The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

[RJDiogenes]

I've had the Thriller binge on all weekend, though I haven't had a chance to actually watch it (got the DVDs, anyway). But, man, it just looks so good every time I walk past the TV.

Saturday morning, I watched my last recorded Alfred Hitchcock Hour. It had Jeffrey Hunter as a psychiatrist and Vera Miles as the potential victim, with Dick Sargent as the surprising hero. This was probably about a year or so before Hunter shot the Star Trek pilot and his character played an obsessed academic who totally went off the rails. Some people often think that Trek would have been quite different with Pike instead of Kirk, because Hunter didn't have Shatner's emotive range, but this certainly proved them wrong.

 

[Saga]

i watched it off and on all weekend. a few i hadn't seen before. and some i really love, like 'Pigeons From Hell'.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Ah, yes, "Pigeons From Hell," by Robert E Howard. Very nice. And notable for being mentioned in "Back On The Chain Gang" by The Pretenders.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Nov. 12-13 is Peter Gunn.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Not too exciting, but some entertaining retro detective adventure.

 

[Saga]

i think every Binge for November is a cop show.

 

[RJDiogenes]

That's fine, as long as they are good cop shows. Where's my Christie Love?

 

[The Old Mixer]

The Green Hornet
"Beautiful Dreamer: Part II"
Originally aired October 28, 1966

This one opens with the main credits...but it's not "another challenge for the Green Hornet"--it's a continuation of last week's challenge! And the use of the Black Beauty garage stock footage feels even more like padding when they open the second part of a two-parter with it, after having already used it in the first part.

Using the villain's own brainwashing device on him isn't exactly by the superhero playbook. And speaking of brainwashing devices, it strikes me as an interesting coincidence that 50 years ago, "Dagger of the Mind" would be airing the following week.

Ah yes...and as predicted last week, here's the Black Beauty vs. the bad guys' armored car. And this time we get a "nothing we can do here" while the armored car burns...which is, at least, less ambiguous than leaving a man face-down in water for Scanlon to "pick up" the other week.

I was wondering if the guy who plays Mike Axford was a contender to play Chief O'Hara and stumbled across a fun fact: In the film adaptation a few years back (which I didn't see), Axford was played by no less than EJO!

 

[The Old Mixer]

Batman
"The Joker Goes to School"

Originally aired March 2, 1966​

"He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul"

Originally aired March 3, 1966​

The title of the second episode threw me. I guess it's saying that he, the Grisly Ghoul, meets his match...but it originally read to me like the Joker's match would be somebody called the Grisly Ghoul.

So we get yet another repeat villain before Catwoman....

The weight that Dick's lifting in the gym seems kind of light for the Boy Wonder.

With all of the zany capers that other Bat-foes pull, it seems a reach that they immediately suspect the Joker of this one.

We get a switch-up from the usual stock footage with Batman soloing the intro sequence...though they didn't splurge on a shot of him running up the stairs at police headquarters.

At the high school, Batman seem overprotective of the Batmobile considering that he usually just parks it on the street around town when he doesn't have a mostly empty parking lot available. He also gives away that Robin attends a school...he could be privately tutored. And it seems like Batman should be dealing with faculty, not just students. If the idea is to educate the students concerning the Joker's lure to easy living, you'd think there'd still be faculty present, and that a school assembly would be more effective...though far less TV-friendly.

It's an interesting parallel that one of Dick's classmates is working for the Joker.

The slot machine death trap would have been more interesting if the Dynamic Duo had to pull the lever to try to escape, gambling on the voltage. And was the machine rigged to automatically come up lemons anyway? Regardless, this time they got out of a proper death trap purely via the dumb luck of a power failure.

"Holy cow juice!" That should have been Robin's line, not the narrator's, but I guess they missed that opportunity when they had him spending the relevant parts of the first episode as Dick Grayson. We also get the use of an unusual text card during the recap.

The Batcave is equipped with an Anti-Crime Auxillary Generator (not to mention an atomic reactor).

Twice Suzie refers to Bruce Wayne a "rich millionaire"...as opposed to the not-rich variety.

"That guy never had a weed in his hand in his life." Did "weed" used to be a slang term for ordinary tobacco cigarettes?

Hold on a minute--after the first robbery at that cocktail lounge, they didn't replace the jukebox? That's stretching things even for the OTT atmosphere of this show. But we do get...the Dynamic Debut of the Bat-Shield!

Disko Tech...

They're going to get those pictures to the Board of Education on a Saturday in time to cancel that night's game? (Not that the pictures would show what they were looking at.) When Batman and Robin show up, we get a fake Bat-Shadow over the Joker and his gang in one shot that doesn't sync up with the shots of the Dynamic Duo...we see Batman un-pose from making the shadow before we see the shadow.

*

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

So we get yet another repeat villain before Catwoman....

Well he is the Joker.

The weight that Dick's lifting in the gym seems kind of light for the Boy Wonder.

I'll let that pass, since this is also the same Boy Wonder who can pull his body weight up the side of buildings and routinely beats the crap out of full grown criminals.

With all of the zany capers that other Bat-foes pull, it seems a reach that they immediately suspect the Joker of this one.

Perhaps the Joker has a "tell" that distinguishes him from other villains. In other words, no riddles, no flash frozen victims, no hypnotized victims or umbrellas involved.

At the high school, Batman seem overprotective of the Batmobile considering that he usually just parks it on the street around town when he doesn't have a mostly empty parking lot available.

He's at a high school, so I imagine he would expect teenagers to lack adult level self control. If the big fan reaction of his arrival is any indicator, then warning the teens would seem the wise thing to do.

He also gives away that Robin attends a school...he could be privately tutored.

Ehh...the first thought of anyone is that teenage Robin attends high school. I would add his screaming fans would not accept any other idea that take away the thrill of thinking Robin might be among their numbers.

It's an interesting parallel that one of Dick's classmates is working for the Joker.

Yes it was. That was a comic book-esque idea. Not exactly Peter Parker attending college with Harry Osborn, but a comic book idea, nonetheless.

The slot machine death trap would have been more interesting if the Dynamic Duo had to pull the lever to try to escape, gambling on the voltage.

But taking the control out of their hands plays into...

And was the machine rigged to automatically come up lemons anyway?

Yes. It was just Joker's psychological torture to make the duo believe there was a chance that the slots would not all fall on lemons.

Twice Suzie refers to Bruce Wayne a "rich millionaire"...as opposed to the not-rich variety.

Using "Rich" is how some in the culture (specifically those who are not rich) over emphasize the idea of wealth. You won't hear a millionaire refer to himself as "rich millionaire".

"That guy never had a weed in his hand in his life." Did "weed" used to be a slang term for ordinary tobacco cigarettes?

I'm not sure, but the average age of those behind Batman would likely know that it was a slang for tobacco as well.

Hold on a minute--after the first robbery at that cocktail lounge, they didn't replace the jukebox? That's stretching things even for the OTT atmosphere of this show. But we do get...the Dynamic Debut of the Bat-Shield!

They're going to get those pictures to the Board of Education on a Saturday in time to cancel that night's game? (Not that the pictures would show what they were looking at.) When Batman and Robin show up, we get a fake Bat-Shadow over the Joker and his gang in one shot that doesn't sync up with the shots of the Dynamic Duo...we see Batman un-pose from making the shadow before we see the shadow.

The important take away from the shadow effect (which will be used to greater effect in the next Riddler story, "Give 'em the Axe!") is that Batman uses the bat shape as a symbol of alarming (or fear) against criminals in this action/adventure series--which comes straight from Batman's Golden Age origins. The effect will not last beyond season one (like the wealth of nighttime scenes), but it illustrates the goal and general tone of the series during these formative months.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

But after FRWL (the last film released while JFK was alive), how often did we see him wearing it?

He briefly wears a hat in Goldfinger. Consider this: of the Bond-in-gun barrel openings the 1960s Bond films (changing three times) each had the spy wearing a hat, including the final Bond film of the decade, 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service, so it would suggest even at the end of the decade, wearing hats was not an uncommon fashion statement.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm not sure, but I think they used the same gun barrel for Connery's films...I do know that Connery wasn't doing his own. And Lazenby doing it was probably just to tie it in tighter with the Connery films, which OHMSS went out of its way to do in other ways as well, as it was the first time the role was being recast.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Allow me to introduce you to the star of the Nov. 19-20 Binge....

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[RJDiogenes]

Nice.

I wonder what would happen if Simon Templar met Ann Marie....

 

[The Old Mixer]

The Green Hornet took a week off 50 years ago last night, so no review for that this week.

*******

Batman
"True or False Face"

Originally aired March 9, 1966​

"Holy Rat Race"

Originally aired March 10, 1966​

So now even a villain original to this show is portrayed as one who has some history sparring with the GCPD and the Dynamic Duo. Definitely helps to allow for free-flowing exposition, since all of the main characters are familiar with his M.O.

But the weird, immobile mask False Face wears kind of undermines it. It works against letting Malachi Throne give a memorable performance, which may be why he was never brought back.

I thought that the immobile mask gave him a certain creepy presence, especially when he'd pull one of his "surprise" reveals (even if you could see them coming a mile away). And part of the gimmick here is that we weren't supposed to know who the actor was...he was billed as "? as False Face."

What doesn't stand up to a moment of scrutiny is how he can evidently wear lifelike masks over his immobile one that allow him to fully express himself, move his mouth, etc. (On the comics page, the Chameleon has the same issue.)

When the Batmobile was driving into the studio lot, we got an interesting rear perspective that made it look like we were riding on the back of the car.

 

[Christopher]

Batman
"True or False Face"

Originally aired March 9, 1966​

"Holy Rat Race"

Originally aired March 10, 1966​

So now even a villain original to this show...

Nope. This was a loose adaptation of "The Menace of False Face" by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, published in Batman #113 in February 1958 (the same issue that introduced the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh). False Face appeared only once in the comics before his use in the show, much like Mr. Zero/Mr. Freeze and Eivol Ekdal. If we count Zelda the Great as a derivative character (based on a male magician in the original story), then the only wholly original villains to appear in the first season are King Tut and Bookworm.

And part of the gimmick here is that we weren't supposed to know who the actor was...he was billed as "? as False Face."

A gimmick also used with Boris Karloff in the 1931 Frankenstein. And like Karloff, Throne was finally billed in the closing credits at the conclusion of the story.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Nope. This was a loose adaptation of "The Menace of False Face" by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, published in Batman #113 in February 1958

Well, I assumed that if he'd appeared in the comics, you would have mentioned that in your original review.

And like Karloff, Throne was finally billed in the closing credits at the conclusion of the story.

Ah, so he was...hadn't caught that.

 

[Christopher]

Well, I assumed that if he'd appeared in the comics, you would have mentioned that in your original review.

I probably didn't know it yet at the time. I think I learned it from Chris Sims's rewatch-reviews on ComicsAlliance, which ran behind my viewings at that point.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Nov. 26-27: They're saying Police Story again.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

"True or False Face"

Originally aired March 9, 1966​

"Holy Rat Race"

Originally aired March 10, 1966​

I thought that the immobile mask gave him a certain creepy presence, especially when he'd pull one of his "surprise" reveals (even if you could see them coming a mile away).

False Face had a throwback quality adding to unique, "not of that time" character, right down to his circus-inspired henchmen: the fat man, midget and tall (thin) man.

And part of the gimmick here is that we weren't supposed to know who the actor was...he was billed as "? as False Face."

Yes, in part one and in the opening credits of part two--reportedly, it infuriated actor Malachi Throne that he was not properly credited, although TV Guide and similar national publications did list the actor for both parts.

What doesn't stand up to a moment of scrutiny is how he can evidently wear lifelike masks over his immobile one that allow him to fully express himself, move his mouth, etc. (On the comics page, the Chameleon has the same issue.)

Fantasy. If you can buy Batman and Robin having an atomic reactor beneath Wayne Manor (not to mention details such as how they acquired ANY of the materials legally without getting a rather dark visit from every national security agency imaginable), then you can buy lifemasks working over the immobile mask.

When the Batmobile was driving into the studio lot, we got an interesting rear perspective that made it look like we were riding on the back of the car.

That was a nice, almost "live news" kind of shot, and rare for the series.

Overall, one of the series' finest stories, written by Stephen Kandel--the man responsible for TOS' great "Mudd's Women" & TAS' "Mudd's Passion" and "The Jihad". Kandel would write 5 episodes for another Malachi Throne role: Noah Bain--a character on the first two seasons of the Robert Wagner series It Takes a Thief (ABC, 1968-1970).

False Face was a true challenge and intelligent threat not easily overcome. As you note, FF is creepy and director William A. Graham purposely played on the eerie nature of the masked man, particularly in the shot of a gassed Batman seeing (all too late) the laughing False Face creeping behind him in the candy machine's mirrored surface. We are also treated to a serial-inspired death trap on the train tracks--fitting for FF's throwback character.

Only three months in, and Batman did not show a drop in quality--but continued its consistent, phenomenon-building march at this point, which will continue in the debut episodes of the Catwoman, "The Purr-Fect Crime" / "Better Luck Next Time".