MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*
The script for Cesar Romero’s debut
as the Crown Prince of Crime comes from the penn of Robert (son of producer William) Dozier. Robert Dozier apparently liked the
“universal language” bromide that Semple had Bruce Wayne toss at
Dick Grayson at the beginning of “Fine Feathered Finks,” since
Dozier more or less re-uses the same schtick.
Most of “Wild” follows the pattern
of a 1952 Bat-tale by David Reed, “The Joker’s Utility Belt,”
though the episode’s opening is all-original. The Joker receives
permissive treatment by Warden Crichton (who debuted in the previous
episode), and the “Chaplain of Chicanery” (as the script calls
him) breaks out of stir with the help of a giant jack-in-the-box
spring.
After the Duo confer with the
always-harried Commissioner Gordon, the heroes figure out that the
Joker’s next target is a museum whose display on great comedians
failed to acknowledge the Joker’s contributions to comedy. In the
comics-story, the Joker and his thugs simply invade the museum
after-hours, but Dozier plays up the situation, as the heroes deduce
that the Murderous Mountebank doesn’t plan to break in, since he
and his thugs have always smuggled themselves in, so that they can
“break out” at their leisure. In the fight between heroes and
villains, the Joker temporarily prevails, but Batman wins freedom for
himself and Robin by hurling a gas-weapon from his utility belt.
Joker escapes, but swears to outdo his enemy. Later, he comes up with
his own utility belt, which contains assorted joke-related weapons,
which he shows off to his moll Queenie (definitely not in the
comic-book tale). The Hateful Harlequin’s dialogue with his moll
leads him to conceive of his next grand scheme—which,
unfortunately, is probably the weakest aspect of Dozier’s script,
and one not present in the Reed original.
In “Utility Belt” Joker attempts to
rob an opera performing “Pagliacci,” but the setting is
incidental, since the only purpose of the scene is to show the
villain thwarting the cops with his new arsenal of weapons. Dozier
builds up the opera-scene by having Batman and Robin storm the scene,
only to be captured by Joker’s thugs. The cliffhanger consists of
the villain threatening to unmask the heroes on national television,
and in retrospect this threat of exposure proves more resonant than
many of the death-traps. The heroes break free but Joker escapes
again. In the comics-tale the villain’s next plot is to rob wealthy
art-collector Laughwell, and Dozier expands this germ to include a
humorous grammar-lesson from butler Alfred—the first of many
moments of dry wit from the excellent Alan Napier. The Laughwell
robbery duplicates a scene in the comic, in which Joker manages to
slip a copy of his own nefarious belt onto Batman’s body, so as to
further confound the heroes’ attempt to stop the thieves.
Naturally, the comic-book story does not make any witty references to
“hitting below the belt.”
The final act involves Joker capturing
Batman and Robin at a ship-christening, which action follows that
of the comics-tale. However, Dozier introduces the idea that the
villain tries to blackmail the authorities with the Duo’s lives,
and the ransom Joker wants is—the ownership of an ocean-liner?
True, not all of Joker’s thefts have to make sense, and Romero
certainly sells the idea of the fiend as being above “mere petty
pilfering.” But one can’t help but wonder what use a fugitive
criminal would have for an ocean-liner, and I suspect Dozier just
threw in this waggish motive as a lark. The episode does conclude
with one of the show’s best fight-scenes, though, and with a
comical scene in which Queenie tries to seduce straight-arrow Batman,
who calls her a “poor, deluded creature.”
Dozier also puts across one of the
better camp-touches of the first season. At a point when the Dynamic
Duo seem helpless to prevent Joker’s crime-wave, a TV newsman
relates a sentimental tale of his eight-year-old son praying for
Batman and Robin. Later, after the heroes’ triumph, the same
newsman references the famous “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa
Claus” essay by claiming that he told his son, “There is a
Batman.” This represents one of the best-realized examples of the
show’s camp aesthetic, playing most of the story straight but
throwing in little undertones of mockery.
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