Batman: The Movie carries the high camp absurdity of the 1960s TV show to gleeful new heights. Shark Repellent Batspray, costume-removing Batpoles, a contraption that dehydrates political figures into coloured powder, and endless childishly easy conundrums. Bringing the primary-coloured show to the big screen was a natural move, since sets, costume and casting were all in place. But what elevates the movie above the series? Is it the wonderful new toys--the Batcopter, Batboat and Batbike? Is it the OTT direction, taking the Dynamic Duo on location far more than usual? Or is it the electrifying one-upmanship between Burgess Meredith (Penguin), Cesar Romero (Joker), Frank Gorshin (Riddler) and Lee Meriwether (a new Catwoman since regular Julie Newmar was busy elsewhere)? As Commissioner Gordon says, "The sum of the angles of that rectangle is too monstrous to contemplate!" Really, the best of the movie's magic is to be found in the sheer glee Adam West and Burt Ward exhibit in playing for the big screen. This was the most exciting event in their careers. And it shows in their colourful, zestful performances. On the DVD: Batman: The Movie on disc includes an affectionate commentary from the two stars ("Oh lookee!" says West repeatedly), after which the duo are heavily involved in the wealth of additional material, even recording dialogue for the interactive animated menus. Seeing them on screen in the 16-minute featurette might be a shock, though. In the restored 1.85:1 film print they look much better! Additionally there's a five-minute "Batmobile Revealed" featurette with designer George Barris, a trailer page with some very humorous inclusions and two large galleries of behind-the-scenes photos.--Paul Tonks
Taken from a long-running DC Comics strip, Wonder Woman was made into a popular television series between 1978 and 1981, starring former Miss America, Lynda Carter. Capturing the hearts of TV audiences with her sexy outfit as much as her superheroine abilities, Wonder Woman quickly became a kitsch icon, battling the forces of evil with the unforgettably camp "garb of justice", including bullet-proof bangles, a golden lasso and the belt of strength built into her corset. She had an invisible plane, too. Originally Princess Diana of Paradise Island (an uncharted land of Amazon women in the Bermuda Triangle), Wonder Woman is sent as an emissary to the outside world to protect the human race from the forces of evil. And so she becomes Diana Prince, the geeky, bespectacled assistant to Steve Trevor of the Inter Agency Defence Command in Washington, whose father she assisted against the Nazis in the 1940s. --Laura Bushell
Holy blu-ray bonanza Batman! This super special edition includes hours of thrill-packed extras that take you behind the scenes and let you explore the dynamic duo's background as never before. The fate of the world hangs in the balance when Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) face off against four of the most powerful villains of all time - Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) The Joker (Cesar Romero) and The Riddler (Frank Gorshin)!
A single season TV show, originally aired in 1966-7, The Green Hornet was produced by William Dozier as a stable-mate for his more popular Batman series. Originally a 1940s radio character (and the grand-nephew of the Lone Ranger), the Green Hornet was another masked crime fighter with a secret identity and a sidekick (not to mention a cool car, the Black Beauty, and a memorable theme, a jazzy riff on "Flight of the Bumblebee"). Newspaper magnate Britt Reid (Van Williams) dons a mask and slouch hat to fight corruption in the big city. In place of Robin or Tonto, GH has Kato (Bruce Lee), a martial arts expert-chauffeur whose name inspired Inspector Clouseau's assistant and who seems to blow the secret identity gaff by using his real name in both civilian life and masked adventuring. While Batman was a colourful exercise in camp, with over-the-top villains played for laugh and a pop art hipness, The Green Hornet was a mundane pulp adventure with very little humour and very little in the character and plot departments. After the superstardom and early death of Bruce Lee, 20th Century Fox decided to cobble together a couple of theatrical feature films from this property, of which this 1974 effort is the first. The bulk of the film consists of four episodes crudely spliced together. Scattered throughout are bizarrely irrelevant fight scenes from other episodes, which make the already disjointed plotting quite surreal. The television image was cropped to make a widescreen film, which means the tops of heads and hats are lopped off the frame with alarming regularity. Though an interesting curio, fans might have preferred a release of individual episodes. On the DVD: This letterboxed transfer is probably the best the film could ever be made to look, considering it was probably shot on 16mm, then blown up and cropped for widescreen release. The quality varies notably from scene to scene, suggesting that the source episodes were in wildly different shape. The extras include thorough cast notes on Williams, Lee and under-used heroine Wende Wagner, still-image and film photo galleries, a quarter-hour featurette on the Black Beauty (flawed by the fact that the current owner is one of the dullest speakers in America), some shots of the Black Hornet Corgi model (oddly available in the UK in the 1960s, though the show didn't air on British television), a solid essay on the history of the character, notes on "The Bruce and Brandon Lee Association" and a funky if incomplete trailer for Black Samurai. --Kim Newman
Megalomaniacs. Spies. Thieves. Phantoms. Mad scientists. The world is full of dangerous people. But don't fear -- Wonder Woman is here! Lynda Carter returns as Wonder Woman for all 24 episodes of the third and final thrill-packed season of the series. Teamed with flint-jawed government agent Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) and using the alias of Diana Prince Wonder Woman whips out her bracelets and lariat to battle evil. And what a battle it is. Her foes include a time traveler from the
Fathom: From exploding earrings to dances with bulls to leaps from a plane at 10 000 feet there isn't much Fathom can't handle in this wildly entertaining espionage spoof! Voluptuous dental hygienist-turned-skydiver Fathom Harvill (Raquel Welch) is recruited by a top-secret government agency to parachute into Spain in search of an elusive war defector (Tony Franciosa) and a missing H-bomb detonator he is believed to possess. But the super sexy spy may expose more than she bargained for as she unravels the truth behind her employer's motives - with hilarious results! (Dir. Leslie H. Martinson 1967) Fantastic Voyage: A Fantastic and spectacular voyage... Through the human body... Into the brain. Shrunk to microscopic size an elite scientific and medical team enters the bloodstream of an ailing scientist in a desperate effort to save his life. Battling the body's incredible defenses the crew must complete their mission before time runs out. The film was to win Oscars for Best Visual Effects (by Art Cruikschank) and Art Direction. The legacy of the film was to continue as 'Fantastic Voyage' later received an animated spin-off show. (Dir. Richard Fleischer 1966) Bandolero: It's a Wild West clash of personalities in Val Verde Texas for the warring Bishop brothers (Dean Martin and James Stewart) who must now join forces to escape a death sentence. Featuring an all-star cast including Raquel Welch and George Kennedy and exploding with action Bandolero! packs a smoking six-gun wallop from its first tense show-down to its last exciting shootout. (Dir. Andrew V. McLaglen 1968) Lady In Cement: The suave sleuth Tony Rome makes a shocking discovery while diving for treasure: a beautiful blonde woman anchored in a block of cement. When a local hood hires him to find his missing girlfriend his investigation begins with the mysterious ""Lady in Cement."" But everyone he talks to either is killed or trying to kill him... (Dir. Gordon Douglas 1968)
Taken from a long-running DC Comics strip, Wonder Woman was made into a popular television series between 1978 and 1981, starring former Miss America Lynda Carter. Capturing the hearts of TV audiences with her sexy outfit as much as her superheroine abilities, Wonder Woman quickly became a kitsch icon, battling the forces of evil with the unforgettably camp "garb of justice", including bullet-proof bangles, a golden lasso and the belt of strength built into her corset. She had an invisible plane, too. Originally Princess Diana of Paradise Island (an uncharted land of Amazon women in the Bermuda Triangle), Wonder Woman is sent as an emissary to the outside world to protect the human race from the forces of evil. And so she becomes Diana Prince, the geeky, bespectacled assistant to Steve Trevor of the Inter Agency Defense Command in Washington, whose father she assisted against the Nazis in the 1940s. In the 70-minute pilot, "The Return of Wonder Woman", our gal is sent in to prevent the nefarious Dr Solano from capturing a nuclear generating plant the Americans are flying into Latin America as a new source of energy. In "Anschluss 77", Steve and Diana are sent to investigate a former Gestapo agent now living in Latin America and have to battle a Nazi force that includes a cloned Adolf Hitler. Finally, in "The Man Who Could Move the World", Wonder Woman's adversary is a Japanese ex-intern from World War II who has developed telekinetic powers. Carter plays the role commendably straight, but just one listen to the theme tune ("in your satin tights, fighting for our rights") makes it clear this isn't meant to be taken seriously. Who else could save us from evil so stylishly? On the DVD: Wonder Woman, Volume 1 includes a gallery of memorabilia, a pretty extensive biography of Lynda Carter and the rest of the cast, and finally a short photo gallery for all you die-hard Wonder Woman fetishists. --Laura Bushell
Following on from her guest appearance as Jaime Sommers in The Six Million Dollar Man Lindsey Wagner so impressed the big-wigs at ABC that they offered her the chance to reprise/resurrect her role in this spin-off series The Bionic Woman. Post-parachute accident Jaime Sommers' chances of survival were not looking good. Steve Austin realising the potential rehabilitation Jaime could receive contacted his old boss Oscar Goldman in an effort to save the
Mission: Impossible - Season 7
She could hear footsteps from a mile away run more than 60 mph bend steel with her bare hands jump to the roof of a 12 story building catch villians who are endangering National security and still have enough energy and motivation left over to use her talent and knowledge as a schoolteacher. She is the Bionic Woman. 1: Black Magic Jaime is sent to a remote Island to impersonate the niece of the feuding Carstairs family in order to locate the will of Cyrus Carstairs and the location of a top-secret alloy formula. 2: Motorcycle Boogie Jaime enlists the help of daredevil stunt rider Evel Knievel to retrieve a computer tape stolen by the KGB in East Germany. Together they risk their lives as they crash through the East German border in pursuit of the KGB. 3: The Jailing of Jaime Jaime is imprisoned for treason when a forty million dollar decoding machine she was delivering fails to arrive at its destination.
Features the episodes ""Welcome Home Jaime Part 1"" ""Welcome Home Jaime Part 2"" and ""Angel of Mercy"".
Hocus-Pocus: Steve Austin teams up with a pretty ESP expert in a magic act in order to gain access to a nightclub owner's gang-land organization that has stolen a top secret code book. The Price of Liberty: Plans for the Liberty Bell to be toured around the nation to celebrate the Bicentennial are thwarted when it is stolen by a disgruntled scientist who threatens to blow it up. The Bionic Criminal: Barney a race driver is re-activated as the second bionic man over Steve's protest. Steve has reason to doubt Barney's mental stability and soon his fears are justified when he turns his bionic powers to a life of crime...
Philanthropic entrepreneur Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and his youthful ward Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) lead a double life: they are the Caped Crusaders crime-fighting duo Batman and Robin. A secret Batpole in the Wayne mansion leads to the Batcave where Police Commissioner Gordon calls the fearless duo on the Batphone with the latest emergency threatening Gotham City. Racing to the scene of the crime in the Batmobile Batman and Robin must (with the help of trusty Bat-Gadgets) thwart the efforts of a variety of master criminals. The dastardly deeds begin when The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) uses his flipper-powered submarine to steal a super-dehydrator which extracts all moisture from humans and reduces them to particles of dust. But the Antarctic Anarchist is not working alone gentle reader! No a plot this size requires the combined evil thinking caps of four costumed criminals: The Penguin himself The Riddler (Frank Gorshin) The Joker (Cesar Romero) and Catwoman (Lee Meriwether). And as Commissioner Gordon (Neil Hamilton) puts it The sum of the angles of that rectangle is too monstrous to contemplate! Using the super dehydrator the United Underworld (as they dub themselves) suck the moisture out of the nine-member United Nations Security Council leaving nine multicolored piles of dust. Can no one stop this blueprint of badness? This design of devilry? Two men can (well one man and one boy wonder) with the help of their trusty butler Alfred (Alan Napier). But first they'll have to defeat a ticking time bomb an exploding octopus and a shark with a six-foot vertical leap. Can the Dynamic Duo stop the fearsome foursome in time? Will Bruce Wayne fall under the spell of lovely Miss Kitka exotic correspondent for the Moscow Bugle who happens to be Catwoman in disguise? Can the man-eating shark be stopped with Batman's Shark-Repellent Bat-Spray? Will Commissioner Gordon decipher the Riddler's criminal conundrums?
Batman - The Movie (Dir. Leslie H. Martinson 1966): Philanthropic entrepreneur Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and his youthful ward Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) lead a double life: they are the Caped Crusaders crime-fighting duo Batman and Robin. A secret Batpole in the Wayne mansion leads to the Batcave where Police Commissioner Gordon calls the fearless duo on the Batphone with the latest emergency threatening Gotham City. Racing to the scene of the crime in the Batmobile Batman and Robin must (with the help of trusty Bat-Gadgets) thwart the efforts of a variety of master criminals. The Death Of The Incredible Hulk (Dir. Bill Bixby 1990): The Death of the Incredible Hulk is the thrilling finale of the hugely popular TV series about scientist Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby) who transforms into a mighty larger than life beast called the hulk (Lou Ferrigno) when he gets angry. Desperately trying to rid himself of his monster-like alter ego once and for all Banner sneaks into a government research lab run by Dr Ronald Pratt (Philip Sterling) hoping to find a solution. When Pratt discovers Banner's plight he offers to help. But a beautiful spy (Barbara Tarbuck) who's out to steal Pratt's ideas for terrorists forces Banner to choose between love and loyalty good and evil and ultimately life and death. Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (Dir. Ted Post 1970): The second installment in the Planet Of The Apes series. Here an earthling sent to find the astronauts of the original film discovers not only a world of intelligent talking apes but an underground cult of grotesque ""humans"" who are the survivors of a nuclear blast years ago. Unfortunately these mutants worship a nuclear bomb a weapon which not only is the centerpiece of their society but can be detonated at any time...
Wonder Woman possesses the strength of Hercules the brains of Athena the speed of Mercury and the beauty of Aphrodite. Starring Lynda Carter as the female superhero who made this cult classic TV series so successful. This box set contains the entire TV series.
The 'King Of Cowboys' stars in volume 3 of the Roy Rogers show.
The 'King Of Cowboys' stars in volume 2 of the Roy Rogers show.
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