PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*
The double-entendre implicit in this
episode’s primary title is almost the only thing that distinguishes
the debut of one-shot villain Ma Parker. As with the Archer, one
can’t help but suspect that the Parker character was designed with
the flamboyant talents of Shelley Winters in mind—though Winters
certainly comes off better playing this role than Art Carney did with
his faux Robin Hood.
About six years later, Winters would
play a fictionalized version of alleged crime-boss Ma Barker in the
1972 BLOODY MAMA. Many ciime-buffs tend to doubt the FBI’s claim
that the old woman was any sort of criminal genius. But the legend
had long outlived the reality, and so Henry Slesar concocted “Ma
Parker,” whose family consists of three sons and a daughter whom
she trains in theft—though, in a weird moment of gender blindness,
Parker complains that her daughter is a lousy criminal due to her
being just a girl. All of the guys are named after famous
criminals—Mad Dog, Pretty Boy, and Machine Gun-- and even the
daughter, whose nickname “Legs” would seem to denote her comely
limbs, may have been named after male gangster “Legs” Diamond.
Parker is distinctly low-tech in her
approach to crime; her biggest gimmick is a smoke-bomb in her
motherly bun, and her weapon of choice is an old-fashioned chatter
gun. Clearly Slesar was attempting to send up old gangster-flicks in
roughly the same way that “Death in Silent Motion” sends up
silent movies, but the gangster-motifs in Slesar’s script never add
up to anything more than “trope-quotes.” Parker’s big plot
involves having the heroes send her and all of her gang to prison,
because through some legerdemain, she’s managed to fill the prison
with crooks obedient to her will. The idea of using a prison as a
base of criminal operations sounds good the first time, but since the
scheme unravels pretty quickly after the attempt to off Batman and
Robin, it doesn’t seem all that well-thought-out. In a scene where
Ma Parker addresses the prison-inmates and lays out her plans, Julie
Newmar appears as Catwoman, clad in costume rather than in
prison-gear. Since Catwoman has no effect on the story, I imagine
that the actress simply had a little extra time to do a quick
guest-bit—and so she did.
Twice in the episode, one character or
another makes the statement that Ma Parker’s daughter is more
dangerous than her brothers. The script never gives evidence of this,
since Legs can’t fight, shoot, or even figure things out when the
crimefighters play her for a pigeon. Maybe Slesar was thinking of
Legs having the power of sex appeal, since in one telling moment,
Robin confesses to Batman that he’s found himself ogling the
henchgirl’s comely limbs. Indeed, the Boy Wonder even compares
Legs’ legs to those of Catwoman. Batman’s response, while
cryptic, suggests a touch of resentment that his junior partner would
be growing up so fast as to notice the appeal of female
villains—particularly one that the Cowled Crusader may now have his
sights on.
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