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Score: 9.4 Superb 34 votes

Death in Slow Motion

Episode Number: 31    Season Num: 1    First Aired: April 27, 1966    Prod Code: n/a
The Riddler and his felonious fimmaking cronies (Pauline, C.B., Von Bloheim and Wolf) interrupt a silent film festival of a famous silent film collector Mr. Van Jones dressed as Charlie Chaplin and The Keystone Cops (much to the disgust of Van Jones, who believes the act takes all the attention from the movies!), and steal the box-office receipts! Batman and Robin trace Riddler via one of his Riddles to Mother Gotham's Bakery, where he not only plans to pilfer its payroll, but film the whole robbery in the style of an old film comedy. The Caped Crusader and The Boy Wonder rush to the bakery, only to be greeted by its unconscious bookeepers (put to sleep by Riddler's pies topped with sleeping cream!) and another Riddle left by the already departed King Of Conundrums. This new Riddle leads them to The Baker Street Branch of The Gotham Library (closed on Wednesdays due to lack of funds!), where they are hit over the head by a huge tome--which is also captured in its entirety on camera by The Riddler!
As Riddler and his celluloid comical cohorts view and enjoy the day's rushes involving their adversaries in an abandoned cutting room of a bankrupt movie studio, The Dynamic Duo speed back to The Batcave to analyze the tome; it contains yet 2 more Riddles which lead our Duo to a Temperance Party (where the only refreshment served is lemonade) being given by Mr. Van Jones. As The Boy Wonder waits outside, The Caped Crusader enters to find that The Riddler has spiked the lemonade with Temper Tonic, causing the goodnatured party to turn into a hot-tempered free-for-all! Once again The Riddler's ever-present camera crew catches the action. Meanwhile, back at The Batmobile, Pauline, The Riddler's moll, disguises herself as Little Bo Peep and gasses The Boy Wonder to sleep, kidnapping him and taking him to the abandoned Gotham Lumberyard, where in a matter of minutes a giant buzzsaw threatens to slice him in two!

Cast and Crew

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Writer: Dick Carr
Director: Charles R. Rondeau
Star: Madge Blake (Aunt Harriet Cooper [Seasons 1-2]),  William Dozier (Narrator),  Adam West (Bruce N. Wayne/Batman),  Burt Ward (Richard "Dick" Grayson/Robin: The Boy Wonder),  Alan Napier (Alfred Pennyworth),  Stafford Repp (Chief O'Hara),  Neil Hamilton (I) (Commissioner James W. Gordon)
Recurring Role: Richard Bakalyan (C.B.),  Frank Gorshin (The Riddler),  David Lewis (Warden Crichton),  Byron Keith (Mayor Lindseed)
Guest Star: Virginia Wood (Sylvia),  Judy Pace (Cashier),  Walter Woolf King (Theater Manager),  Francis X. Bushman (Van Jones),  Sherry Jackson (Pauline),  Burt Brandon (Wolf),  Alex Bookston (Guard),  Theodore Marcuse (Von Bloheim)

Notes

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At the end of this story, only Robin has a cliffhanger, while Batman is somewhere else. (edit)
Francis Xavier Bushman was a silent film star who was voted most popular leading man in American films from 1914-1917. On August 23, 1966, just a couple of months after his appearance in this episode of Batman, he passed away of a heart attack resulting from a fall. He was 83. (edit)
Based on "The Joker's Comedy Capers!" from Detective Comics #341 (July 1965) by John Broome. (edit)

Quotes

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(The Riddler has strapped Robin to a conveyor belt leading to a buzz saw)
Riddler: Riddle me this, my criminal crew! When does the Boy Wonder rhyme with "bubble"?
Molly: When he's in trouble?
Ridder: Wrong! When he's double! (laughing fiendishly) Split in two halves, right down the middle! (edit)

Trivia

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Allusions

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Riddler's henchmen have names that refer to silent film characters or people of that era. Van Bloheim is a take-off on director-actor Erich Von Stroheim, CB refers to Cecil B. De Mille and Pauline from the 1914 movie The Perils of Pauline.
(edit)
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Episode: Death in Slow Motion
Season Number: 1
Episode Reviews: 0
Episode
Score:
9.4 Superb 34 votes
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