Plot[]
At daybreak, Batman is in the Batcave futilely trying to call Robin on their two-way radio. Alfred informs Batman that Aunt Harriet is up in arms over seeing Bruce and Dick's beds unslept in from last night; Batman tells Alfred to tell Harriet that he and Dick stayed at his uncle's house overnight.
Meanwhile, the Riddler's "operation" on Robin involved only the making of a plastic surgery cast from Robin's masked face, used to make a perfect "Robin" disguise for Molly. Riddler tricks Robin into calling police headquarters and tells Commissioner Gordon he needs to talk to Batman on the hotline, but when Batman answers Riddler grabs the phone and entices him with two more riddles on how to find Robin:
- "What kind of pins are used in soup?" (Terrapins)
- "What was Joan of Ark made of?" ("Maid of" Orleans)
Batman figures out that Riddler means the abandoned Turtle Mill at Orleans Cove and races there in the Batmobile. Molly turns on Robin's homing transmitter, and Batman quickly homes in on the signal coming from a Rolls Royce going the other way on the road, and which Riddler and Molly are driving. Batman quickly turns around and catches up with them and fires the Bat-Ray disabling the engine. The car crashes, and Riddler makes his escape as Molly tricks Batman into taking her into the Batcave.
Once there, Molly draws her gun, but Batman knew it was Molly all the time. He reveals that he immediately spotted the defects in the mask caused by the straws they gave Robin through which to breathe, and then when Molly tries futilely to shoot Batman, he reveals that when she wasn't looking he burned off the gun's firing pin with a hidden laser beam. Having failed in her murderous mission, Molly tries to escape by climbing on the scaffolding over the atomic pile (used to power the Batmobile). She quickly becomes terrified, and Batman climbs up to rescue her, but her tenuous grip gives out and she falls to her death in the pile. Batman then laments over her demise saying, "Poor deluded girl. If only she'd have let me save her. What a terrible way to go-go".
At police headquarters, Batman, Gordon and O'Hara listen to the recording made of the phone conversation between Batman and Riddler. Gordon and O'Hara are convinced that the recording is useless, but Batman pays more attention to the background noise- a subway train passing by. Batman gets a timing on the recording and a complete train schedule from which he gets the real location where Riddler is holding Robin. Batman blasts in and rescues Robin, but Riddler and the Mole Hill Gang again manage to escape. Robin reveals he had been playing possum, and tells Batman about two more riddles he overheard Riddler make up:
- "How many sides does a circle have?" (Two. Inside and outside.)
- "What President of the United States wore the biggest hat?" (The one with the biggest head.)
Robin thinks Riddler is going to break into the skyscraper head office of the Gotham City National Bank, and that Riddler and his gang will go inside and cart the money outside. Batman calls Commissioner Gordon who sends a group of police to the bank skyscraper. But Riddler is actually going back to the Moldavian Pavilion at the Gotham World's Fair, where a gathering will honor the famous Mammoth of Moldavia, which is adorned with jewels on the outside and stuffed with priceless postage stamps inside. Riddler intends to steal the mammoth, so he saturates the pavilion's ballroom with nitrous oxide (laughing gas), then dons an elephant disguise over his gas mask and entertains the guests with a few one-liners until they have all fallen unconscious from the gas.
On Riddler's signal, the Mole Hill Mob blasts a hole through the ceiling of the floor below and climb up onto the main floor of the pavilion, and are about to pilfer the priceless pachyderm when Batman and Robin leap out from inside of it. A free-for-all ensues and the Dynamic Duo defeats the Mob, but Riddler attempts to escape through the hole in the floor with Batman in hot pursuit. Armed with a gun, Riddler warns him away, but when Batman throws another flash pellet at him, Riddler misfires and ruptures one of the gas tanks instead, causing the gas to ignite, but not before Batman takes cover.
Epilogue[]
The lawsuit against Batman was dismissed as Riddler failed to show up in court. Dick is certain that the exploding gas tank took Riddler out, but Bruce points out that Riddler's body was never found. Dick begins to think they failed, but Bruce reminds him that they put the Mole Hill Mob behind bars and the Moldavian Mammoth is safe, but then Bruce reveals his one regret from the whole adventure: his failure to save Molly...
Appearances[]
Individuals[]
Trivia[]
- The end where Riddler disappears in the explosion is similar to the first Riddler Comic where Riddler tried to kill the Dynamic duo with a booby trapped Riddler Maze on a dock, only for Riddler to fall off and leave no trace except for a "?" The first "Riddler" Adventure at Riddler adventure pp.88-99
- The episode begins with a re-cap of the previous episode leading up to the cliffhanger. Here, still shots of the action are used, as also is the case in episode four. From episode six, the re-cap sequence consists of moving clips from the previous episode ended by freeze frame, occasionally featuring a different camera angle or a few seconds' extra footage cut from the night before.[1]
- William Dozier originally auditioned people to narrate the series, but when none of them seemed to fit, he decided to do it himself.
- For the first two seasons, a tag preview of next week's villain followed every Part 2 episode, except the pilot.
- This is the first instance in the TV series of a villain escaping apprehension. The only other main villain to escape apprehension was Catwoman—twice — once by falling down a bottomless cavern and once by falling off a warehouse roof into a river.
- The series reveals that Bruce Wayne has an uncle who is never named. In the comics, Bruce's uncle Philip Wayne raised him after his parents' murders.
- The exterior shots of Wayne Manor were actually footage of 380 South San Rafael Avenue, Pasadena, CA.
- The "Moldavian Pavilion" in this episode and the preceding one ("Hi Diddle Riddle") was actually the Thailand Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. In reality, Thailand is a Southeast Asian Kingdom and not a European Republic, but elephants (albeit not mammoths) do play a significant role in Thai culture.
- The original script had a grimmer Batman, who "allowed" Molly to fall to her death. DC Comics rejected the scene and it was shot with Batman desperately trying to save Molly.
- In future episodes, it is explained that everybody who is taken back to the Batcave must be given the "bat-gas" sedative so as not to spy the Batcave's location and deduce Batman's identity. Yet, in this episode, although Batman guesses Riddler's moll has disguised herself as Robin, he takes her back to the Batcave without bat-gas. Even though she must have seen the Batcave's entrance underneath Wayne Manor, she makes no reference to this in the subsequent scene.[2]
- The scene of the Batmobile leaving the Batcave to race the remaining 14 miles to Gotham was filmed at Bronson Cavern in Hollywood Hills. This cave was used in many horror films including Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Allied Artists, 1956). The problem they ran into when filming the scene was that The Batmobile was just about the same width as the cave entrance. To keep from ripping the fenders off George Barris' creation, they undercranked the cameras so it could come out slowly and then later speed up the film to give the illusion of speed.
- In most scenes of the villains hideouts, the camera is shot at a Dutch angle. If the camera is crooked and Batman is in shot, the chances are that something bad will soon happen to him, as is the case in the Go-Go Bar scene of the first episode of this adventure.[2]
- The Batmobile's ever-popular Emergency Bat-Turn Lever is put into use for the first time in this episode.
- For the 1966 Emmys, Batman was nominated as Outstanding Comedy Series while Frank Gorshin was nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy ("Hi Diddle Riddle"). A third nomination was made for editing.
- Lyle Waggoner was second choice for the role of Batman and filmed for a test reel. Waggoner later on played Major Steve Leonard Trevor on Wonder Woman.
- This is one of three episodes of Batman in which characters die; the second is Episode #8705-Pt. 2, "A Death Worse Than Fate", wherein the gunmen, intending to drill Batman and Robin full of bullets, shoot each other to death as the Dynamic Duo dodge them, aided by Zelda The Great (Anne Baxter). In "Instant Freeze" a butler (played by John Zaremba) is frozen and shatters into pieces. Ambiguous episodes are "Green Ice" in which a policeman is frozen solid; in "The Penguin's Nest" a policeman is shocked; in "The Bookworm Turns" a henchman of The Bookworm — disguised to look like Commissioner Gordon — is shot and falls off a bridge. This is the only episode in which a female character unambiguously dies (Catwoman appears to die several times, but survives).
- The Riddler's maniacal high-pitched giggle was inspired by the character Tommy Udo (portrayed by Richard Widmark) in the 1947 20th Century-Fox crime film-noir Kiss of Death.
- During the chase scene where Batman is racing from the Batcave to save Robin, one very brief clip of the Batmobile passing by on the road shows the car's original paint scheme; matte black with white striping. This is the only footage of the car with this early paint scheme that appears in the series, although several black and white stills showing the car in this form exist.
External links[]
- "Smack in the Middle" at IMDb
- ↑ Batman at 45: A Milestone Tribute to Pow, Bam and Zap! (2011), Gould, Chris https://www.amazon.com/Batman-45-Milestone-Tribute-ebook/dp/B005YNPHCO
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Batman at 45: A Milestone Tribute to Pow, Bam and Zap! (2011) Gould, Chris https://www.amazon.com/Batman-45-Milestone-Tribute-ebook/dp/B005YNPHCO