The Complete 1940s Movie Serial Collection
Starring: Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, J. Carol Naish, Robert Lowery, John Duncan, Lyle Talbot, Jane Adams
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Retail: $9.98
ASIN: B00HFWETQW
Running Time: 8 hours 44 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Review:
DC Comics fans are patiently awaiting for the yet untitled Man of Steel 2 or otherwise known as Batman VS. Superman to be released in 2015 or 2016. Until then, they can sink their teeth in Mill Creek Entertainments recently released 2-disc set, Gotham City Serials: The Complete 1940s Movie Serial Collection.
Most people think Adam West was the first actor to wear the cape crusader outfit, but it was actually Lewis Wilson who first appeared as Batman on screen along with Douglas Croft as Robin in fifteen-part serial Batman in 1943, later retitled An Evening With Batman and Robin. In this tale set during WWII, it contained anti-German and anti-Japanese slurs, which would be called politically incorrect today. The plot involves a Japanese scientist, Dr. Daka, who has created a device that will turn people into pseudo-zombies, and, of course, it is up to Batman and Robin to stop him.
The fifteen-chapter serial (250 minutes total) are:
- The Electrical Brain
- The Bat's Cave
- The Mark of the Zombies
- Slaves of the Rising Sun
- The Living Corpse
- Poison Peril
- The Phoney Doctor
- Lured by Radium
- The Sign of the Sphinx
- Flying Spies
- A Nipponese Trap
- Embers of Evil
- Eight Steps Down
- The Executioner Strikes
- The Doom of the Rising Sun
