I finished the 1943 Batman serial and I must admit that I kind of lost interest in the story. Sure, it had death-rays, zombies, a crocodile pit, racist stereotypes and one of those rooms with spiked walls that slowly close in on you but, quite frankly, it got a little boring. I suppose I would have enjoyed it more in seventeen-minute increments once a week as it was originally intended to be seen.
I do think that Lewis Wilson turned in a great performance as Bruce Wayne. He's got the look of a matinee idol and he really plays up the whole playboy aspect. Wilson plays Bruce like one of those people who's so rich that they just don't know what to do with themselves other than lounge around. He wouldn't seem out of place in La Dolce vita. When Bruce's love interest/Damsel in distress calls him up to tell him about how her boss has been kidnapped and how she wants him to go with her down to the docks or to some abandoned warehouse he always feigns interest and then finds a way to weasel his way out of going with her. Wilson genuinely seems like a man with so much ennui that he's just not interest in joining in on his girlfriend's little adventures. You get the impression that he'd like to bang her but if that requires him to drive across town he'd rather just stay at home and call up one of his other lady-friends who would be willing to come to him. Of course, it's all an act and Batman has succeeded in finding out all the information he needs and kept alter-ego away from the scene of the crime so that he can appear in costume ready to kick ass. Pretty brilliant.
This Batman also has an interesting take on Alfred. He's more comic relief as a jittery accomplish who gets dragged into crime fighting compared to the standard Alfred who's much more stoic and generally confined to Wayne Manor. This Alfred is also more of a chauffeur than a butler and he drives Bruce and Dick all around town in a back Cadillac convertible limousine that doubles as the Batmobile by, um . . . putting the top up. That's right, the Batmobile is just a regular car driven by Bruce Wayne's chauffeur! Why would the bad guys ever catch on to that?
This must be the only version of Batman where the bad guys' car out pimps the Batmobile. Their car can spray-paint itself a different color mid-chase (see below). That's pretty hoss!
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