The Wild World of Batwoman (1966)

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Made to resemble the original Batman series (1966-1968), The Wild World of Batwoman would have been considered a blatant rip-off if it wasn't to badly brought to life. For real though, director/producer Jerry Warren was sued for copyright infringement and won the case because the film is so bad no audience of the time would ever connect it to the majesty that is Adam West's Batman.The film stars Katherine Victor as the titular Batwoman, a bubbly crime-fighter who teams up with a gaggle of fellow batwomen dressed in elaborate costumes. The plot (if you could call it that) revolves around the batwomen trying to track down a plutonium powered espionage device that's being sold to Batwoman's arch-enemy Rat Fink (Richard Banks). In reality, the film largely takes place on one dingy back-lot with the costumed women trying and failing to battle a host of barely discernible baddies.This movie is a mess. It showcases confusing writing, inept directing, grainy and unpleasant cinematography, lazy, amateurish acting, jarring editing and cheap-looking costuming. The precious few scenes that are not entirely without merit were literally lifted from other movies in the hopes that the audience wouldn't notice. The film is just a loosely strung together scenes and utterly pointless to try to decipher. It's such a lazy shoestring-quickie that when Warren won his lawsuit he re-released the movie under the title She Was a Hippy Vampire. Think about that; that's like re-releasing Iron Man (2008) under the title "The Clever Hostage" and hoping no one would realize it's the same f***ing film! It's renaming is also further proof that the plot is completely amorphous and irrelevant. But hey, at least there's dancing, lots and lots of dancing.

I've seen my share of superhero movies, but The Wild, Wild World Of Batwoman makes Catwoman look like Citizen Kane. Think I'm exaggerating? 1) Batwoman looks like Lady Gaga crossed with an aging Las Vegas showgirl. The strange costume, the nose mask, the large bat tattoo on her chest. No back story, no secret identity, no superpower of any kind. Basically a den mother for a bunch of go-go dancers. I mean, dancing Batgirls. Lamest. Superhero. Ever.2) Her Batgirls do, well, nothing except look hot, do a lot of dancing, and get kidnapped. None of them would make the first round of So You Think You Can Dance.3) The main villain Ratfink looks like El Santo the Mexican wrestler crossed with Zorro. Not very threatening. Even one kidnapped Batgirl yawns when he threatens to destroy the other kidnapped Batgirls.4) The mad scientist Dr. Neon looks like Dr. Clayton Forrester and talks like Ghandi. His big drug to use on the Batgirls...makes them dance. As if there isn't enough dancing in this film.5) The henchmen. Bruno is a bore, but the worst is Tiger. Tiger looks like the lost spawn of Lou Costello and Joe Pesci. What's with him constantly kidnapping that one Batgirl? Is he that desperate to get laid? He says she's the best dancer, but she dances like all the other Batgirls in the movie.6) And what's with the Batgirl holding Tiger's hand at the end? He kidnapped you. Twice. He drugged you. Twice. He tied a rope around your neck like a dog on a leash. And you go ballistic when he (deservedly) falls into the pool? If he looked like Brad Pitt or George Clooney, I'd understand. But he's just doughy and stupid.7) The overlong, useless séance scene. Who decided that we needed to hear a spirit that speaks "Chinese"?8) How cheap are the filmmakers that they steal, I mean, borrow scenes from The Mole People?9) Batwoman's lair is...basically a home that looks like it was borrowed from sitcoms filmed in California.10) Something about guarding a hearing aid. A freaking' hearing aid. My uncle, who's hearing impaired, uses a hearing aid. And no dancing Batgirls are guarding it. So what's so special about this hearing aid?11) The beginning of the film with three women, who are not even in the film after the credits roll, get in touch with Batwoman by...drinking yogurt? 12) While Batwoman is speaking with a representative from the AYJAX Development corporation (pronounced like AJAX but spelled with a Y), two Batgirls behind them are pulling on a horseshoe. I kid you not.13) Ratfink turns out to be the CEO of AYJAX. Lamest. Villain. Ever.14) A robbery turns into a murder. And what do the Batgirls do? Call Batwoman, who in turn calls police. Didn't it occur to them to maybe fight the bad guys? Basically they're the Go-Go Dancing Neighborhood Watch. A suburban dad's dream and a housewife's nightmare.If you must see this film, watch the MST3K version only.

The pointlessly-named Batwoman (Katherine Victor) and her bevy of Batmaidens fight evil and dance.Long story short, I do not really know what this movie was about. Batwoman (who has nothing to do with bats) has a crew of brain-dead, go-go dancing girls who allegedly fight crime, but really just dance. They face off against a scientist who has a pill that... wait for it... makes people dance. It is just really, really bad.The only redeeming quality is the makeup effects on the mole people, but surprise -- they did not even do the effects. They just stole footage from another movie! And there is no surprise they got sued by the Batman people... I mean, this was clearly an attempt to cash in on his name.

If you are a badfilm fan like myself, you might want to view this film. But I would definitely recommend sticking with the MST3K version with Mike and the Bots.I don't feel that it is fair to compare this movie with something like Manos: The Hands of Fate. That is a totally different ball of wax. That was trying to be a straight-ahead horror film, and is funny because it is not remotely scary, is loaded with the incompetence of a completely inexperienced filmmaker, and filmed on a budget of two cents.This movie, IS, in fact, trying to be bad on purpose. You know, because that's FUNNY. The Batman television show was something of a sensation when it originally came out. It's combination of comic book ridiculousness combined with straight-faced acting and a pop-art graphic design made the whole idea a verifiable hoot and a TV ratings juggernaut, at least for a second.Enter z-grade, low budget movie auteur Jerry Warren, leaping with all his might on to the Batman bandwagon with The Wild World of Batwoman. The idea that "camp" could actually work creatively thus proved by the Batman TV show, Warren attempts the same idea, even down to the tribute to (ripping off of) the Batman character itself with Batwoman.But attempting to create something self-consciously "camp," described by the old trope "so bad it's good" is a very dangerous task. The creative types working on the Batman TV show were experienced Hollywood hands, who knew what they were doing, of much greater talent than Mr. Warren and his company of rather unimpressive thespians, most of whom are young women chosen for their ability to pleasingly fill out a bikini (one of the most aesthetically pleasing parts of the film). When attempting to create on purpose something that is funny because it is incompetent, or "wild" or "Crazy" or "out there", you are walking on a very narrow tightrope. And Warren and his crew fall off that tightrope time and time again. Making fun of outlandish comic book heroes and villains (or similarly, those from the old Hollywood movie serials) can be a ripe target for parody, or let's not give Warren too much credit, plain old goofing. (He never even approached the level of sophistication required in order to use the word satire.) But all we get here are jokes that fall flat, unfunny parodies, lame situations, and tired and laboring attempts at slapstick. Slapstick, or physical comedy, is a form that usually gets little respect from those who fancy themselves film aficionados, but it can be done with vigor and effectiveness (The Three Stooges) or even balletic grace (Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin). However, Warren and his actors provide a limp, incompetent version of physical comedy that involves no thought at all. If a choreographer was used for these physical routines, he must have been dead for several years. Someone else mentioned K. Gordon Murray, and this movie did have the same feel as one of his cheapo dubbed Mexican imports in spite of the movie being shot in California in English...not surprising since Jerry Warren earlier did a few films such as Curse of the Screaming Werewolf or something, which was a Mexican horror film cut together with a few new scenes Warren shot with Lon Chaney Jr. (Got to see that now, but I'm sure it's an unholy mess.)About the only way to extract some entertainment juice from this leaden stone of a movie is the layering of Mike Nelson and the Bots on top of the whole rancid cheese on their Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode. Some of the funniest one liners in MST3K history grace this presentation as Mike and his pals try to make sense of the truly nonsensical goings-on unspooling in front of their unbelieving eyes. But watching the film without their japery is truly a teeth-grinding waste of 88 minutes.Score: Film alone: 2 out of 10. MST3K version: 8 out of 10.