Batman - The Complete 1943 Movie Serial Collection

Description

See how BATMAN really began. BATMAN started it all, and it's now available on DVD for the first time ever! Watch as mild-mannered Bruce Wayne (Lewis Wilson) becomes Batman, the classic superhero who, with Robin (Douglas Croft), protects Gotham City from the evil schemes of Dr. Tito Daka (J. Carrol Naish). Packed with adventures involving a radium-powered death ray, a deadly alligator pit, electronic zombies, and even the original Bat Cave, the BATMAN 2-disc set is a must-own DVD for any fan of the Caped Crusader!

Customer Reviews:

quite nostalgic.......2007-06-01

Robin is a wimp. The Butler, a good comic relief, Vicki Lane , a fox, and Batman himself lived up to the image that he portrayed, except for his mask. It fit kind of funny around his nose. The star of the series in my opinion was the villian. Two things struck me funny about the series: 1) Batman & Robin and their aliases drove in the same car, and no one (including the police)could put two and two together:-) 2) The Dynamic duo got in a lot of "fist-a-cuffs" with the bad guys , took a lot of blows to the face,fell a few times too, and when they changed back to Bruce and Dick, no scars,no black-eyes,no limps,.. they were certainly were the dynamic duo.-)

Nostalgia re-visited.......2007-04-10

If this serial was at your local cinema when you were growing up, then the memory of those times are re-kindled with this DVD. Every punch ,every
move, every cheer, every boo.

The Legendary Caped Crusader on the Big Screen for the First Time.......2007-03-27

Before Tim Burton's masterpiece, Batman first appeared on the silver screen in a 15 chapter cliffhanger serial in 1943, which was followed by DC Comics number 1 hero, Superman. Crime & danger is taking place in Gotham City & It's just a new mission for the dynamic duo, Batman & Robin. If you're a Batman or Superhero fan, this serial is a must see, it's thrilling early Batman entertainment

THE DYNAMIC DUO'S FIRST SCREEN APPEARANCE........2007-02-09

BATMAN (1943)
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Release Date: April 15, 1943
Runtime: 260 min.
Chapters: 15

Directed by:
Lambert Hillyer

Writiing Credits:
Bob Kane (character)
Victor McLeod (screenplay)
Leslie Swabacker (screenplay)
Harry L. Fraser (screenplay) (as Harry Fraser)

Produced by:
Rudolph C. Flothow....producer

CAST:
Lewis Wilson....Bruce Wayne/Batman
Douglas Croft....Dick Grayson/Robin
J. Carrol Naish....Dr. Tito Daka (aka Prince Daka)
Shirley Patterson....Linda Page
William Austin....Alfred Beagle

CHAPTERS:
1. The Electrical Brain
2. The Bat's Cave
3. Mark of the Zombies
4. Slaves of the Rising Sun
5. The Living Corpse
6. Poison Peril
7. The Phony Doctor
8. Lured by Radium
9. The Sign of the Sphinx
10. Flying Spies
11. A Nipponese Trap
12. Embers of Evil
13. 8 Steps Down
14. The Executioner Strikes
15. Doom of the Rising Sun

STORY:

Dr. Daka is using a mind-control device to make "zombie" servants out of
people. He uses a carnival funhouse for his headquarters. Batman and Robin
find out Daka is building a radium gun and must stop him. Dr. Daka kidnaps
Ken Colton, a man who had just found a radium mine. As Batman and Robin race to Daka's funhouse, they learn that Linda Page is also a "zombie" servant. They capture Daka and ask how to reverse the zombie-effect so Linda Page would return to normal. As Daka is tied up, he uses a knife to get loose and takes Linda as his prisoner. While Daka tries to escape, Batman tells Robin to flip the switch to the door that's the only exit from the hideout. Robin presses the wrong switch and a trap door opens. Daka falls to his doom in a pit of hungry alligators.

Trivia: Lewis Wilson (1920-2000) became the first actor to play Batman
in this serial. Lewis Wilson's son is Michael G. Wilson, producer of the James Bond movie franchise.[from imdb.com]: (1)Because of the strict serial regulations, Batman and Robin were portrayed as FBI agents in the serial. In the comic strip at the time, however, they were vigilantes. The regulations also prevented the writers from using Batman's Rogues Gallery, so none of Batman's villains appear in this serial and the one made in 1949.(2)With this release, Batman became the first DC Comics character to have his own serial.(3)This is the first filmed appearance of Batman.(4)Because of the low budget, there is no Batmobile. Batman and
Robin use the same black Cadillac as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, and Alfred can be seen chauffeuring the men under both identities.
(5)The character of Alfred in the comics was introduced to conform the fact that in the film Bruce Wayne had a butler. However, the Alfred in the
comics was drawn as very chubby and clean shaven, while William Austin, who played Alfred, wore a moustache and was slim. Soon after the release of the film, the comics character grew a moustache and went to a health spa, where he lost weight. From then on, the comics Alfred has resembled the Austin image.(6)This serial introduced the underground headquarters, the Batcave, which was later incorporated into the comics.

Batman 1943 serial........2007-02-07

Like all those old b/w serials, each ep follows the formula of escape, deduce, chase, fight, get into a trap, paving the way for next ep's escape.
Still worth having as the earliest on screen appearance of Batman and Robin.
Print is good, cover design has great art.

Frank Patterson Collection (World of Music / God Bless America - An Irish Salute)

Average customer rating:

Lovely tribute to a lovely man

Frank Patterson Collection (World of Music / God Bless America - An Irish Salute)
Starring: Frank Patterson
Manufacturer: Winstar
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000069509
Release Date: 2002-08-20

Amazon.com

Famed Irish tenor Frank Patterson, who died in June 2000, is remembered in World of Music, which features concert performances as well as brief interview segments with friends and family members. His widow, Eily O'Grady Patterson, provides personal anecdotes, as does Patterson's son Eanan, who is also seen accompanying his father on violin. In concert, Patterson sings with orchestral accompaniment as well as with an Irish folk group, the Cassidy Brothers. He showcases his classical training by singing a Bach cantata, and his popular appeal is demonstrated with Irish songs such as "Farewell My Derry Love" and even the American country standard "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." Patterson himself recalls performing in John Huston's final film, The Dead, explaining the significance of "The Lass of Aughrim" in the story by James Joyce before he performs the song. This is a fitting tribute to "Ireland's Golden Tenor," who carried on the tradition of the great John McCormack and reached a worldwide audience.

God Bless America: An Irish Salute was conceived to give a sampling of Irish music to an American audience. Videotaped before an adoring audience in New Jersey in September 1999, Patterson sings such standards as "The Rose of Tralee," "Mother Machree," "Danny Boy," and a medley that includes "Galway Bay" and "The Town I Loved So Well." Also participating is a harp orchestra (led by Eily O'Grady Patterson), son Eanan playing violin, a bagpipe and drum band, and what's billed as "hundreds of Irish-American dancers." Indeed, the stage and even the aisles of the theater become so packed with children step dancing in colorful costumes that it makes Riverdance look like a neighborhood ceilidh. Though the theme of the concert is overwhelmingly Irish, Patterson also dons a cape to perform "The Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera, and he pays homage to his adopted home with "God Bless America" and a flag-waving finale performance of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews:

Lovely tribute to a lovely man.......2002-09-15

We loved this DVD. We have seen God Bless America on video, but it is far better on DVD, it is worth watching just for the dancers.It has some added surprises ,extra to whats on the video.The picture quality is so much better on DVD, and it is special for being one of Frank's last concerts.
World of music is excellent too, it has songs we have never heard before, and we liked the memories of his family and friends.It is a nice celebration of his life and his music,it makes you smile, and makes you cry sometimes.
The DVD is very good value,it is a fitting tribute to a great man, how lucky we are that he recorded all this lovely music.

Broadway Theatre Archive Tennessee Williams Collection (Eccentricities of a Nightingale/Ten Blocks on the Camino Real/Dragon Country) - Amazon.com Exclusive

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Tennessee Williams TV Productions
Two great & one so-so Tennessee Williams play

Broadway Theatre Archive Tennessee Williams Collection (Eccentricities of a Nightingale/Ten Blocks on the Camino Real/Dragon Country) - Amazon.com Exclusive
Starring: Blythe Danner , Frank Langella , Tim O'Connor , Louise Latham , and Neva Patterson
Director: Glenn Jordan , and Jack Landau
Manufacturer: Kultur
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

ASIN: B00007C668
Release Date: 2002-11-12

Description

Eccentricities of a Nightingale
Tony Award-winning actress, Blythe Danner, portrays the sensitive spinster Alma Winemiller in Tennessee Williams' 1948 drama. Frustrated with longing for the socially prominent young doctor next door, the eccentric, highly emotional minister's daughter decides to settle for one night with him in a rented hotel room. The Washington Post wrote: "Blythe Danner's Alma is as much of a television event as Katharine Hepburn's Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. Frank Langella is such a warm, dreamy-eyed Dr. Buchanan that the role is reimbursed for the loss of its cynical edge with a smooth romanticism that complements Danner's determined honesty splendidly." "How many different emotions do you expect in two hours?" --The New York Daily News. With Tim O'Connor, Louise Latham, and Neva Patterson.

Ten Blocks on the Camino Real
Martin Sheen stars as the eternal American G.I. Kilroy, a poetic soul condemned to spiritual death, in Tennessee Williams's allegorical one-act play. In a dreamlike fictitious Latin American country, a worn-out Casanova, a Camille living on memories, a Byron pitiful in his disillusioned pride, and others less famous live out a hopeless existence. Into this world comes Kilroy, an ex-boxer and perpetual fall guy, who asks so little and always gets short-changed, but never gives up hope. He is finally conned, or almost, into despairing subjection like the rest. "An allegory about people removed from time and geography..." --The New York Times. With Lotte Lenya, Tom Aldredge, Michael Baseleon, and Albert Dekker.

Dragon Country
This production pairs together two Tennessee Williams plays, written twenty years apart, each examining the theme of isolation with searing clarity. The joint presentation features the world premiere of "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow," starring two-time Oscar nominee Kim Stanley (The Right Stuff) and William Redfield (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), and a much earlier work, "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen," starring Lois Smith (Five Easy Pieces)and Alan Mixon. Together, the dramas delve into "A land of endured but unendurable pain," said Williams, "where each one is so absorbed, deafened, blinded by his own journey across it, he sees, he looks for, no one else crawling across it with him."

Customer Reviews:

Tennessee Williams TV Productions.......2006-02-24

This was an Amazon.com special deal, with three television productions of Tennessee Williams's plays: "Ten Blocks on the Camino Real" (a very early PBS production, in black-and-white, from the mid-1960s); "Dragon Country" (two one-acts, done on PBS in 1970); "The Eccentricities of a Nightingale" (a "Great Performances" production from 1976). Quite frankly, the technical aspects of the DVDs are only fair, they have not been "boosted" and show the broadcast standards of television in other periods (1960s-1970s); nevertheless, these are exceptional productions, with superb acting, and the great writing of one of America's premiere playwrights. A young Martin Sheen is an amazingly callow and touching Kilroy in "Camino Real", confronted with an array of characters including Lotte Lenya, Carrie Nye, Hurd Hatfield, Albert Dekker, Janet Margolin... one of Williams's most imaginative plays, and it gets a classic treatment. "Dragon Country" has Lois Smith, Alan Mixon, the legendary Kim Stanley and William Redfield giving touching performances in two short plays about people trying to connect but lost in their own dreamworlds (almost archetypal performances from Smith and Stanley). The finest production is the last: "Eccentricities of a Nightingale" is Williams's reworking of his "Summer and Smoke", and it features Blythe Danner and Frank Langella at their very best. In Danner's case, it is a bold performance, because she is not afraid of the character's silliness, the off-putting affectations, and she makes you see the wrenching sadness and loneliness under the nervous gestures. This was definitely a bargain, and i can hardly wait for the upcoming boxset of Tennessee Williams films (including "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Sweet Bird of Youth", "Baby Doll" and "Night of the Iguana") which will be released by Warner Home Video.

Two great & one so-so Tennessee Williams play.......2003-01-12

If you're a fan of Tennessee Williams this triptych is a great bargain. The strongest of the three is "Eccentricities of a Nightingale" (a reworking of "Summer and Smoke" and one which Williams preferred to his earlier effort). Danner and Langella are brilliant. The sexual frankness these two characters exhibit may seem implausible for their social setting and the era being depicted, but somehow it works. It's as if Williams is presenting us with a hypothetical: "What if people could be honest with one another about their sexual desires and what if they were willing to engage one another in fulfilling these desires without burdening each other with unrealistic expectations?" Watching Danner's Alma is like seeing what might have become of Blanche DuBois if she had not lost her connection to reality and if Stanley had loved her and not just used her. "Dragon Country" is two short plays about conflicted couples. The DVD is worth the purchase price just for Kim Stanley's subtle performance in part 2, "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow." It's easy to see why she was such a major stage actor; it's a pity she didn't make more films. The only disappointment in this set was "Ten Blocks on the Camino Real," which feels like an amateurish high school production. The story is told on a mythic level which makes it difficult to take any of the characters seriously--in trying to present them archetypes Williams has created wooden stereotypes. This one will probably be of interest only to the person intent upon seeing everything Williams wrote. Even so, the cost of the set is less than buynig any two of the DVDs separately.

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