This is by far the best Batman production since the original comic books. The realism is not matched, even in Nolan's films. For the time, no ALL TIME, the cinematography is brilliant! Constant plot twists and profoundly touching dialog between Batman and Robin make this truly the only Batman film worth watching. Subtle nods to the crime stories (spoiler - like the gangsters constantly picking up their hats when they get knocked off) are there if you look for them. Its goodIts Great!Watch it!!On second thought Batman and Robin of 1997 was marginally better.

Comics as we know them today owe much to the pulp magazines that preceded them. Case in point: BATMAN. Like the original Dark Knight himself (The Shadow), The Bat-man was a product of the Pulps- although he debuted in what I've referred to elsewhere as "the Pulps with pictures"- comic books. The early movie serials often featured characters from both. This "Natural Evolution" led to the very first BATMAN serial. While the minimalist Budgets were often blamed for the Below Average result(s), it was, more often than not, the relative skill(s) of the director(s) that determined the true worth of what we saw. Thanks to the often atmospheric direction of Lambert Hillyer, BATMAN evokes an air of dark mystery from its opening shot: we see The Bat-man seated in "the bat's cave," brooding pensively, staring directly at us. The camera eases in closer as bats flitter about the cave: we see their shadows on the wall. It's an impressive opening and Lewis Wilson as The Bat-man is believable both as the playboy alter ego and as the Revenge-driven masked man. It would be hard to imagine a better Robin than Douglas Croft: he's young enough (and small enough) and athletic enough to be believable as a crime-fighter's sidekick. True to his True Nature as a man obsessed with setting wrongs right, The Bat-man this time around is in the employ of the U.$. Government (it is, after all, War Time). The dastardly Dr. Daka proves a formidable opponent, but The Bat-man has a trick or two up his own sleeve: when he's outed in Chapter 11, it turns out he's wearing a disguise under his mask. There are one or two gaffs along the way, but they're relatively minor. BATMAN is definitely one of the better serials (though I don't see why they didn't paint one of the cars jet black and affix a bat-fin to it) and well worth a look.

Despite the overt racism, low budget, and low quality Batman suit, this serial was much, much better than I expected. It is better than the average Columbia serial, and should be very enjoyable to fans of old movies, B-pictures, golden age comics, as well as serials. I found that the serial was so engaging and the directing so skillful, that by the middle of the 2nd chapter I didn't think the suit was silly anymore.Lewis Wilson was very credible as both Bruce Wayne and Batman. As Bruce Wayne, he is suave and upper class, and as Batman he is tough, brainy, and no-nonsense.There's a couple scenes in which Batman takes crooks to the Batcave, tries to browbeat them for information, then locks them inside alone with his pet bats. In one very clever sequence, he employs a nice bit of deception on one of these thugs. But even though it is WWII, the fate of the world us up for grabs, U.S. territory has been attacked on 3 fronts and U.S. citizens are interned at camps in the Phillipines, Batman never employs torture, waterboarding, simulated suffocation, sexual humiliation, electric shock, or dog attacks, or other 'enhanced interrogation methods' to extract information from these traitors and saboteurs. That is because, even though he is a weird figure of the dark, striking terror into the hearts of criminals, Batman is not willing to degrade himself by torture, he is not willing to sacrifice his own humanity. What a concept! The fight scenes range from so-so to pretty cool. There are some good moves in some of the fight scenes, like when a bunch of thugs knocks Batman down and pile on, the stuntmen handled it really well when Batman throws the thugs off. Also, the stuntman who played Batman was able to throw a really convincing knockout punch, there are times when he really looks like he is putting all his weight into it, you almost feel it.I also liked the moments when Batman pulled Bruce Wayne's fiancé, Linda Page, out of danger: from his voice it sounds like he actually cares about her, and is not just using her to dispel rumors about his sexual preferences. Unlike a modern Batman, however, he never reveals his double identity to his love interest. Speaking of Linda, she is a quite a fox and a good actress. Douglas Croft made an excellent Robin, once you get used to his big hair (this is the 1st cinematic 'afro' hair style, 25 years before Linc from 'The Mod Squad'!), valiant, good in a fight, not the least bit obnoxious. Croft was 17 when this was filmed, appearing to be about 14 or 15, which is about how old the real Robin would have been Also, since the film is in black and white, Robin's suit shows up as a variety of gray tones, as opposed to the rather sissified red and yellow of the comics (what latent tendencies the guy who dreamed up that suit must have had!). Likewise, Batman's suit is darker in black and white, and in many scenes it's plausible that he really can frighten criminals.The director, Lambert Hiller, had previously done 'Dracula's Daughter,' and put in many atmospheric touches that give this serial the ambiance of a 1930's Universal horror film. The original Batman comics borrowed heavy from those films, and had only been created 4 years prior, in 1939. Having read many of those comics, it is my opinion that this serial comes the closest to the original concept of Batman, as envisioned by his original creators, Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Jerry Robinson and Bob Kane (who managed to grab all the credit). The 1st year or 2 of Batman comics had a very dark, primitive, gritty feel, which this serial captures nicely.Speaking of horror, Dr. Tito Daka has to be one of the greatest, most evil, intelligent, sadistic and insane serial villains ever. As great as, perhaps greater (?) than Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon. And the wacky happenings in Daka's lab and hideout are just some of the wildest, weirdest, pulp-fictionest stuff you've ever seen.There has been much said over the years about the racism of this serial. Dr. Daka was played by a Caucasian actor, and his Japanese voice sounds instead like Peter Lorre trying to do a Mexican accent. But there are a couple places where the narrator talks about the WWII U.S. govt. concentration camps, wherein 120,000 U.S. citizens were unconstitutionally confined for the duration. Even after all these years, that's still offensive.Another touchy point are the recurring shots of a bizarre propaganda carnival ride, in which wax figures depict Japanese soldiers picking on and brutalizing Caucasians. Obviously, these images were meant to inflame anti-Japanese feelings in U.S. theater-goers, thus helping the nation retain it's 'resolve.' Today, however, anyone who has read even the smallest amount of history will know that compared to the real atrocities committed by both Japan and the U.S., the wax tableaux now seem mild in comparison.I am told that the late 1980's VHS release of this serial had been censored of much of the anti-Japanese references, possibly by the Japanese company Sony, which holds the rights to it. If that is so, then it is perhaps cautionary that Sony no longer feels obliged to sensor this material. Maybe this gives we who would inter people on the basis of religion or ethnicity (can you say 'Gitmo'?) a glimpse into a previous time when, to our eventual shame, we did the exact same thing. Or perhaps Sony sees that the U.S. is now competing in the War Crimes Olympics, thus tacitly condoning, perhaps emulating, the Axis tactics of WWII. Maybe Sony just thinks atrocities have come back into style.

Back in the 1940's while war was raging, movie houses hosted movie serials to the people. This was DC comics first attempt as far as movie serials are concerned and its about time that this was released on DVD. Lewis Wilson was the first man to put on the cape and cowl and since then we have had some good batman movies and some bad batman movies. But this one is started the ball rolling. Lewis Wilson is no longer with us and He will always be knows as the first actor to play Batman. True and fact you don't see Batman go into his utility belt to grab a batarang or go into a bat mobile for that matter, you do however see him and robin use there fists on fighting crime. I really love this serial and i'm glad that this is out on DVD where it belongs. and its about time also