Welcome to Zombies Strange, the podcast that watches all the zombie films. This week, we have our first superhero, the Batman! A can't be villain too smart for his own good. But the absurd, that's just bringing it could never be the Batman. And don't worry, Alfred is here. How many did I kill? Seven. But the world only follow the ruffians. You kill three of them twice. That's right, it's an evening with Batman and Robin.

You know, I've seen people act like that in pictures. What do they call them, zombies or something?

Zombie. What's a zombie?

Just what is a zombie?

Well a zombie…there’s um... ...Mr. Bill there’s... ...the living dead.

They are the living dead.

Get me the zombies!

Against an army of zombies, no armies could stand.

Because a Zombie has no will on his own.

What is wrong, what is wrong.

Hey, everybody, I'm John.

I'm Andy

and I'm Brad.

So I said in the intro that's our first superhero movie technically we've watched a Santo movie and I consider him as a superhero. However, he came out after this and everyone missed the opportunity to grow on that. I'm back into the like when you asked I will say the actor here. I think does a different voice for Batman. He sounds a little gruffer when he's Batman, but not quite not quite Christian bail. Yes, that's right. We're watching a, okay, people. The sacrifices we make for you. We are watching. You have no idea listeners. A three hour 15 part serial that was shown in movie theaters in 1943. It is a piece of second World War war propaganda and it is painfully uncomfortable in many places. So when that said, there were a couple of fun bits in here, so we'll get to those. How, how, how, how do you do, Andy? You okay? It got a little rough, I found myself eyeing more and more of the YouTube playback speed, but as we got further and further into that. I have not yet played a movie other than one X, but this was the closest I ever came. However, before we get there, we have some zombies fun to discuss. Did you have something producer Brad? Yeah, so in LA, there's a theater here that's showing all the bond films every couple weeks and this past week I saw on our Majesty's Secret Service. Yes. Starring, wait, what's his name? Uh, George Lazarus. His only appearance is bond. Now, do you remember the plot of this one? I don't. And I even read the book and have seen them movie multiple times. So the plot is blowfeld has this lab atop the the Alps and he's brought in all these young women who have allergies. And what Bond discovers is at night he has this signal that goes out into their individual rooms and he's sort of mesmerizing them. So we can send them back to their own countries and release a camera if it's a virus or something. So it sort of fits into all these early zombie films where there's a zombie master who can control people, but then they can be returned back to human form quickly. Well, now I want to watch it again. See, I heard that and thought I'm never going to watch that. So maybe that's how we differ. Well, friend of the show Matt Wilson says that's the best James Bond movie. Many Bond people say it's the best one because of the writing and the directing and the editing. Yes. The actor needs some help. He's not the best of them, but he does okay. He's very physical and he's a great fighter in the fight. And just to have a hot take before we switch topics, my favorite James Bond film is the Daniel Craig's casino royale. So I think that's the best one. So I like that one a lot. How many listeners I just cost us, but there you go. I thought about James Bond a lot while watching this actually, just because the villain is such a James Bondian villain in his layer. And I was wondering if you guys were cutting on to that at all. A little bit, he's got his layers is very, is very, is very Bond villainish. Also, somebody, have you heard of these Brad Michael Cain did a series of spy films in the 70s that I've heard of Chris Files? Yes. And I think they were like a riff on, I feel like they were just a rip off of Bond. Somebody was describing one of the plots to me where they smuggled somebody across from East Berlin in a coffin or something. I'm like, that's the plot of at least two Bond films that I can't let go. Harry Saltspin, who was one of the bond producers in the beginning, he did the epicress file and the sequels. Okay. It was his attempt to have another franchise. Yes, with Michael Kane, who I like Michael Kane, but James Bond, he is not. Yeah, the character he plays is Harry Palmer. Harry Palmer, all right. Well, I don't know, any super villain plan that doesn't involve a lot of allergenic women being uh, manipulated to go to their countries and what do they do? They spread their allergy or something like that, uh, I don't know. I obviously, for that ripped from the headlines of the real Cold War, who knows? I thought there was a CIA project to do that at least at one point during the, I'm sure they're doing the, I'm sure they're doing the Cold War, right? All right. Well, let's talk about this thing. We watched a movie. We did. We watched an incredibly long movie serial. So you guys have been saying three hours for the duration of this. I, I like got a calculator out and punched in the episode blank. And it was more like 4.2 hours. So either I watched like a lot of extra episodes or what if you watched the YouTube channel that had all the chapters in their entirety, that was over four hours. That's what I was. There's another one that clips them. So it removes the the recaps. And so it shortens it down to three hours and something. Well, we'll get to that, but yeah, each bit is like 17 minutes long, but seven minutes of those are a replay of the previous episode. Yeah. Yes. All right. Let's get into this. Do you want to do you want to take us there, Brad, and tell us how this thing got made and why it got made? Sure. And don't be surprised when we land back in the world of James Bond with this. All right. I'm ready. Okay. I'm looking forward to it. All right, the Columbia serial, the Batman was originally released in 1943. It was directed by Lambert Hillier, who has over 150 credits between 1917 and 1956. Wow. He directed Dracula's daughter in 1936 in many westerns in the forties, in the fifties at the end of his career, he transitioned to TV, and he directed 40 episodes of the Cisco Kid series, which, you know, I watch as a kid on a channel 20, I think. I don't remember that one. I do remember the loan ranger, but at the Cisco Kid. Now, Victor McCloud, Leslie Swabacker, and Harry Elfraiser, wrote the serial. McCloud worked often with Walter Lance on animated shorts, Lance's most famous for the Woody Wood Packer Shorts. McCloud wrote many of the Oswald-The-Lucky Rabbit Shorts for Lance and Universal Studios. Oswald was created by Walt Disney in 1927, and after Universal got full control of the character, Disney created Mickey Mouse. Oswell remained a universal property until 2006 when NBC Universal traded Disney, the Oswell Rice in exchange for al-Michael's the sports broadcaster. NBC wanted Michael's to be under new Sunday night football broadcast. Well, he was very successful, may we say. Swabacker and McCloud also wrote on the Phantom serial released the same year as the Batman. Herial Fraser was a writer and director. He wrote and directed the 1946 movie, The White Gorilla, which starred Ray Corgan as both the hero and in his corner in Gorilla suit, The White Gorilla. Well, was it a separate suit? Was it a white suit or a painter? What, God, I have so many questions. Sorry give you a link so you can watch. All right, it's so very nice. The cast Lewis Wilson played Bruce Wayne and the Batman. He was 23 at the time in Mary to Dana Natal and actress. He was 23. He looks 23. 40. Yeah, it's that phenomenon we've noted before, John, everyone at this era looks about 15 years older than actually were. Now, Lewis and his wife, Dana had one child, Michael, Lewis and Dana divorced in the late 40s, and this is where my fandoms collide, and I can't believe I didn't know this trivia. In 1959, Dana married a film producer named Albert Broccoli. Okay, you guys know who that is. He started the James Bond film. Then Michael Wilson became broccoli's stepson and he wrote five consecutive bond films from theorized only through license to kill. And produce Michael G Wilson did you'll see his name and all of them and he produced all bond films from a view to a kill through no time to die. And Michael Wilson and his half-sister Barbara ran the bond empire together until last year when they made a deal with Amazon and Amazon now controls the bond films. well they control the franchise who knows what they're going to do with it is the terrifying part. They control the future. Yes. I believe Barbara had some choice words said privately about her opinion about Amazon's ability to execute. So We don't have to get into that. That was before. Yeah, she was talking about algorithms and merchandising. And then after she said that, they did the deal. There you go. So all right. Douglas Crafft played Robin. He was 17 when he played Robin. He was a child actor who often played the younger version of the lead in Yankee, Doodle Dandy. He played the young version of George M. Cohen. Jimmy Cagney played the adult. He played young Lou Garig in the pride of the Yankees to Gary Cooper's adult. his last acting credit is in 1947 when he was 21 years old and he died young at the age of 37. No, he's got some some hair like wow. Yeah, you know, turn remember from my comics. It looks more like Damian Wayne than Dick Grayson here. Yeah, it looks like he's taken his finger in a second. Yeah. Surely Patterson plays Linda Page, Bruce Wayne's constantly jolted girlfriend. Is she from the comics? I have no memory of Linda Page, but I didn't read the old ones. I don't know. You know, this serial introduced the back cave, which then went to the comics from the serial. So I have a feeling that Linda Page was new to the serial as well. He didn't introduce the back cave. It introduced the back cave. So let's just be clear about that. It's under the mansion. Yeah, he's got a desk at a chair. He just sits at his desk, which is amazing. Surely Patterson appeared in many B movies and cereals after getting married. She went by the name Sean Smith and appeared on TV and sci-fi films. One of her last credits at the 1958 movie It, The Terror from Beyond Space, which was directed by one of our favorite zombie film directors, Edward L. Khan. Oh, all right. All right, Jay Carroll Nash plays the villain, Dr. DACA. He was born in Ireland, but had a dark complexion that led him to be cast in many ethnic roles. May I just pause here and say that this is a very insulting ethnic stereotype of Japanese people that he is playing here and I just wanted to get that out of the way. This is 1943. It is war propaganda. And when they said they were going to fight the access, I said, who doesn't want to see Batman punching Nazis? And then they started talking, they started using racial slurs against Japanese people. And I was like, oh, no, here we go. So fair warning to everybody. This is it's pretty, but we are not going to play in them here. We're not going to discuss that in depth, but it's it's pretty bad in this one. No, but you will hear in the clips DACA's accent, the stereotype and that, so that as far as we'll go in terms of showing the racism. John, you wanted Batman punching Hitler and you got Batman, like putting Japanese Americans into interviews. Exactly. But this is... I don't want to laugh about it. I'm laughing because it's uncomfortable. It was really uncomfortable. Yeah, so... Well, this wasn't the only time Nash played a character like this. In the 50s, he starred as Charlie Chan on the TV series The New Adventures of Charlie Chan. Now, what's cool is that on the show, his son was played by James Haughn, who we know and love from Big Trouble Little China and everything everywhere all at once. Yeah. All right, continuing with racial stereotypes, Charles Middleton, who played Colton, he's the man who finds the radio mine in the series. He has over 200 acting credits. He was the original Ming the Mercellus in the 1936 Flash Gordon serial. Oh, wow. And he's the only one in this film with a beard. Well, Alfred puts on a beer too to appear like 10 to be. Yeah, we got to talk about Alfred. But carry on. All right. So now, why are we watching this 1943 film in 1965? Well, on the summer of 65, the Playboy theater in Chicago started showing the Batman serial on weekends, one episode before Art House films. It was a hit with the audience, so he heftered and put all the chapters together in a one-film and called it an evening with Batman and Robin. Columbia Pictures noticed how successful this was and they made an official version of an evening with Batman Robin, which they released around the country. At the same time, ABC was developing a Batman TV show, and there are internet rumors that ABC execs went to a playboy club and saw an evening with Batman a Robin and then decided to produce the show. No one knows if this is true. What is true is the ABC Batman show premiered in January 1966, just months after an evening with Batman and Robin went national. If nothing else, the serial proved an appetite for a can't be Batman. And if you remember, the TV show was structured like a serial. Yes. The stories were two episodes each with a cliffhanger. At the end of the first episode, followed by recap at the start of the second, just like the 43 Batman serial. And when I was a boy, I watched the 1966 Batman like it was religion. Like I was too young to understand that it was a satire, and I took it very seriously and I loved it. Yeah, I thought that was Batman. I didn't know there was another. Yes, even the scene where he's running around with the bomb and he didn't clock the Sunday humor in that. Can't get it. Well, no. So here's the thing. The movie. I didn't see the movie when I was a kid. I just saw the TV show. So the movie I saw is an adult and and I thought it was funny. Like a guy got the joke and later I got the joke. But at the time when I was, you know, five or six year old. It all seems to definitely serious to me. Well, guys, that is what I have for production notes. So Andy, do you have any history you want to bring in? I do. I have two angles I want to take with our historical context. One, you guys don't need me to talk much about World War II, which was going on when this was released. But it's worth noting this came out in May 1943. And if you recall, I think in a student observer in mid 1943, would have understood that the initiative of the war was we had just there's two events in 42, 43 that are often kind of pointed to as sort of the turning point of the war. Those are the Battle of Stalingrad, which was, I think, late 1942. And then the Battle of Midway, which has happened like literally weeks before this cereal hit theaters. Yes. And it's a little simplistic to say the war turned on those two events. But they kind of foreshadowed the balance was shifting against the access of that. Yeah, that said there were years left of the war and if you were Joe or Jane American at home, you had another year or two, you know, of nervous anticipation and to some extent deprivation before the war came to an end. Did you have any thoughts on that, John? No, I just do a couple of things. So the battle midways always fascinated me, and I think it fascinates a lot of military historians because it's too much to say that America got lucky, but the Japanese gave them an opportunity that they exploited that caused the Japanese to lose a lot of their naval power, and And it was some mistake, basically, that let us get ahead. So yeah, I agree. Yeah, it is hard to talk about midway without talking about luck, right? And it's not to denigrate like that heroism or professionals. And the people that participated on both sides of that conflict. But. luck played a really big role and, you know, we didn't win World War II because of, quote, luck, but it turns like that certainly didn't hurt. Yeah, so we won't get into it, but also I'll say, yeah, so being mid-war, one thing that all cultures do when they're at war is they demonize their opponents, right? And I think, in our to our modern eyes, it just seems a little worse because We could, if it were demonizing Germans, we wouldn't feel the same way, because we identify Germans as people like ourselves and feel like, oh, we can make fun of them in some way, which is also isn't correct, but yeah, it's just the level of vitriol against Japanese and this struck. It was, So while you're demonizing the Germans for their actions, whereas the Japanese are demonizing them for their appearance. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, and what makes it worse or feel worse is that this is a medium for children. That's the most troubling part. Everything else, this is is just for kids. Like this is clearly targeted like eight year olds. Yeah, these are so grown adults in the 1940s were smart enough to not be racist, but they made a racist piece of propaganda for their kids to watch. And that is a depressing thing to think it is. So, well, hey, there's one thing I wanted to talk about, and that is the use of superheroes as wartime propaganda. Yeah. Are either of you guys kind of comic book people? I have. I was in the past, Brad is. We both are. We're are, yeah. Okay, so in the, the year 1940 to 1941. Comics is pretty new. Batman's only a couple years old at this point. Mikey's he's pretty much brand new and Superman's not that much older. And in there's this period of like one or two years where we got a ton of, I'll say, like propaganda superhero. Yeah, for sure. It's actually made a list of the, some of the super heroes that that came up that we're created between 1940 and 1941. Okay, so here we are here's my list. Okay, but I don't I'm interested if you have heard of these some of them have gotten like kind of rebooted or retconned in the modern era. As I think comic book publishers have looked into the back catalogue to see if they can pull back out. So we have Uncle Sam, who looks just like Uncle Sam. He's the, I think he's a reincarnated revolutionary war soldier, but he looks like the Uncle Sam on the posters. We have the first patriotic themed superhero who came out before Captain America, named the shield. He came out in 1940. Not heard of him. And if you Google him, you will see, okay, like they didn't quite get it right. Like this is like this is why we remember Captain We have the fighting yank in 1941, misvictory, mis America who's a wonder woman knockout, U.S. Jones, who I'd never heard of. He has no superpowers from it. It's worth the star-spangled kid. That sounds good. Captain Flag and John who do you think Captain Flag what do you think is the name of Captain Flag sidekick oh man Kid kids stripes. I don't know what's okay. You're you're going the right direction. You have a psychic name stripe C He looks like the biggest idiot of this bunch of you Google has cost him. So clearly, we've just obviously the aesthetic of their costume has to be the U.S. fly. So they're just basically like, how can we stretch the flag on different parts of this person's body? Anyway, and then lastly, we had Yank and Doodle. who are in 1941, who are identical Patriot, but very patriotic twin. Nice. So. Well, you see why Captain America came out of that mess. He's pretty straightforward. And they had that great issue where he's just punches Hitler, like on a, on a, on a, on a poster, which is great. Captain America number one. Yeah. So speaking of punching Hitler, so Superman weighed into World War II. Yep. And John, let's see, I think in the year 1940, Superman captured two world leaders. And I have to imagine this was frantically retcon, a retcon, a year or two later. If you've shown your hand, you do think he captured. Well, I know, based on what you just said, one of them was Stalin. Yeah. He captured Hitler in the same pain. Yeah. He captured Hitler. Then he flew to Moscow and captured Stalin and brought them before the League of Nations. There you go. To face justice. So I just wanted to close here to say that. So Batman didn't so much in the comics like go out and punch Nazis, but he was used for a bond selling campaign. Yes. And so Batman, a couple of heroes that I think we all remember today, we're used like heavily for you get ads for like buying war bonds and they would turn to the reader and say buy a war bonds periodically. Batman, the human torch and submariner were used heavily for these. Yes. Oh, I almost forgot we had there was another group of patriotic heroes called the One person from each allied power, and they always encourage readers to help with scrap metal and paper drives. Nice. So, you know, the one, it wasn't modern. It was from the 70s and 80s, but the the one world where two comic I was always interested in was the haunted tank. Do you remember the haunted tank? I do remember the haunted tank. Yes, it was it was like horror stories, but but a tank. So I just want to close with one thing and so the reason there was this frenzy of comic book characters built to to carry propaganda to readers is because at the beginning of World War II 44% of US soldiers described themselves as regular comic book readers. Oh interesting. So it's worth so these are These are in, and it's an enormously popular medium, and of course the government is going to say, like, how can we leverage this to put out the messages that we want it. So that ends my historical context, but I had, I didn't have a lot of fun watching this Batman serial. I did have a lot of fun Googling all of these ridiculously constant propaganda here. We found ways to distract ourselves with other things like I had to do a deep dive to figure out what playing this was. That's right. Yeah, so hey, let's we've been putting enough long enough John. Do you mind giving us kind of a 30 second 30 60 second overview but before we do I just want to say you know we have covered one cereal in the past the zombies of the stratosphere and so if you go back and listen to our discussion around that I think you'll get more info about like How cereals are structured and released and stuff like that we're not going to repeat all of that in this episode. just super briefly I'll mention they were short 15 minute shows that were at the beginning of a movie and then they would say and the next one comes out next week to get people to come back to the theater so and each episode would have a recap of the previous episode in case you missed it so in this case this is 15 parts but I can sum it up fairly easily Batman and Robin cross swords with a Japanese spy who has invented a secret weapon called the Radium Gun and he's going to use it to disrupt US infrastructure and kill people and the entire plot is the villain DACA trying to get parts or resources for his radium gun, which he loses it at one point and he has to build another one and meanwhile Batman foils him at every turn. So he then becomes obsessed with killing the Batman, including Kidnapping Linda and Kidnapping Batman's friend and in the end Batman stops him captures him and the United States is saved. Like I don't think there's a lot beyond that going on here. It's just every episode is is the zombie part. And there's a zombie part. I'm sorry. Wow, I just missed a zombie part. That's why we're here. So DACA, the one thing that DACA does is he captures people, he does some sort of procedure on their heads and then puts a little tin foil hat on him and they become zombies, which he uses to do various tasks like to lift and carry things. So sorry, I missed the whole point there. How about that? I'm upset that Brad hasn't been playing the American National Anthem while you were reciting. Yeah, I mean, I felt stirred to read it. But all I want to say is that every time Doc has to get something for his evil plans and every time Batman tries to stop him, and that's just what every episode is and it just repeats. Well, I don't know if this is just a coincidence or not, but that was also basically the plot structure of zombies of the stratosphere was the search for parts and the hero was just disrupting their supply chain every episode, which is dumb and boring and also the problem here is one of my notes is Batman sucks which means. I've never seen it. I need you to isolate that. There you go. But because he loses all the time, like I'm just not used to a world in which Batman gets his butt kicked. Well, I do want to talk. I'm going to be driving the discussion today and I do want to talk about the character of Batman as presented in a serial versus the one that we have all seen in just for Nolan movies and etc. So, but let's go ahead and get started. So here is what I propose we do. There's no way We're going to go through the all 15 episodes in detail. No. So nobody needs this. By the way, just to nobody needs or one that. So I propose that we talk about the first episode in a kind of our usual level of detail. And then after that, we do what we did in some of these in the stratosphere, which is just summarize each chapter, allow a couple a minute to talk about anything that jumped out of us about that episode. But not go through those in detail. Does that sound like a good plan? All right, so let's jump right in. Then. Okay. So the first episode is called the electrical brain. Yes. It is the first in longest. And I think it goes about 28 25 minutes. All of the other chapters after this one are just 15 minutes about a third of which is recaps of the previous chapter. Yes. So, let's dive in, and John, I'll say the first thing that struck me here is the music. Did you, were you struck by the music at all? It sounded like old-timey silent movie music to me, like, somebody's tied to the tracks in the orchestra's playing something stressful. Is that what that was sort of my impression? What did you think? Yeah, well I had two things jumped out of me. One is kind of it's dramatic music. Yes. It's not. It's not coming. I mean, my. This is not a county for technically. Yeah. My touch on for early Batman is the, you know, is the goofy TV show. Right. And this is, it's just interesting that this is pretty serious, I think. I was listing, I do think you can hear hints here of the Dany Elfin and then the Christopher Nolan era soundtracks. Like, I, not that they're reusing pieces of it, but I do think there's little hints of that sort of Gothic. It reminded me of the animated Batman theme too. Yeah, a little bit. Oh, yep. Okay. That's my favorite bet. So by the way, but anyway, carry out. Yeah, so we open with Batman sitting in the bat's K at a desk probably call it back cave, but just please know that it is the bat's K. Yes, he's wrote down. He's sitting comically at a desk in a really fake looking cover. Yes, and Robin shows up and John, what do you think of our heroes, the thing I noted down is they're both wearing costumes you would recognize even if they're a little bit goofy and old fashioned looking tell us about what they look like. So, Batman has, he's a little, he's a little doughy, let's be honest, he's wearing the sort of gray and it's supposed to be dark blue or black, but it looks like two different shades of gray. He's got just a simple bat, just a black bat, no yellow circle or anything. And as utility belt is about, it looks like a wrestling belt. Like he just won the WWE, it's bright and shiny. And instead of like the ears sticking up on the sides like we're used to, he has these two like The size of his head and Robin is wearing what I would call a lone ranger mask. I had a mask like that when I was a kid when I wanted to play a lone ranger and it looks just like it's just like a classic black band at mask. It doesn't look like it particularly super and the costumes look very handmade as well they do they look exactly like Halloween costumes like if if your kids dressed up like this you would say that is clearly Batman we get it yeah uh it's also kind of sloppy in hand made let me yeah we we get yeah man jacked a small story about Halloween costume so when my son was three and four he was obsessed with Batman and he spent a solid six months walking around in a Batman costume or at least with a Batman t-shirt on at all times. It was delightful for me. So for Halloween that year, he wanted to go his Batman, and I told him I would go his Robin. So I made my own Robin costume. We're like with small green running shorts and a yellow cape and they gloves in everything. He was thrilled. I have a picture of us that I will send you privately if you really want to see it. I thought it was pretty hilarious. across the street and I forgot something at home and I had to walk back by myself as Robin and my elderly neighbor was, I walked by here and he goes, look at pretty good, John. We should let our listeners know, how tall are you, John? I'm six foot two. And my set at the time was not maybe three feet tall. the only response to your neighbor shouting that is to go home and immediately put a for sale sign. I know. Right. And there's no coming back. Yeah. But that was my most, I really enjoyed that costume as cheesy as it was. My costume looked about as good as this Robin's costume. So. Yep. Yep. So we get pretty quickly. I want to play an audio clip that kind of will establish both the tone and the purpose of this. So let's hear the announcer introducing your characters. They represent American youth who love their country and are glad to fight for it. Wherever crime raises it, Tugly had to strike with a venom of a maddened rattlesnake. That man and Robin strike also, and in this very hour when the Axis criminals are spreading their evil over the world, even within our own land, that man and Robin stand ready to fight them to the death. Yeah. So in this era, Batman is the man, basically. Like, it modern Batman, right? Like, he's trying to avoid the police and like, you know, in the Frank Miller version, he's almost a fascist trying to like run society from below. Like, we don't have the goody two shoes works for the American government, Batman is not one we're familiar with. he takes his orders from washing them. Uncle Sam, it's so. Yeah. So, all right. So we get a little bit intro here where I think they kind of try to establish the rhythm of how Batman and Robin operate. So it opens with a scene that has appeared in several other later Batman movies, where Batman leaves criminals like out in he like ties them up and leaves them in front of the police. I kind of love this ties him up leaves him and then he puts a little like like I don't know what it is. Some thing like a bat symbol on their foreheads and he leaves him. Yeah, they look like a little stick. A little sticker of the bat symbol in their forehead. It was kind of great. If you've seen some of Zack Snyder's visionary director Zack Snyder's Batman movies, he has Batman like branding criminals. Yeah. I think I prefer this like I'm going to put a little cute sticker on it. Yeah, that's the other thing. Yeah. And the police chief is Captain Arnold. So I don't know when commissioner Gordon kind of entered the Batman mythos, but he's not in this So while interrogating some thugs, Batman and Robin get one of the thugs to let loose the name Dr. Daka. And they don't know it at this time, but Daka is the name of the Japanese spy master who is the super villain throughout this whole series. They're in there. So we have a fairly familiar kind of civilian guys for Batman a Robin here. They are kind of day job is over at the Gotham Foundation and and and Alinda Bruce Wayne's like kind of sometimes girlfriend I think. And just like the Batman era, Batman we know, you know, in his Bruce Wayne form, he is kind of this lazy, uh, dillotont, who doesn't take anything very seriously and frustrates Linda with how cowardly and lazy he is. Yes. I would like to say there's no bat mobile in this movie. When Batman era, I'm going to have to go someplace. They go in the same car that Bruce Wayne drives everywhere. uh... without for driving most of the time it is just so we can get out of the way so this is nineteen it is a nineteen thirty nine Cadillac fleet would seventy five convertible so there you go it's quite the car It's a long black forters, probably as long as a modern pickup truck would like what it looks like a bus, like, I mean, it looks like a bus. So this is as good a time as any, I really am going to get us on here with a plot, but I want to pause and just talk about the character of that because I think we have a couple things going on first Batman is. is not, does not have a real well developed backstory at this point in time? No, they don't even bring it up. It's just assumed the Batman Robin hang out together, and we don't know why. Yeah, and also we're dealing with a serial, which kind of imposes its own limitations on how much time you can spend on characterization. Yes. But Batman in this serial, he is quite literally just a regular person who is put on this outfit and decided to go kind of fight crimes. Yes. This, I don't know when. the super gadget phase of Batman comes into being he's got a belt so I assume he's got a belt that like whatever you think he ever produces from it is more exciting than like a rope right so it's he has definitely not the like the Batman with all his marvellous toys you know that we'll get later where he's got a jet that looks like a bad surprise a submarine that looks like a bat and he's not wearing a armored body suit you know he doesn't have bat shaped shuriken or you know in fact whenever something comes up they go to great pains to like show him and Robin like Yeah, exactly. So historically in 1939, he has a belt that has compartments with some gear in it. Okay. And the comic books. All right. So it's hard. I mean, the way he goes about his adventures in the serial, it's kind of hard to imagine what he's bringing to the situation that just like the regular police would not break. Yes. To a situation. Yeah. Like there's nothing super powered going on. Ian. In particular, I'm almost done here, but so there's I was really surprised there's no super villains in this no like watching this may be realized how much of the like the flavor and the depth of Batman stories come from his rogue's gallery. Yes, and when all these doing is like fighting. utterly interchangeable identical looking thugs and suits and hats. Like, there's not a lot to like even grab onto here as far as like Batman, the character. Yeah, and I mean, yeah, and I feel like this is also the exact same problem that zombies of the stratosphere had, right? It'd be like four thugs and hats and suits fighting, except for this time they're fighting Batman, like it seems like the same thing. Yeah, and so my last comment is also something we talked about in Zombies of the Stratosphere. Batman and Roman, he doesn't have any weaknesses. He doesn't have any, there's no drama. There's no friction in his character. There's no personality. No, except one thing. And when in one of the episodes he's, so they come out of a grandfather clock, which I think they stole in the 1966 show, like when they come up from the bat cave, The bats get bat caves are and they sneak up on Alfred who's reading a comic book and they scare him and make fun of him for reading a comic book and that's the other time I wrote the note Batman sucks. I'm like Bruce you are a jerk to Alfred. They made Alfred look like a buffoon here in a way that he isn't that we're not used to as well. Yeah, for sure. So, all right, that's only one to talk about. Let me throw one other thing in there. Sorry, all of the elements that we know with Batman air are actually here though, right, you know, time criminals to the post and having a cave and a secret identity and everybody wants to fight a secret identity and the Butler, like it's all here. He's the playboy that could never be Batman correct. Yeah. So it's all here in a weird form, but the other note I took on this is acting in the 40s was weird because they're just, it's just, the whole thing feels weird to me on so many levels. Yeah. Well, my last comment on Batman is, I'm not the biggest Batman, like aficionato, however. I do think, if you look at the comics, there is a sort of, there is a sort of appeal to this era of Batman where he's really just a regular person playing vigilantes. He's not like an invincible wizard ninja who, you know. So while I was watching this, I pulled up, I paused it, and I watched a couple of clips. of Batman from the new Robert Pattinson Batman and like that is a fairly typical modern Batman. Even though that movie is trying to kind of get back to Batman's early years before he had a jet in a submarine and everything. He still beats the living daylights out of like 12 I mean, you feel like he's just beating on a bunch of helpless people essentially, and I do think there isn't appeal to like the earlier days of Batman when he wasn't quite such like an institution yet and he was a little bit more of like a citizen vigilance. Yes. So okay, that said, I'm going to get back to our episode of Promise and we're actually pretty close to being done, uh... dock dock uh... the sinister super spy or spy master his plot is he is gathering basically disc-raced american scientists and such to his flock like people that have some sort of a grudge against the readers Yeah, and he a person he really wants to join his team is Linda's uncle Martin or Marty it's right and Uncle Martin has has spent a number of years in jail. We're going to learn much later that like this was unjust, but as he's getting out of jail, Linda is excited to meet him and pick him up, but DACA scoops him up first. And I guess let's pause for a minute and just talk about DACA John, do you want to, this is like the non-Japanese person dressed up and talking in a horrible stereotype to weigh. Yes, but can you tell us a little bit like what is DACA's deal? So DACA's deal is he's the ultimate zealot. He worships the emperor here at Hito and he wants to step at nothing but destroy and undermine the US. he's also very smart and he always has a plan. So he is the sort of perfect villain in the sense that he seems like he could accomplish his goals unless somebody stops him. He doesn't seem like an incompetent buffoon as much as you want to. He's actually very controlled and measured and seems to know what he's doing. And he's got all the aesthetics of Le Bonneville. Yeah, his lair is in a part of town called Little Tokyo. And there's a super racist voice over a part here that I want to share. But, uh, and it's you access his lair by going through an amusement park ride. Called The Hors of Japan, I believe. Yes, the Japanese Cave of Horses where it shows us like a lot of Japanese soldiers, like, intimidating children and stuff. Yeah, again terrible. Yeah. So you ride through this terrible like the world's worst theme park ride. It's kind of like like the haunted mansion. It does either something you get in like kind of a slow-moving cart and you roll past these diagrams of Japanese like soldiers, menacing women and stuff. And then somewhere in there, there's a secret door into his layer, which has a big Buddha and it's a pretty bond villain looking. He's got a big conference table and he holds like he always sits at the head of the table and he talks on his radio and yeah. Yeah. So, all right, just a wrap of this chapter. He has his thugs. He has a bunch of thugs who are all like these American traders. You right, say. And they pick up Uncle Martin. They pick up Martin at the jail. They drive off with him. Batman, a Robin give Chase briefly, but it doesn't work. And back in Doca's Cave of Horrors, he gives Martin a choice. You can join me willingly like these other traders here, or I will turn you into a zombie. Yes, and then you'll just have to do my bidding whether you want to or not. So let's hear a guy grabbed an audio clip where in the course of threatening Martin. Doc has says, well, if you're not going to go along with my plan, let's take a look at what's in store for you. And he calls out one of Martin's old friends who has been zombified. So let's hear that audio clip. Bob, oh, man. Don't you know me? How did you dawn to him? The pride team of his ability to think. I've converted him into a zombie. It can only act as I die right. You will notice the metal headpiece from which a wire leads to the spine. Now, Mr. One, I would like you to look at the special microphone. The only means of communication with a zombie. When I speak into it, this slave gets the impulses through the headpiece and obeys my wishes. By this means, I haven't carried out my orders no matter how far he is from me. Interesting, isn't it? So apologies if that accent is like fingernails on a chalkboard. I will say he has a great line. I don't know if it's right here when Martin is still resisting, but he says resistance is useless. I suggest you adopt an attitude of fatalistic resignation. Yes. So, in the end, Martin doesn't cooperate and he gets zombified. And John, do you want to describe the process of zombification? So, when you get zombified, they put this big, like glass hood over your head, and some giant machine, like a panel of machinery, lights up and words and strobes and everything, and then when you come out, you're sort of mindless. He then puts the hat on you, the little tin hat. And then he can use that to control you so it like wipes your mind and then they put you in a pair of slacks in a turtle neck in your zombie And I love I did get a lot of joy out of the mad scientist equipment here. Yes, I swear one of the pieces of equipment is just I think it's just a circular saw. Yes, spinning with lights on it. Yeah, because that has a distinctive noise. Is it like spins up and it's down and I was like, that's just a circular saw. Okay, and it with lights attached to it. Yeah. So Doc, though, the reason, I mean, it doesn't make a ton of sense. But the reason, what he's trying to do, he has a deadly ray gun. Yes, the radium gun. the radium gun. And he needs more radium to build a bigger and better version of the gun. We're going to learn that the bigger version is like if like the normal radium gun is like 12 inches long, the super deadly version is trying to create is like twice that length at most. I was kind of hoping for like an orbiting space platform or a plane that was made out of a radium gun or something like artillery gun, anti aircraft gun sized thing, but no, it's just like a slightly larger version. Yes. Anyway, he needs radium and one place that has radium is like a science lab or something attached to a hospital. Yeah, right? Something like that. He's he's still radium multiple. At the most of the plot is him trying to steal radium. Yes, so he takes up a bunch of thugs and they bring the zombie martin with them, right? Yes, they bring the yes, they try to break into I didn't understand what's going on because they broke into the Gotham Foundation. Is it just like next door to the Gotham Foundation? It must be like they didn't okay sort of there's a bit hand-wavy. Let's say Yeah, so I mean, the long and the short of it is Batman and Robin arrive on the roof, just as the villains and they get into every single episode. One of these chapters ends with a no stakes, uninteresting fist fight between Batman, Robin and a bunch of indistinguishable things, is that accurate? Batman and Frequently loses. So one of the tropes of these serials is that our hero has to appear to die at the end. and then at the beginning and the next one you see that they didn't actually die they somehow escapes that happened in zombies of the stratosphere it happens here but what that means is Batman has to get his butt kicked and like thrown on the train tracks are pushed over the side of a building or something at the end of every one uh and maybe it's just because they're always outnumbered but yeah it just doesn't make old bats look good. No, he gets defeated in every one of these fist fights so that it can end on a cliffhanger. And in this case, so whatever their fight fight fight fight, it's, it's all pretty hokey like there's fighters, so there's no real sense of stakes with this fight and the villain escapes, let's say the zombie comes out and is fighting them. I don't know. There's a lot of shenanigans. The cliffhanger is that Batman gets chucked off of the roof. And so, you know, the last shot is Batman, comically, you know, falling through the air. And the thing we're going to learn about these cliffhangers is they are all resolved by dumb luck, not by Batman, like, taking an action to save him. Or sometimes Robin intervenes. It's safe. Yes, but that's about it. It's like this curiously deflating experience where Batman gets the crap kicked out of him and then he's saved by random. Yes, at the end of all these times. So at the end of it, though, the important thing though is Batman and Robin have got they've got the gun, right? Yes, they ended up with the gun. That was a lot of times spent on that chapter. I am not going to spend that much time on these next chapters. But that is the close of chapter one, the longest chapter. One where we meet our heroes, our villains, and I guess the kind of overall stakes are set up here. Batman's got the gun and DACA really wants it back. And DACA also needs radium to build a better version. Right. And radium is like the ammo for the gun as well. Yes. I will say here that the first three or four blend together for me because I watched them. and then okay so you know like at some point in these first two they try to steal a plane and i'm not sure what exact chapter it is so you know like you'll have to leave me well your summaries will tell me so yeah all right so i'm gonna start doing a thing i'm just gonna take do one or two sentences as summarize each chapter and then if you have something you want to mention do so otherwise i'll move on so chapter two is called the bats cave yes and this is in this and he has a Linda kidnapped. I don't remember exactly why it doesn't matter, but Bruce and Dick Tracer to where they're holding her in a hotel and they have a fight scene where they rescue her basically. I have one comment here and that is, I have two comments. First Batman's pants are hyped up so high jump. There he is. like practically to his chest. It's like a pair of like sweatpants or something. Yeah. Like think of your grandpa like how high he he hikes his parents. Maybe that's why he could up another couple inches and that's what you maybe that's why I thought he was really old because he's dressed like Yeah. The other thing is Alfred says something in this he says When telling someone that they're mistaken or on the wrong track, he says, you're off the beam. Yes, if you heard of that phrase. I have not heard of that phrase. There's another phrase I captured later that I want to bring up, but I have not heard that then. So we actually get a lot of interaction with Alfred in this episode. So John, how is Alfred come across in this episode? Well, so first of all, if you want to picture Alfred, he is almost a double of the director John Waters. from like the 80s and 90s. If that helps you at all, he looks exactly like him, which is weird. He is British. He's a bit afoot and he's a bumbling. They keep pressing him into service, making put on costumes and stuff, and he always screws it up. So yeah, he's bumbling. He's sort of the the butt of Batman and Robbins jokes. That feels like one of the biggest differences here, just because the modern Alfreds are much more in charge. And in some cases, seem to have it together more than Batman. Yeah, and they're very wise. You know, the Alfreds role in the modern Batman is to inject a bit of wisdom. Like, you know, it's no mistake that Alfred in the Nolan Batman movies has to line some people just want to watch the world burn, right? Because he's the wise one who understands the world more than Batman. that's not the case here. Yeah, so this one ends with a chase across the telephone wire like Batman is curing Linda across the telephone wire while some sparks like it's slowly move up behind him. I don't I don't really know my dad's an electrician not me. I don't think this is how an electricity works, but I but you know, maybe they did the research. So And that brings us a chapter three, you know, and my attention, at least momentarily perked up here, because it's title is the Mark of the Zombie. Yes, that's our best title of this whole thing. So, I miss lettuce earlier. So, this is actually the episode where Martin gets officially zombie. Oh, they threatened him with zombification earlier and they showed him his zombie friend and stuff. But, in this episode, talk a zombified zonkelmorton, and then, now he's going to blow up an American supply train, like a real actual railroad train. but first they try to recover the radium gun right they Batman has said a trap for them but DACA is he's smarter than your average you know do an axis in I guess and various things happen but it ends with sort of DACA's thugs going to try and destroy a supply train railroad bridge and this is where we get his resistance is useless thing and I did grab this is audio Resistance is useless while I suggest that you adopt an attitude of fatalistic risk nation. You want to estimate the American will to fight Jacob? We fight first on the face of your so-called inevitable. Oh, you dumb. Well, we shall see about that. Proceed gentlemen. So that is DACA starting the process to zombify Uncle Martyr. He gives a little patriotic speech. It doesn't matter, he does, in fact, get zombified. Yep. And he now obeys DACA's coming on. So this one ends like they all do with a lot of fistacuffs. Yes. uh, including a lot of physical stuff on the train track. Yeah, yes, I wish there was more like meat to the zombie stuff here. Can we talk about the zombies for quick sex since we can so what kind of zombies are these so these have since we've gone back in time this even this feels like we've been gone further back in time than 1943. It's essentially zombies created by a zombie master though in this case the means are They are still alive, but they're under the control of a zombie master, who can control their every action, and no one can resist. Yeah, I suppose we'll talk about this on a wrap up questions. But these zombies, they're purely technologically created. There's nothing mystical about them. And yet, by linking them to this stereotype Japanese evil bad guy, I think they are evoking a sort of orientalist mystique about the whole zombification process. So, chapter four slaves of the rising sun yeah in this chapter DACA continues to try and retrieve the read him gun this time by tricking Linda into visiting a fake fortune teller that's right he got kind of I got kind of Bruce Wayne takes the place of the fortune teller and she doesn't recognize him and yeah it was weird And it ends in a car chase, not with the Batmobile, just with the regular car, which is not very exciting to find to me totally frankly. Yeah, we do learn in this episode that Taka, he truly does have a Bond villain layer because he has pet alligators in his life. Yeah, he does have a floor that flips open and there's alligators down there. That was kind of great. Yes, and we see this demonstrated on one of his lieutenant's who gives them a little bit of patriotic sense. Yeah, so let's hear that. I don't need any handwriting on the wall to tell me who's going to come out on top of this war because it's written as plain and black as death and every newspaper. That's what I came back to tell you because I'm not afraid of you. You've shot your boat, Dacca. Even all your ex's crony's. You're through. Are we? I'm quoting from the winning side, Dacca. I believe me, that's right where I'm going to be. But you do not believe it is so simple I saw all that. The League of the New World of Hero Hito Heavenly Roland Prince of the Rising Sun marches on and nothing will ever stop it. You might just as well try to stop the tides and the winds. So we get that little exchange. Unfortunately for our our thug who in his last moments got a burst of American patriotism, he's about to get dropped into the alligator. And it is kind of delightful where DACA, like at certain points like feeds the alligators, right? And then he's like, but not too much. So they're still hungry. Like, yes, he's very villainous with the alligators. I got to say, I mean, I truly love these pulpy, melodramatic lines. I did too. If they could just be separated out from sort of the racist context, I would be absolutely eating this. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Like you act, you and your access crowns, you know, like that sort of stuff. If I love that stuff, but... All right, the trick, the kidnapped linda again, linda gets kidnapped at least four times. I'm already mixed up on what happens, but Batman, who still has the radium gun, is actually using it to fight the thugs. He uses it to like break into the thugs truck at the end. There's a car chase blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah, the last thing I was going to mention is that, like so, by now, DACA is aware of the name the batman and he is starting to get really annoyed at this thorn in his side. Yes. So chapter 5, the living corpse in this one, a Japanese submarine has a special delivery for DACA, a zombie. And I think a genuinely new use of a zombie for us. What a weird way to deliver a secret message. Yes, we'll get to in just a second, Batman and Robin Meanwhile are assigned by the U.S. government to intercept to DACA's plot to steal an experimental aircraft. Ah, okay. So let's talk about this Japanese submarine radius into DACA and says we've got a special message for you. And what is the form that that message takes John? So they in a pine coffin. is a dead Japanese soldier who's been given a secret. And DACA uses his technology to revive him just long enough to tell DACA the secret and then he lets him die again. I have to say, that is a pretty cool piece of a pretty clever. So then Batman Robin head off into skies, pretending to work at the airfield where this experimental plane is based. Batman does get in a lot of disguises here. We don't need to go into them in detail, but like this is definitely an aspect of his character that he doesn't do as much now. Oh, yeah. Well, like the second half of the cereal is based almost entirely around a roll he plays. Chuck White. And I do think it is part of this like low tech. He's a little bit. He's supposedly more clever than powerful. That's right. At any rate, some zombies get into the experimental plane and take off with it, and John, was there enough of this plane for you to recognize what it was? You know, yes, and at first, I almost didn't. So our experimental plane is actually a still-syn model A. It is what is called a Tri-Prop, which almost, this is one of the Instead of having a propeller on its nose, like a fighter plane, or two on its wings, like a bomber, it has both. So it has three engines, one in the front. A lot of Italian planes at this time are like this. This is actually just an airliner, a very early airliner, but they stopped production in 1936. So this experimental plane hasn't been produced in seven years, and I think in 1937, I think they even couldn't fly it anymore because there was an Australian Airlines crash involving one. So in any case, it is a weird-looking plane and it's very old. And the U.S. military, not realizing that Batman is in the plane, yes, receives word that it's been stolen by the zombies and they open fire on it. Yeah, with anti-aircraft guns that are like real, like it's a clip of real anti-aircraft guns shooting into the air. It's like the middle of the middle of somewhere in California. Yeah, I don't even know where they are. Gotham. I guess that would be well what is Gotham is Gotham city supposed to be like Chicago or so yes and no like I think it's just supposed to be the dark side of New York right like metropolis is bright setting up a stand-in from the yard. Yeah, but we tend to think of it as Chicago. I think these days and that's where the Nolan Batman films were were made. Okay. Well, that leads us to chapter six, poison peril, the playing crashes, but as is always the case, Batman just survives like through no forget how he calms his time, but he did. He just wasn't hurt. Oh, okay. It's not I don't think it's even explained later. He gets in what is a terrifying car crash. Like a legitimately terrifying and he like has his arm in a sling which he immediately takes out of the sling like yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't do my blood for this one. With the plane crashed, DACA decides to try and get the blueprints for the best. Right. But when his Japanese submarine is sunk by American worships, he must shift plans to take advantage of a guy named Mr. Colton, who has found a mine from which radium can be processed. Yes. And is I think a friend of Bruce Wayne's or something like that? Yeah. So this starts this long multi-chapter story arc where DACA is trying to get ownership and control of this mind, because he needs the radio for his gun. This is the only consistent plot line. Like every other episode is like, let's figure out how to do one thing. Let's try one thing to get the radio, and then now we get into like, multiple episodes were following one narrative thread for a change. Yeah, so not a lot. I mean, that was all the exciting stuff from that episode. Most of this episode is they meet this Mr. Colton. Daca, I think, makes an attempt to trick him into handing over or revealing the location of the mind. It doesn't work. And it ends with the fist fight and this is where I noted in my notes like how boring these fist fights are and how repetitive they are they never result in something like interesting happening plot rights only they only result in like a Batman getting in a cliffhanger in this case the cliffhanger is Batman gets knocked out next to some chemicals that are about to explain that's right inside of a factory that will dissolve him immediately or something Yes, and so that in chapter 7, so having failed to like trick their way into ownership of this mind We moved to chapter 7 the phony doctor. Yes, to get the claim to the mind dococens of fake doctor to Colton to gain his trust and then find out where the mind is located and or where it's ownership papers and how does the phony doctor incapacitate Colton and he Uh, it looks like he strangles it. No, he uses chloroform on our right. And then later Batman discovers the chloroform and figures out that's how it was done. But it was an absolute three seconds of chloroform and you're out cold. It's kind of thing. Yeah. This is a little bit of a inside joke listeners in our episode on Dr. Blood's coffin. We learned that the time it takes to chloroform. Someone is five minutes of continual inhalation of the chemical. So, But not here. We also learned by the way, the way that Batman survived that giant chemical explosion is, quote, some fallen beams detected. So I guess that was just lucky. So the fake doctor, trick doctor, mr. Colton knocks him out and they capture Colton and bring him to And this is the one chapter where they do show Batman doing some detective. Yes, because remember Batman's whole deal is he's not Superman. He doesn't have superpowers. He supposedly does a really smart detective. And that's her, my favorite aspect of Batman, not in this movie, but it just in general. Like I like it when he goes into detective mode. Agreed. And he finds some clues that point him to a Japanese laundry mat. Oh, but we do get some zombie actually, what was the clue us that pointed them to the laundry mat? It was like a stamp on a receipt or something. He did a black light on the the linens and under the black light, the name in Japanese pops up of the laundry mat, which he reads. Yes. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, and I think it was the rag that was used to drug Colton and so he came from a Japanese laundry. They brand their chlorophyll. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, and why the laundry has their name on somebody else's rag. I have no idea But let's not think about it too hard Yeah, if you think Batman's really closing in on DACA's layer, I'm sorry to tell you that he is not Yeah, what is the name of the name of the name of the name of the mind? Stupid club. So yeah, we do we need to pick up the pace here. It's my fault. I'm being slow here, but I just wanted to say we do get some zombie action in this episode because DACA threatens Column into taking him to his mind. Yes, by having one of the to demonstrate like how under, under DACA's control, the zombie saw, and he even gets cold into the point where he's going to turn him into a zombie and then coat and capitulates. Yes, exactly. So that leads us to chapter eight, lured by radium. And this is really a continuation of the last one. And this one, DACA, he zombifies Colton or comes really close to zombifying Colton. And finally forces him to reveal the location of that radium mine. And then Bruce and Dick and Linda drive from wherever they are to this mine. they all dried out to the mind which is in like the California Hills and they have a condescending interaction with an Indian gas station owner. Yeah, the hoodlums have a condescending interaction. Oh, so do the heroes though. They also have a condescending interaction. I thought they were a little nicer, but you're right. He was friendly. It was friendly. It was friendly. It's still a horrible stereotype. So some convoluted stuff comes up here about about the location of the mind. That's not, I'm not going to go down yet. I'm not going to go down yet. Don't do it. At the end of this though, everyone for various reasons. Column, Batman, Robin, all the thugs in Linda are all converging in the in the mine. When some explosives go off and the explosives are set by actually by Column, who doesn't realize all the heroes are in the mine. He's trying to kill the thugs. Yes, there's only one good thing in the episode in that he escapes the thugs. and it goes, and there's a secret tunnel that leads back to his own cabin that he can access through a trap door, which he has put right under the one table in the cabin, so when he opens it, the table flips over to scare Linda. I thought there's so many bad choices here, but it's delightful. Yes, that was a good moment. So chapter nine, the sign of this things. So with the explosive going off, Doca's plan to get this minor ruined because it will take too long to clear all the rubble out of it. So Doca has to find something else to do with this time. And This is where Batman, this starts kind of like the final story arc of the serial because Batman, we lost for a second because at the start of this episode, I believe is where the henchmen, like all previous episodes say we killed him. We got it. I know. Yeah. I'd like to play my favorite clip of the whole series from DACA. Okay. There you go. I personally killed him on the war outside the club. I do not appreciate your sense of humor. I wonder if there's more than one technique or members of the same organization. Yes, I just love that. I wish there was more than one back because only conclusion is there must be more than one organization and it's hard to I it's very funny so in every episode the thugs knock Batman and conscious basically and that man will be lying there on the fool And like we'll just leave him here a little die in the fire just leave him here. He'll drown just leave him here. They all have guns and they're they're like literally standing over him and they will all decide he'll probably be killed when this place collapsed. Yes, so the train comes or whatever. Yeah. All right. So, but in this one, we start the final plot thread of this cereal. And that is where Bruce Wayne kind of goes into this like long-term undercover role as Chuck White, who and he's pretending to be basically like a drifter thug like a scout again. And so, you know, he, he still looks like Bruce Wayne, but they put makeup on him to make him look like kind of a smog in the fake nose. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, oh, at one point, Linda says the phrase, if it hadn't been for Batman, I'd be dead. And that is demonstrably not true, by the way. Like Batman did nothing. I love the mix of reality here. It's like, uh, Like they say things like that, and I'm like, you mean the guy just got his ass kicked seven episodes in a row? Like, yes, that's the bad man we're talking about. I just want to be clear. Yeah. They do do a cool ruse in this one. They've captured one of the thugs and they leave him in the bat cave where he quickly gets out of his like handcuffs or whatever. But it's all a trick because they know they made it easy for him to break out and they're going to track like who he tries to call and repeat to. And so they are, I guess, creepings slightly closer to DACA, but where they wind up is they find out that like the bad guys are using the sphinx as sort of a base of operations. So that's when Bruce Wayne dresses up as Chuck the gangster. He goes to the sphinx club. Another fist fight breaks out. Batman's ones again knocked out at the end. We move into chapter 10, flying spy. Yes. So, DACA learns of a new supply of radium that's being flown in. And he has a spy on the plane with the radium, who is going to drop the radium out the window of a plane. Yes, with a little parachute and his darkest thugs are going to pick up the radium when it lands and Chuck is sort of like a provisionary, yeah, like probationary, uh, probationary, yes. So this is like they're going to take Chuck with him to test him out. So very stuff goes on. We do a couple of times throughout the serial. It happens in this episode. We are having various scenes where like Linda was planning on going on a date with Bruce Wayne, but Bruce Wayne, You know, stood her up because he was being batman and so you have a little scene where she's like, if only you were as cool as batman and not such a loser. So, you know, that is part of the Batman story to this day. Yeah. And what I love about this, this is a DC 3 airliner and the, and the, and the thug just smashes one of the windows with the butt. It was just and nothing happens. Yes, I do. I've seen a lot of movies where that results in you being stuck through the nose. I think it's the reality's probably somewhere in between, but certainly it's not nothing happens. Yes, imagine opening a window when you're going 300 miles an hour. That's all I'm trying to say. So the spy drops the radio melt the plain window, which has got a funny various shenanigans and so and this is where Batman. I kind of was well, so Chuck White is there and then Batman shows up and they go, oh Batman must have been Chuck White must be Batman. Oh, yes. That's that's how he misdirects them. Yeah That's, okay, that's right. And then there's a car chase. That means driving a car in it explodes. Yes. And then that leads us to chapter 11, a Nipponese trap. Yes. Apologies for the data term there. In this episode with the radium, DACA can now start working on building a super radium gun. Yes. But they have to first tie up the loose end that is Chuck White. That's right. And I also noted here, we have not seen zombies in quite a while. They take long breaks. They kind of dropped out of the story. They will come back eventually. But so the villains got the radium batman. One of the thugs says, the batman, that guy's got more lives than I can. But this time we finished him for sure. Yeah. So the confidence is amazing. They make a weird, complicated scheme to like take out Chuck. Who they think is Batman. None of their plans involved just shooting him. No, they do clearly have guns and they do shoot other people. And this ends with Batman knocked out as he usually is. They take his mask off and he's in his Chuck makeup under the mask. So it confirms our suspicion that Chuck is Batman. Then instead of shooting him, they hatch this game again. Like, well, we're going to set fire to the building and he'll be killed by the player. And then that leads us to chapter 12 embers of evil. And guys like the end is on the hook. We're close. Daka wants to trap Batman. So Daka has a pack of poison cigarettes. Did you catch the brand? I got. Um, let's do so. Bram, yes, yes, this is where I started really eyeing the like times to the speed on YouTube. So my three caps might get a little hazy at this point, but he uses zombie uncle Martin to trickling to again. Yes, Linda has now fallen for this like 800 times. Uh, and he lures Batman and Linda to the Ajax factory. Which they then try to burn down to kill Batman again. It doesn't work Batman or Albin attack blah blah blah Not not much. I would say there's like some acting right near fire here that looked Like they would never allow somebody to do that today in a movie like on a movie set fire that real that close to it Even a stuntman would be like an enormous no-no, so Yeah, they're nervously looking at the fact that they're saying their lines. All right, chapter 13, eight steps down. Which I didn't get with that was I didn't either. But it's the excuse to go to the finally he's found the secret layer. So he's got to go down to the secret. Yes. So in this episode, DACA is still building his slightly bigger radium gun. Right. Batman continues to try to track down where Linda is being held prisoner. So Linda is captured and she's in DACA's base like Larry. Yes. So DACA thinks Bruce Wayne might be Batman and wants Linda to lure him into a trap. I don't really remember why DACA now thinks Bruce Wayne is Batman either, or whatever. uh... we do get some we do find out that linda is also a racist uh... in in this jitter so uh... we're checking off the list of people that haven't of people as they say racist things uh... doka shows off zombie uncle martin to linda and threatens the zombify linda which would make her one of our rare uh... females zombies of this but he does zombify her and he does put her in the zombie machine. She doesn't get zombified until the next episode because Batman charges in, and Batman gets dropped into a pit with spiked walls that close in like the trash compactor scene in Star Wars. That's right. Uh, then we moved to chapter 14, the executioner's strike. So Batman is escaping that wall pit trap in a dumb way with a crowbar. And he's actually kind of what they tried to do in Star Wars to close the trash competitor. Did you notice like the crowbar he's got is like six feet. Yeah, like it's like it's quite a pro bar scene is what like 18 inches long. There's something. I don't know. Anyway, but DACA does zombify Linda. He puts her in the machine. He turns on the circular saw. lights flash and she is now a mindless slave of doc's right and she has to wear hats everybody has to wear hats to cover their zombie helmet so that Batman doesn't know there's zombies yes exactly so then for various reasons Batman then he's pretty close he's like close he's like almost in doc is there but he regroups back at at his house for some reason they lure Bruce Wayne into a trap and even though he knows as a trap, he lets himself get knocked out. And they're going to transport knocked out Bruce Wayne by putting him into a coffin. Oh, no, it's knocked out Batman. Anyway, whatever, they knock him out. They put him in a coffin. And DACA plans to feed Batman to his alligators. And that's the cliffhanger at the end of this episode. They show them dumping the coffin into the alligator pit and you hear somebody getting chewed up in there. it's obviously not Batman though because we are about to start chapter 15 the final episode yes the doom of the rising sun this is where we learn this is the final confrontation between Batman and doc that's right and this is where we learn Batman escaped getting fended alligators because he he tricked them he knocked out one of the thugs and put the thug in rock They realize as they dump the confident that it's not Batman, it's a thug, and DACA says that's the pricey page for carelessness, so I don't really want to work for this guy, but no. Then Batman Robin finally make your way through the amusement park ride that you take to get into DACA's layers, which is funny. Yeah, they, methodically, everybody who wants, they like telegraph every time anybody wants to go into the secret base, they go in, they get in the car, they start the ride, they go past all the things and then they get off and get in the base and they do that, it does in times in this, in this era. Commonly one of the Japanese guys in the diorama is a real soldier who's just sitting there holding really still He's like guarding yeah entrance to the base and that guy works all the time like like he never gets time off every episode What does he do when every episode? He's there and they've been foreshadowing his his yes Yes, it's it's it's quite masterful. I think it's what you're going to say yes. Thank you. It's performance is stunning is what I'm trying to say So can we talk about the way people get into Doca's where? Is they scan their hand? Yes. And then, Doca sees like an x-ray of their hand. They're skilling. Yeah. We're like a superimposed thing. Yeah. And so when Batman puts his hand, his x-ray has a little bat symbol in it. like is he is that a ring? No, I don't know what that is like I I just I think they're trying to say there's some advanced technology that can identify the person he's Oh, I see I thought he was like Batman on like a molecular level is now I have no yes that would have to be how it is because how else would he No. Anyway, let's not overthink the X-ray machine that can tell you who's Batman or not. Yeah. Batman makes this way into Lair. He's attacked by zombie, Angamore, and this is where we learn that even Batman is a racist. Yes. Because he spouts some racist stuff. The zombies drag Batman down the lab. They're going to zombify Batman. There is a very satisfying scene where Dr. DACA orders zombie Linda to slap that man across the face. I laughed out loud, if there's like one clip to watch from this, I think it's not one, yes. So DACA is about to take off Batman's mask before he's on the fives, and he's doing his gloating routine. And Robin breaks in. They capture DACA, then they threaten to zombify DACA if he doesn't tell them how to like reverse. Lee his zombie slaves. They do, he follows, he gives them, he tells them how to unzombify Linda and Uncle Martin. they go through his paperwork and find all his whole network of access spies and then DACA tries to make a run for it, but what ironic and fitting fate does he? Well, it's actually kind of funny because what what Batman chouses closed that door, right? Like by using one of the switches on the on DACA's console of switches that control his little contraptions and Robin hits the wrong one and drops him in with the alligator. They wanted to drop me with the alligator's, but they can't make it seem like Robin, who's a kid, did it on purpose. So that's how they had to make that happen. Yes. Okay, guys, this has gone along enough, and we've reached the end. Truth and justice has prevailed over the Axis menace. Yes. Any last thoughts? Yes. As they drive away. Alfred says, so this is 1943. My mother was born in 1935. Alfred says, and now we're cooking with gas and my mother used to say that all the time. And I never realized it was like a slaying expression from when she was a kid. So that's the one last note I have on this. Okay, well, you're off the beam and cooking with gas. Alfred introduced a lot of cool phrases into the English language. I looked up off the beam for you. Oh, yeah. It's from planes who would follow a radio beam. And if you were off the beam, you weren't on targets. Ah, ha. Doesn't it sound like something that somebody in the Dark Tower series would say? Absolutely, though. The beam is a thing in the Dark Tower. Yes. Well, like you're thinking of. All right. Well, John, it's time to wrap those things. So we have a bunch of closing questions. We're going to ask, and they start with John in the that man is there a hero party. Yes, there's Batman and Robin and Alfred and Linda. So that's a hero party. And how do they do how many survived? They survived, but they all get their butts kicked a bunch of times except for Linda who just gets captured a bunch of times. and she gets on before and she does get down before I maybe importantly is not the word yes there but you know all right is there a zombie hoard in this um yeah kind of I mean they're trying to imply that DACA has a hoard of zombies at his command but all he does is really ask them to like pick up heavy things and one time kill for somebody so he is strangely unambitious with his yes he goes to a lot of trouble to make zombies but doesn't really do Yeah, it's implied that he would rather have you cooperate willingly than have to be turned into a zombie. So like, is it harder to get like information out of a zombie or something? He always tries to get you to join the, will zombies like his threat, right? Do this, make him do a zombie. But he does follow through a couple of days. Yeah. So how are zombies destroyed or killed? I think I think at one point one of them just get shot. Yes. I think so too. It's not Uncle Martin, but it's like the friend of his think. Yeah. So I think it's suggested that they're just regular people as far as vulnerabilities go. Is the world threatened in the Batman? You know what? I'm going to give this movie credit and say yes. There is an evil plot to take over the United States. It doesn't make any sense and involves a single radium gun, but I'm still going to say the world is threatened. I can't say how it's threatened. All I can say is that is that clearly we're supposed to feel like we're threatened. Yes, oh, yeah, you're correct. The the super version of the medium gun like I think it has maybe the destructive capability of like a bazookie. Yes, right. Like anyway, uh, is zombies. I'm reversible. Yes, because Linda gets unzabified. I think her and her. It does. But you do have to go back through a technological process to be. Yes, it doesn't just happen. How fast are the zombies? Are they slow, fast or regular humans? They're slow, and they walk really slow, internal next. Yeah. Are there any new strains or zombie firsts? I don't think so. I mean, I'm trying to think of this relative in time, but even in the time. I mean, I guess this is before the creature with the atom brain. And so maybe this was an inspiration for that. But even that, like, creature with the Adam brain, the important part is not the brain implant. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. So I don't really think so. I had to. Okay. I have, I have one as, all right, lay it on me. I had the first superhero versus zombie. I'll get there you go. And then I had the first zombie messenger. Were they? I did like, yeah, that's pretty clever. All right, I'll take that. I'm going to go as far as to say that is, that is the one cool idea out of, yes, whole thing. I think is a zombie as a message. Yep. Yeah. Okay. So, John, when we started this podcast, you laid out four pillars of the zombie film. How many of them are we going to find in the Batman series? All right. First of all, in the Batman is there at a apocalypse. There's not. Other than World War II is kind of in the apocalypse, but we're going to see it. Is there contagion? No, because you have are there. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. I don't need to clarify that for that. There is no contagion. This film carry on Andy. No, are there tough moral choices? No, the good guys are good and racist and the villains are just villainous. The closest thing you have to tough moral choices are like deciding if you're going to. get turned into a zombie or get turned into a zombie, but that's not really a good choice. Are there loved ones turning against? Yes, that's the one thing that is here, right? Uncle Martin, Linda Slaps Batman, which is delightful, but that's still counts. I, I love that so much. I want to go watch this and go, I always just go, just go, just go, just go, just go. There's a loud, meaty slap. Yeah, that's what makes it work, yeah. Okay, and let's see, John, we always close with three questions. We, we sometimes have a take a little, side detour and talk about questions about the decade in which the movie came out, but I think I think we'll skip that this time. Yeah. So we're going to jump right to our closing three questions. John, would you and I survive in the zombie world of the Batman? I am not sure. I think For all of this film's many flaws, one mistake it does not make is make DACA a buffoonish character. He's like a pretty smart villain. He reacts quickly to like Batman shenanigans. He is thinking a couple of steps ahead. So I think I might fall under into the sinister web of Dr. DACA. Yeah. Well, I think as long as either one of you has a sidekick, you'll be fine. Yeah. Yes. That's true. Yeah. Nappy head sidekick will be fine. Also, if Batman gets beat up by all these thugs, there's no chance I will. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. So, uh, is this a zombie movie or a movie with zombies? Is a movie with zombies? Zombies are not the point of this movie. They are frequently gone from the film. They don't really have an impact on the film other than as it is like a device to intimidate people. I think they're very secondary in this movie. Agreed. Lastly, John, would you recommend this movie first to general audience? And let me expand that. If somebody listening to this is a Batman fan, is this worth digging out as a Batman artifact? And secondly, do you recommend this to our zombie loving listeners? Well, so you've given me three opportunities to say, no, and I'm going to say it three times, no, no, and no. Yeah, there's very little new zombies stuff here. The series not only is this serial, like if we compare it to another 19 early 1940 film revenge of the zombies, like the quality of the serial is really poor. It's really uncomfortable. There's a piece of war anti-Japanese war prop again, they're like, I just, there's nothing I can recommend about it. Yes, I agree. Here's my caveat. If you have I think this is edge, it would be educational for you to watch like 10 minutes of this, like say the first chapter of this, if you have not seen something like this, which is to say, if you haven't seen racist government propaganda, this is an interesting artifact in that. Yes, yeah, you're right. other than that it as a piece of entertainment it is kind of racist garbage basically and I don't recommend it nor does it have enough zombie goodness in it to make it worth like trying to mine the zombies stuff. Yeah and the couple good lines we pulled out of it that's kind of it. So you're not there's not other gems we didn't share with you. That's it. Right.

So yes. Yeah. Okay. Well, then it's time for the scareiest part of this episode. And I just want to say this was a scary one guys like so Brad, I'm looking at you with hopeful eyes. This is where Brad reveals to us what we're going to watch.

Yeah, I didn't realize producer Brad could use the length of a movie as an intimidation technique.

So I'm happy to say, that should be the last serial that we watch. I can't say that there's not going to be another 400 minute movie in the future. I don't know. But I think we can all agree that Captain America's serial watching podcast. We're thinking about is now off the table. Alright, so our next zombie film was released in 1965 around the same time as an evening with Batman and Robin. And I'd like to, before I show you the poster, play a clip. Here you go. There are creatures from the grave. Of ends me. I've summoned you, I've been to me! Go back to the dead! In a dreadful night of reckoning, the forces of darkness strike with blood-freezing horror. I mean, this trailer so has me. Yeah, that sounds great, and this poster is also great. It's five... Oh! wait, hold on a second. Where is this Ralph Zucker? What is happening here? It's Italian. The English translation is terror creatures from the grave. But what is this Italian? It's an Italian American coproduction. Okay, there is no way that that is a literal translation of a Italian title here, which is like five tombs and one medium or something. interesting. Well, let me describe the poster. So it's it's got a man holding a woman who appears to a fainted in the foreground and underneath that it's got the actress's name Barbara Steele. Behind them is a graveyard and there's a zombie creeping up on them and then over the zombie shoulders this giant woman's face that is blue and the sky is kind of red. It's kind of a cool Should we know who Barbara Steele is based on the podcast of our not so far but we'll find out All right, let's go ahead. I'm getting ahead of ourselves now. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to that one. So hey, John will you sign us out. Yes. Thank you for for listening to us talk about the Batman or an evening with Batman and Robin next time We're going to talk about what's called again producer bread and terror creatures from the grave. This sounds like a pretty great zombie movie, so everybody, uh, join us next time. You've been listening to zombie strains. We'll be back next episode to talk about another zombie movie. If you enjoyed our podcast, please take a moment to rate us in your podcast Apple Choice. Tell a friend, follow us on Instagram at zombie strains. All of this helps like-minded people find the show. See you next time.