SCRIPT: Batman: The Movie

[bat-rss]

For reasons that will be clear when you listen to our next TO THE BATPOLES episode this Thursday, the episode after it will be a discussion of the script to the '66 Batman movie! Paul and I are planning to record it on the morning of Oct 20 U.S. time, so you've got a week to look it over and give us your comments!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdn4azzp5adaf ... d.pdf?dl=0

[Jim Akin]

I know I read this and commented before. Among other things, it's how I learned about Schweppe's Cmdr. Whitehead, and that Schmidlapp was meant to spoof him. Many interesting tweaks between what was on the "final" pages and what ended up on screen.

My favorite discovery was that the line "Some days, you can't get rid of a bomb" wasn't in the script, at least not as dialog: Semple's stage directions include the statement "Some days, it's darn hard to get rid of a bomb," but he wrote the bomb-disposal bit as a wordless sequence. The spoken line. which I'd say might be the most recognized Batman '66 line anywhere, must have been added during production.

[PNGUINN]

***ADMIN EDIT: Constructive criticism is one thing, but delivery and intention is everything.
For those who may be newer or simply not familiar with our rules, be sure to read them here. Especially #2.
app.php/rules BB. ***

[Jimmy L. 66]

Thank you for sharing the script. I am looking forward your usual jocular analysis no matter how long the journey.

My favorite discovery was that the line "Some days, you can't get rid of a bomb" wasn't in the script, at least not as dialog: Semple's stage directions include the statement "Some days, it's darn hard to get rid of a bomb," but he wrote the bomb-disposal bit as a wordless sequence. The spoken line. which I'd say might be the most recognized Batman '66 line anywhere, must have been added during production.

That was my favorite takeaway as well

[chrisbcritter]

I'd like to think Adam saw the bomb line and suggested it be used onscreen! Way too good to leave in the stage directions.

[High C]

Thanks as always, sirs. These scripts are fun to see, a slice of history.

It's unfortunate that earlier drafts are not available from Laramie. It's my understanding, based on correspondence between Semple and the powers that be, that he originally had written the 'guinea pigs' as miniaturized men before switching to colored powder. I wonder if this was for budgetary reasons (Dough-zier) or because Fox was to be debuting Fantastic Voyage around the same time, and miniaturization was a major--and serious--plot point in that drama.

I know Semple and Dozier got along, but he almost seems to be trolling that January memo. Kitka is described as a 'sexy-looking Russian dame' in the stage directions when we first meet her in Gordon's office. The women in the dockside bar are 'sleazy but sexy dames.' Surprisingly, the stage directions refer to a 'SEXY GIRL SINGER' in the restaurant when Bruce takes Kitka to dinner. How come Julie Gregg wasn't a dame?

It amazes me how tied they were to the Schlepp's instead of Schweppes gag. Did Stanley Ralph Ross hop a flight to Spain and tamper with Semple's typewriter? I also know from the correspondence that Schweppes' attorneys, in no uncertain terms, put the kibosh on any parody, so in came Commodore Schmidlapp (a character name used in another Fox movie that year).

I mentioned the guinea pigs before. I notice that wasn't what they were called in the script. It still sounds like the worst part-time gig ever.

I noticed in the dialogue, Penguin originally said, 'Catwoman, fetch a dustpan,' after they were dehydrated, and Catwoman answers 'Right' and
then 'Catwoman scuttles to comply' per the stage directions. I'm glad that was smoothed out on screen to make it seem as if she volunteered, rather than being ordered to do criminal housework as the lone female villain.

I also noticed when the Bat-copter was about to crash, Batman originally was steering it into a 'foam rubber delivery truck.' I suspect that was either too costly or Martinson decided it was impossible to film, hence the switch to foam rubber convention. Good choice.

As for the script as a whole, it simply feels jokier and more absurd than a typical Semple season 1 script. I don't know if he felt he had to do that because it was a bigger sandbox, or because this would be the first exposure to the show for some of the overseas crowd, but it feels like a foreboding harbinger of season 2 and Ross' Borscht Belt, love darts, time machines and giant clams.

[dell]

... I noticed in the dialogue, Penguin originally said, 'Catwoman, fetch a dustpan,' after they were dehydrated, and Catwoman answers 'Right' and
then 'Catwoman scuttles to comply' per the stage directions. I'm glad that was smoothed out on screen to make it seem as if she volunteered, rather than being ordered to do criminal housework as the lone female villain....

They had Julie sew the Batman costume in Catwoman Goes to College. Even as a kid that seemed silly that she would sew while wearing her gloves with claws and she had three henchmen who should have done it for her.

[High C]

... I noticed in the dialogue, Penguin originally said, 'Catwoman, fetch a dustpan,' after they were dehydrated, and Catwoman answers 'Right' and
then 'Catwoman scuttles to comply' per the stage directions. I'm glad that was smoothed out on screen to make it seem as if she volunteered, rather than being ordered to do criminal housework as the lone female villain....

They had Julie sew the Batman costume in Catwoman Goes to College. Even as a kid that seemed silly that she would sew while wearing her gloves with claws and she had three henchmen who should have done it for her.

Exactly. Just another example in season 2 of how they got away from the season 1 aura of the character and turned her more into a hammy sitcom-type villainess. As I've written so many times people likely have grown tired of it, in season 1 she would threaten her henchmen with a whip if they screwed up. In season 2, she would do a Dick York-style slow burn and say, 'Why can't I get good help?' It was nice to show off Julie's range, but terrible for the character.

[Therin of Andor]

For reasons that will be clear when you listen to our next TO THE BATPOLES episode this Thursday, the episode after it will be a discussion of the script to the '66 Batman movie! Paul and I are planning to record it on the morning of Oct 20 U.S. time, so you've got a week to look it over and give us your comments!

Don't forget the cut scene with Sterling Holloway, original voice of Winnie The Pooh in Disney's cartoons.

viewtopic.php?p=13745#p13745

[High C]

Don't forget the cut scene with Sterling Holloway, original voice of Winnie The Pooh in Disney's cartoons.

viewtopic.php?p=13745#p13745

I mentioned it in the thread about their podcast which reviewed the script.

[bat-rss]

We mentioned the cut scene in our podcast, but we'd forgotten about the evidence that it WAS actually filmed.