Batman (1943)(1943)

4h 20m

Release Date: Jul 16, 1943

The very first serial to adapt the comic book character of the Batman. In it, the Batman is a secret U.S. government agent, attempting to defeat the schemes of Japanese agent Dr. Daka operating in Los Angeles at the height of World War II.

Note: TV Movie

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Director & Top Cast

Lambert Hillyer
Director

Harry L. Fraser

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Storyline

In his first screen appearance, the Caped Crusader of Gotham City (belying the lethargic facade of his alter ego Bruce Wayne) battles Dr. Daka, Japanese mastermind of a wartime espionage-sabotage group. Daka has a radium-powered death ray that pulverizes walls, a classic alligator pit to dispose of enemies, and can turn men into electronic zombies who do his bidding and transmit video signals to Daka's lab! Batman has no Batmobile, but there are bats in the Bat Cave... — Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu> The Batman/Bruce Wayne ( Lewis Wilson ), and his young assistant, Robin the Boy Wonder/Dick Grayson ( Douglas Croft ), hit on the trail of a Japanese sabotage ring, when Bruce's girl friend, Linda Page ( Shirley Patterson ), asks him to help her free her uncle, Martin Warren ( Gus Glassmire , who has been abducted by the sabotage ring. Dr. Tito Daka ( J. Carrol Naish ),leader of the gang, plans to steal the city's supply of radium, and forces Warren to locate the vault where it is stored. Daka sends his henchmen, along with a zombie, which he controls by the means of a special microphone, to steal the precious metal, but Batman follows and succeeds in routing the gang in a terrific battle. One of the captured henchmen reveals the radium was to have been taken to The House of the Open Door. Disguised, the dauntless duo, Batman and Robin, visit that hideout and find Linda bound, gagged and unconscious. Linda is rescued. Daka transforms Warren into a zombie, and plots the derailment of a heavily laden supply train, but, once again, he is thwarted by the crime-fighter and his young pal. Trap and counter-trap follow in breath-taking rapidity, as the Batman and the Japanese agent who would steal America's Victory Plans, following the cowardly 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, wage all-out war on each other. — Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net> In Gothan City, during Word War II, the Japanese spy Dr. Tito Daka has gangsters working for the Japanese government. He plans to steal a radium load to use in a lethal weapon and hijack an American prototype airplane. The evil Dr. Daka uses a machine to turn people into zombies to work for him. Batman is indeed the lazy millionaire Bruce Wayne, and Robin is his protegee Dick Grayson who are supported by the butler and chauffeur Alfred Pennyworth. Bruce Wayne's love interest is Linda Page, and Dr. Daka kidnaps her uncle Martin Warren to help him in his research but turns him into a zombie when he refuses to cooperate. Through fifteen Chapters, Dr. Daka stumbles upon Batman and the Boy Wonder Robin, and they will fight each other. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil