Forgotten Films: The Wild World of Batwoman (1966)
This is the 86th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films
I was at a collectible show the other day when I saw this title. The Wild World of Batwoman as interpreted through those wacky folks at Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1993. I had heard of the film but had missed the showing when it appeared.
So I parted with a few bucks and sat down to watch it last night. My wife was along and she has little tolerance for most of the films I discuss here. But she managed to stay with me through the whole film. She kept saying she was going to leave bus she did not.
The plot of the film is confusing. There are these go-go dancers who are acolytes of Batwoman. They have wrist radios and a funky pledge they have to recite. Batwoman (Katherine Victor, who we last saw in Teenage Zombies) is a little chunky super heroine, with a weird mask, weirder hair, and a costume that seems ill fitting and indescribable. She wears the mask but people seem to know where she lives. Anyway, there is a company that has produced an atomic powered hearing aid, which might be a little deadly, radiation wise. The owners think someone wants to steal it so they hire Batwoman and her dancing minions.
The villainous Rat Fink (who resembles the Shadow or Zorro or something like that) has his minions try to steal the hearing aid. Professor Neon (George Mitchell) has developed a happy pill that makes everyone want to dance. He has tried it out on Heathcliffe (Lloyd Nelson) who is a drooling idiot that the Professor tries out all his experiments on.
There is something involving other experiments, more dancing, a beach party (but no Buster Keaton), and the Feds. None of these things make any sense and the film is a big confused mess. But, the MST3K crew does have some great fun with it and the wife and I laughed our way through it all. According to IMDB, the girls were all recruited by the producer when the strip club they worked in got raided and closed down. Hips and other body parts do shake with some regularity and some dismay.
There was also an educational short on “Cheating” that preceded the film. Unfortunately it dealt with school cheating and was designed to make students think and draw their own conclusions. It was better than the film.
The experience reminded me of why I used to love the MST3K folks and how I have missed their little bits of lunacy since they went away.
If you have a chance to see The Wild World of Batwoman or have an enema, opt for the enema. You will enjoy it more.
Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.
Given Victor’s utter amateur status–or so I thought; didn’t realize she’d appeared in TEENAGED ZOMBIES or anything else!–(and the amateurishness all around her) I thought she acquitted herself rather well, and with some grace.
You are aware, Scott, that Most of the MST3K folks do live presentations in a similar vein these days as CINEMATIC TITANIC? And the others, such as Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy, have done there own similar things as THE FILM CREW and, with others, as RIFFTRAX?
Who’s distracted? Their own thing, one might suspect…
I loved this movie. IT was so goofy and silly I adored it.
And I think Batwoman was “Full figured” not chunky as the standards of beauty were a little different back then.
This film is a must have.