Batman: The Movie was released in 1966, shortly after the first season of the Adam West-starring TV series made a resounding splash in American pop culture. The ensuing "Bat-mania" was reflected in magazines, toys, lunch boxes, and -- perhaps most importantly -- increased comic book sales. A bona fide success for producer William Dozier (who also narrated each episode), the film took the show's mega success and amplified it, effectively translating it into cinema.
Retaining all of its colorful antics and ridiculous camp, Batman: The Movie reunited series regulars Adam West (as Batman) and Burt Ward (as Robin) with fan-favorite villains Joker, The Penguin, and The Riddler -- played by Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, and Frank Gorshin, respectively. Joining the cast as that era's second of three Catwomen, Lee Meriwether rounded out the story's villainous crew for the first theatrical Batman experience since the 1949 15-part serial. Each performer brought their A-game, passionately bringing their characters to life for what would be the only Batman movie up until, of course, Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. Equally zany and energetic as the series, the movie helped bring Batman even further out into the public consciousness and influenced cinematic depictions of its characters for years to come.
Batmobiles, Batcopters, and Batcycles - Oh My!
Besides its over-saturated pop art sensibility and pervasive humor -- delivered with deadpan earnestness by West's Batman and Ward's Robin -- Batman: The Movie successfully dove headfirst into the hero's resplendent iconography. Lorenzo Semple, Jr.'s script doubled down -- or even tripled down -- on all the Bat-gadgets, vehicles, and accessories that could fit into 104 minutes of running time. From the Batcopter (prevalently featured throughout the movie) to the eternal cool of the black and red Batmobile, the film managed to also include the Batboat and Batcycle, ensuring that the heroes were never without suitable transportation.
From a cynical viewpoint, this could be seen as cheap marketing, pure and simple. But to those who kept up with the comics -- and it was a given that many of the younger viewers did -- the film reflected the impressive array of tools and vehicles Batman employed every month on the printed page. And it goes without saying that the Batcave was just as technologically-advanced and effective as all his other crime-fighting tools, chock-full of high-tech computers and machines that -- although hilariously exaggerated and at times coincidental -- helped further establish Batman's very specific, ultra expressive, Bat-themed world.
The 1960s' Batman Was a Responsible Public Servant
Conceived as a dark, vengeful, brooding crime fighter, the Caped Crusader would go through numerous tonal changes throughout his long history (changes that continue to this day). Batman: The Movie represents the peak of a much simpler, straight-laced, law-abiding Dark Knight. Working hard to be a strong role model for his young ward, both as Bruce Wayne and his masked alter ego, the '60s film is a very different Batman story. (In fact, more than half of the movie takes place during daylight hours.) But as weird as it may seem to some modern audiences, it's nonetheless 100 percent Batman. The hero's instantly-recognizable emblem is plastered in about a million places, never letting viewers forget whose world they've entered.
Villains Galore…and Villains United!
In addition to Batman and Robin, each of the four villains is a veritable comic panel, alive and in 3D. Meredith's Penguin is short, round, and never without his ostentatious cigarette holder. Meriwether's Catwoman is slender and graceful. Romero's Joker is a green-haired, white-faced, giggling ghoul. And Gorshin's Riddler is green, mean, and loving it.
Each actor exudes a childlike glee at all the ruckus they intend to cause and are so devoted to their respective bits that their secret villain headquarters contain paraphernalia and baubles wholly indicative of each master criminal -- the Penguin's bookshelf has, among other things, a small fish tank marked "Penguin Food" in big block letters. And, in a stupendous show of hyperbole, the feathery fiend equips himself and his no-good cohorts with personal flying umbrellas -- which essentially serve as airborne crotch rockets. An over-the-top yet dedicated live-action adaption, Batman: The Movie established a visual language that persists to this day.
The aristocratic cigarette and accompanying "squawks" that have been recurringly associated with the Penguin are Meredith’s doing, and while modern takes on the Joker have often illustrated him as a violent psychopath, it's impossible to ignore Romero's influence on Jack Nicholson's seminal performance in the '89 Batman. Batman: The Movie and the series that gave birth to it have been etched into pop culture history as the campy, kid-friendly versions of the character and his world, especially in the post-Christopher Nolan cinematic landscape. But this cannot take away from how visually intricate, joyfully exaggerated, and inherently influential the '60s Batman movie turned out to be.