Batman: "Penguin's Disastrous End" concludes the Penguin/Marsha 3-parter. It would've worked better to show the two 3-parters in the correct order, because the last two parts of this one were shown back-to back in the same week, as were the first two parts of the Joker/Penguin 3-parter, but this is getting them the other way around. Granted, that only affects the "Tune in tomorrow/next week" announcements at the end, but that's a key part of the Batman '66 experience!
Anyway, not a very good story overall. I have the suspicion that this was plotted as a Penguin 2-parter and then had Marsha and Aunt Hilda tacked onto it to pad it out to 3 parts, because they're just so peripheral to the whole affair. The central thread is Penguin's escalating series of thefts, and Marsha plays no real role in that until the "Dance of the Seven Veils" bit, which is merely a distraction.
Still, the episode does pick up once the tank comes into play. I like the way they reflected a gold light onto Penguin when he was reacting to the unseen thing in the vault -- nice detail. And the tank rampage was pretty cool. I have to admit -- as a kid, I was really worried for Chief O'Hara when that tank ran over him. It must've really upset me back then, because I still felt a twinge of alarm at that scene even now. Scenes of people being flattened by steamrollers or tanks or whatever always freaked me out as a kid.
I have to admit -- the way Batman and Robin survived the crusher surprised me; I figured it would turn out they'd already slipped out of the armor suits before they were dumped into the crusher. Maybe it's because the explanation they did use was so ridiculous.
Batman: "The Zodiac Crimes": Aww, the guest credits spoiled Penguin's appearance.
What is the purpose of a Rare Art Map? I guess as a way for the police to anticipate where art thieves might strike, but the details are unclear. Not that it mattered. Anyway, that map looked a lot like a modified map of New York City.
Hey, Venus is Terry Moore, the star of Mighty Joe Young. Did I know that before? I remember the character of Venus being sort of the heart of the story, her arc of redemption, as it were, but I don't remember her performance being so broad and (intentionally?) awful.
Wonder Woman: "Hot Wheels": Yet again, they're really stretching to justify getting a secret-agent heroine involved in a domestic crime story. Still, this is the first episode in a while that's been kinda fun. It starts out with a pretty effective action sequence, and there's a lot of wit in the plot and dialogue.
Although after a while, it feels less like a Wonder Woman episode and more like a backdoor pilot for Tim Bolt, Wisecracking Cop. Odd, then, that the actor who plays Bolt (Peter Brown) is uncredited, according to IMDb.
Ahh, and we have the debut of the new lasso sound effect, which is less of an incongruous computer beeping and more a sort of musical ambience. Definitely an improvement.
