silent Columbia logo.
In February 2014, Mill Creek Entertainment released Gotham City Serials, a two-disc DVD set with both the 1943 serial and the 1949 Batman and Robin serial.
Television In 1989, the cable network The Comedy Channel aired the Batman serial uncut and uncensored. The cable network American Movie Classics did the same in the early 1990s on Saturday mornings. Turner Classic Movies began airing the serial every Saturday morning beginning in March 2015. Following the conclusion of the last episode, the channel continued the weekly slot with the 1949 Batman and Robin follow-up serial that, following an August hiatus, concluded in November the same year. In June 2021, Turner Classic Movies started airing Batman with one chapter every Saturday morning.
Film elements The first chapter of Batman no longer exists in pristine form. The original 35mm negative has either worn out from being consulted too often for reprints or has been lost to nitrate decomposition. For more than 50 years, Columbia has had to copy an older reference print of Chapter One, which shows a noticeable loss of detail and clarity. This was first discovered when Columbia included Chapter One of Batman in The Three Stooges Follies (1974), a theatrical release of old short subjects.
Critical reception