Holy Radioactive Money, Batman!-The 1949 Batman Serial

Shelving videos at the video store I work at last night, I made a discovery in the Classics section: the original 1949 “Batman and Robin” serials. I knew there was no way they could be good, but the artwork on the cover looked cool, I’m a huge Batman freak, and there’s a new movie coming out, so I decided, what the hell, and took it home.
To call the acting stiff in these movies would be a gross understatement-to call the action awkward would be likewise an understatement. Still, the shorts have a certain charm, not like the 1960s series, which was intentionally campy, but the kind of charm which only the earnestly campy possess.
Like when Batman and Robin are around the corner from some bad guys. “If we rush them they could shoot us,” Batman points out, “so we’ll have to use strategy.” The strategy is this: Robin runs out to where the bad guys are, shouts “Hey!” and leads the goons to where Batman is waiting to ambush them.
He accomplishes this, we’re supposed to believe, by using their momentum to lift them off the ground and knock their heads together. I say “supposed to believe” because these goons obvious jumped and hit each other, crumpling to the ground to reveal Batman with his hands in a position that is supposed to imply the aforementioned action.
Batman and Robin, who has never looked more gay, are trying to foil the evil plot (I’m not quite sure what that plot is) of The Wizard, a man who looks very hot in his cloth mask with eye holes cut in, and very uncomfortable when ordering his gangster-like henchmen around.
Stately Wayne Manor has here been downgraded into an upper class home in the suburbs, which was probably done for budgetary reasons. Whatever the case, Alfred looks a little out of place walking around a well-decorated but relatively cramped Wayne residence. The Batmobile, likewise, has been downgraded to a normal, boat-sized 40s era convertible. Which also makes our heroes look out of place. And it doesn’t help that Bruce Wayne frequently hops in the car with Robin at the wheel and changes into his Batman costume.
The shorts do have a kinship with the Adam West show of the sixties, not just in their camp value, but also in their depiction of a Batman who runs around in the daytime, fooling uncomfortably with his gloves while discussing official matters in the mayor’s office. The difference between the two is that the 1949 serial is an earnest attempt to excite movie audiences with the derring-do of the dynamic duo, while the sixties show was intentionally being campy, perhaps to make fun of these shorts.
Words that keeps coming up as I try to describe this movie are words like “awkward,” “uncomfortable,” and “out of place.” I keep trying to come up with new words for the same thing, but the fact is that the serial is almost nothing but awkward. The way it combines the two most popular types of action from the time, gangster and Western, is awkward (watch as Batman fights the mobsters on top of the speeding train!); the opening sequence, in which Batman and Robin slowly advance toward the camera, looking confusedly to each side, is awkward; the skimpiness of Robin’s outfit is awkward; the pathetic state of Batman’s physique is awkward; and Bruce’s attempts to convince Vicky Vale that he is (a) not Batman and (b) interested in her are awkward.
Still, through all the things they got wrong, these movies still have their charm. It’s nice to see that someone saw the potential Batman had to be a true American icon, even if they do remove a lot of the character’s originality, psychological issues, emotions, background, sports cars, houses . . . Is this DVD worth watching? Only for the most die-hard Batman fans.