BATMAN: “THE PURR-FECT CRIME’ (1966)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*

For whatever reason, Stanley Ralph Ross has a credit on all of the series’ Catwoman episodes, though for “Purr-Fect Crime” he shares credit with one Lee Orgel.

Not only does “Crime” owe nothing to any comics-story, the series’ initial characterization of Catwoman departs from the comics’ dominant characterization. From the first story in which the feline felon appeared, she and Batman clearly share a romantic attraction. But though the heroes of BATMAN ’66 have encountered Catwoman before, there’s no sense that the Caped Crusader and the Princess of Plunder see one another as anything but opponents. And while the comics-character is generally too tender-hearted to kill anyone, Julie Newmar’s Catwoman is more than willing to annihilate her foes, albeit after toying with them first.

The first segment is the only one in which the TV Catwoman uses her whip as a weapon, disarming a museum-guard before he’s knocked out by her pet cat, whose claws are dosed with knockout-serum. Her theft from the museum frames the mystery of her next big score, and the specific object stolen—a cat-statuette—gives the Duo the means to track her to her lair. But Catwoman apparently anticipates them, luring them into a series of traps. Catwoman shows herself to be not only smart, but super-literary. When she isolates Robin from his mentor, she calls it “separating Damion from Pythias”—though perhaps this is just a precursor to a more telling reference, for she puts Batman in the position of the character of “Lady and the Tiger.”

Batman escapes the hungry tiger by supposedly splitting the beast’s skull with sonic waves, though the animal looks pretty alive by the time the hero takes his leave. Batman saves Robin from a separate deathtrap, which, for one of a very few times, has a couple of thugs watching it so as to be sure Robin doesn’t escape. Then they find a way to track Catwoman to the sight of her score: an ancient pirate treasure. Catwoman tries to escape with her loot and apparently meets her demise, though Batman alludes to the folklore of cats having nine lives as a signal to the audience that she’s not gone for good.

Despite the debut of Julie Newmar in the role and a preponderance of cat-puns—the best being the line “you can brush my pussy willows before you leave”—“Purr-Fect Crime” is rather thinly written. The campy asides are few and far between, but later Catwoman episodes would more than make up for the lack.