515-The Wild Wild World of Batwoman

Film Year:  1966
Genre:  Comedy, Superhero
Director:  Jerry Warren
Starring:  Katherine Victor, George Andre, Steve Brodie, Lloyd Nelson, Richard Banks, and a whole lot o' bikinis
MST Season:  5
Featured Short:  "Cheating"

The Short

Dumbass Johnny is having trouble with math and asks to copy off of Mary’s paper.  Johnny is soon elected into student council and finds himself relying on Mary’s answers more than ever.  But when his sham is discovered, everything he has achieved is at risk as his life spirals out of control.

This short is obviously shown to classrooms to dissuade cheaters, though it’s easy to deduce that the film portrays a worst case scenario.  It’s unlikely most cheaters would hold a student council chair, and if they did I’d be more concerned that somebody holding a rank can’t do simple fractions.  Though it skims over that with the line “I don’t think anyone that cheats should hold in office.”  Political commentary noted, though all of Washington laughs at this line.

Melodrama runs high as the director aims for a bizarre noir-ish tone for a simple matter of someone cheating on a test.  But they’re likely trying to evoke stress in a young viewer in hopes that they’ll straighten up and fly right.  Can’t say it’s ineffective, though as an adult watching it’s kind of hilarious.  And honestly I imagine the only real moral they’ll learn is “Don’t get caught.”

But remember, if you cheat in school, YOUR LIFE WILL BE DESTROYED!

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

Let’s set the mood.

Now take the oath.

We the girls who are dedicated to Batwoman take our oath with all sincerity.  We the girls who are dedicated to Batwoman take our pride with all sincerity.  We the girls who are dedicated to Batwoman fight against evil with all sincerity.  (One Nation, Under Hef.)

Batwoman’s arch nemesis Rat Fink is at it again, even though we never knew about him before!  This time he’s after the Atomic Hearing Aid (somebody WROTE this folks!), the most powerful eavesdropping device in the world.  Batwoman and her booty-shaking Batgirls are hired to protect the device, but Rat Fink is ready to match wits (or what little wits there are) for it.

Obviously made as a quicky cash in off of the popularity of Adam West and Burt Ward’s television series Batman, The Wild Wild World of Batwoman takes the concept of a bat-themed crimefighter and slash-fictions it with go-go sex appeal.  The movie is content with showing female forms in place of actual content.  But then again, porn was created for that very reason, so what exactly do we get out of this?

Made by one of the most contemptible filmmakers of all time, Jerry Warren (the Uwe Boll of his day), the movie has no plot, less story, and idiotic stabs at humor.  The film is done with no style to speak of, other than LOOK AT THE BIKINI BUTTCHEEKS!  The film is made without passion, without meaning, and without reason.  I can live with a film being a failure, but a film being a slouch is something intolerable.

The Episode

The all-star of the episode is the short, which is one of the very best of the series.  The crew zeroes in on its jarringly dark tone and get dark with the riffs, taking Johnny through bits of depression and suicide.  If the short were any less dour than it is they might have failed venturing here, but it’s really a match made in heaven.  Not to mention it houses one of the best riffs of the entire series:  “Your one mistake, you’ve signed your test ‘Mary Matthews.’”

This short inspires the host segments, which lampoon it with great effectiveness.  Mike assigns the bots to write an essay on cheating, of which Crow ironically cheats on.  When he is caught they deduce what to do with dirty bastard, which includes what sort of punishment he might receive (which includes not getting any Hostess Snowballs or “DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!”).  The segments are a brilliant arc, that run the short through the ringer before coming to an ultimate lighthearted conclusion.

But what about the movie segments?  The movie really, really hurts, so it’s tough to recommend to anybody other than the crowd who believe “the worse the movie is, the better the episode.”  This is certainly one of the worst movies ever featured on the show, so they won’t be disappointed.  The riffing is on the defense instead of precision offense, because it feels like Mike and the bots are close to cowering in fear.  Take the bizarrely un-PC séance scene, where they channel a Chinese spirit that shouts out faux-Chinese gibberish akin to “CHING CHONG CHOW!”  Note that Mike and the bots barely riff the scene, letting it really speak for itself.  It kind of works, as the scene is painfully unfunny that it circles around the track and becomes funny in a shock laugh of “Wooooooooooooooow.”

The short and host segments are classic material, but it becomes harder to recommend based on the harshness of the film and rocky riffing, though granted reaches glorious highs.  The episode averages out to be a good one on the whole, just know what you’re getting.

Good

The DVD

This episode was released by Rhino individually.  Picture and audio were both excellent, and the uncut film is there as a bonus feature.  Surprisingly, the film itself is in good shape, maybe a tad bright.  The audio is just as poor as it is in the episode.  Not that it matters.  I can’t imagine most people would be sitting through this one start to finish.  Sure it has a lot of female asses shaking, but at what cost?!  AT WHAT COST?!

Shout Factory also released the episode individually without any bonus features.  This might be the preferable option, since the temptation of watching the unriffed film just because it’s there is now gone.

The short "Cheating" was featured on Shorts Volume 1, which Rhino compiled into their Volume 2 set.  The short featured a humorous introduction by Tom Servo.  This compilation was re-released by Shout Factory in their own Volume 2 set.