Commodore Schmidlapp

[Mwalls]

In watching the Batman movie again, I am wondering about the reason for the Commodore Schmidlapp character. I know he knocks over the vials at the end and scatters the powder, and the Penguin uses him as a disguise, but it seems as though the movie works very hard to keep his character in the movie (tea, whistle blowing, etc.), for what they got out of him. Those things could have easily been handled without his character. Does anyone else notice this? It just seems as though he is more of a distraction than he adds to the film.

[dell]

Mwalls, I think you are being a bit hard on the old commodore. I agree that some of the scenes he is are a bit forced, but how would you progress the story without him? Looking for his missing yacht is the reason Batman and Robin fly out to sea in the first place. This leads to all sorts of incidents later on in the movie; the press conference in the Commissioner's office, the Batboat trip out to the buoy, the Penguin's trip to the Batcave, etc. As you said, they could have worked around him, but then the writers would have had to develop a character or other plot devices to create the situations. Keep in mind that the movie and the series were intentionally campy; this was escapism entertainment, not high drama.

[Mwalls]

Dell,

Yes, I might be being a little tough on the old Commodore. I know it is campy, and that is all part of the charm. And while I realize that the writing is not meant to be airtight, something about the Commodore's role just stuck out at me as never quite fitting. But, it is a fun movie and I don't want to read to hard into it.

On the subject of campiness, I have introduced my son to Batman 66. There was a comic book festival in a nearby city, and as part of this festival the downtown theater was showing comic book films. One of those films was the Batman 66 movie. My son is 8, and instead of waiting for the theater date, he watched it first on Netflix. Loved it. To him it was a really cool movie. Then, we went to the theater to see it. The theater was packed. Most of the ages ranged from 20's to 50's. There was a fair amount of laughter during the movie. On the ride home, my son wanted to know why people were laughing. When he first watched the movie on Netflix, to him it was just a cool movie and at 8 he did not get the campy nature. He has seen all of the new Batman's, so I explained to him that the Batman 66 is a different kind of Batman. It was intended to be fun, and it was intended for kids. The theater experience did nothing to curb his enthusiasm. He is watching the old TV shows with me and we have gotten into the Batman 66 comic books.

[Grayvette03]

That's really great that the two of you can share the Batman experience together.
Jim

[eewdoc]

Also the powder that he knocked over was the result of his invention, Which is why he was kidnapped in the first place.

[Yellow Oval]

When we were younger my brother and I had a hoot spontaneously reenacting that scene where the Joker delivers the tea and coverses with the Commodore. We'd do the peculiar voices and all. Our friends would be looking at us like "Whaa...?" Too much fun!

[High C]

I have to agree with the OP. I found the Commodore character more annoying than funny and from Dozier's correspondence at that time, it seems the biggest reason the character was used in the first place was that it was supposed to be a takeoff on the president of Schweppes soda.

[Yellow Oval]

Thanks High C.

I tracked him down. He was Commodore Whitehead, a real retired British naval officer. You can read about him and see some old Schweppes ads here. Funny I don`t remember these from back then. In any event, I sort of now have a whole new humorous take on Commodore Schmidlapp. They do look similar.
http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_comman ... tehead.htm

[clavierankh]

He was oriinally oing to be called Commodore Redhead but I think there was a problem with Schwepps

[Mwalls]

Now it all makes sense. His part is not entirely woven into the story because it was not intended to be as such. Thanks everyone!