| The Wild World of Batwoman | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Jerry Warren |
| Written by | Jerry Warren |
| Produced by | Jerry Warren |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | William G. Troiano |
| Edited by | Jerry Warren |
| Distributed by | ADP Productions |
Release date |
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Running time | 66 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Wild World of Batwoman is a 1966 Americanscience fictioncomedysuperhero film produced, written, directed and edited byJerry Warren.[1] The film starsKatherine Victor asBatwoman, George Andre as Professor G. Octavius Neon, andSteve Brodie as Jim Flanagan. Several women portray Batwoman's group ofsidekicks, theBatgirls. The film is considered to be one ofthe worst movies ever made.
With the popularity of theBatmantelevision series, director Jerry Warren decided to make his own superhero bat-film. After being sued forcopyright infringement, Warren re-released the film under the titleShe Was a Hippy Vampire.[2]
Despite its reputation, the film also stands as the first English-language motion picture to feature a female superhero and (notwithstanding made-for-television films), the last of its kind until the release ofSupergirl some 18 years later.
Batwoman enjoys the services of several young female agents known as "Batgirls" in her pursuit of justice. Herarchenemy is a masked villain named "Rat Fink". Added to the mix is the President and Vice President of the "Ayjax Development Corporation".
The company, usingplutonium as its fuel source, has created a powerful listening device called the "Atomic Hearing Aid", which allows for limitlesseavesdropping. The company tried to sell the device to theU.S. Government, but they were not interested due to its unstable power supply. Instead, they ordered the company to destroy the device. The President of Ayjax refused to destroy it, and Rat Fink is pressuring the company to give him the device.
The Vice President of Ayjax recruits Batwoman to protect the device, but Rat Fink's minions use drugged bowls of soup to incapacitate Batwoman and her Batgirls and steal the device. The superheroines storm Rat Fink's lair and retrieve it, unmasking Rat Fink and converting one of his minions, Tiger, to the side of justice after he falls in love with one of the Batgirls.[3]
The original idea for the film began with Jerry Warren realizing there was large popularity with thecomic book superheroBatman; Warren decided to make his own Batman-like superhero character into a film.[4] Warren offered the leading role toKatherine Victor. Having worked on Warren's previous productions such asTeenage Zombies andCurse of the Stone Hand, Victor was originally not very excited about working with Warren again.[4] To convince her, Warren promised Victor large production values, color photography and her own Bat Boat in the film.[4] None of these promises ever came to fruition.[4] On receiving the script for the role of Seltzer,Bruno VeSota recalled that "...once again I was in for it. It would be like memorizing a telephone book with pages picked at random."[4] Katherine Victor claimed that on set if an actor rubbed Warren the wrong way, their lines would be cut out or given to other actors.[5] Victor claimed "the pretty brunette who was kidnapped in the beginning of the picture was supposed to be the lead girl, but for some reason Jerry thought she was getting too big for her britches and gave all her lines to the girl in the leopard tights".[5]
For the monsters in the film, Warren used footage from theUniversal Pictures filmThe Mole People.[5] Several other scenes throughout the film are also taken from different films, one of which seems to have been from the 1959 Swedish filmNo Time to Kill, judging by a background sign reading "Livsmedel", aSwedish word used for grocery stores.
Because of the similar title, the production company Associated Distributors Productions was promptly sued byDC Comics for copyright infringement.[5] Warren won this lawsuit.[6] After the lawsuit and as the popularity of thetelevision seriesBatman died down, Warren re-released the film under the titleShe Was a Hippy Vampire.[5][6]
Modern reception of the film has been very negative. Fred Beldin of the film databaseAllMovie gave the film one and a half stars out of five, noting the film as "a rip-off hack job no matter how you slice it, though its innocent veneer, period charm, and forced wackiness might endear the film to fans of similar goofs likeRat Pfink a Boo Boo orThe Nasty Rabbit".[7] Film directorFred Olen Ray noted the film has "all the earmarks of Warren's worst work, but rises above the level of something as tedious asPetrified World. It is funny in an unintentional way and sometimes is not hard to look at."[4]
In 1993,The Wild World of Batwoman was released as episode #515 ofMystery Science Theater 3000 where it was featured with the shortCheating.[8] This episode was released later onDVD byRhino Entertainment andShout! Factory.[9][10]
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