Monster of the Day #3101

First, sorry, Rock. No dub for this one. K. Gordon Murray brought many Mexican horror movies north of the border, but this wasn’t one of them. Maybe because the heroine looks like this:

…and it was suspected DC Comics’ lawyer might possibly get involved. Now, of course, you can make flat out porn “parodies” of superheroes with exact costumes and using their actual names and everything. I’m still not sure how that works.

Batwoman (1968), as it is known here, is the upteenth remake of Doctor of Doom, a script that got as many light revisions as Devil Bat did back in the 40s. Still, it’s pretty fun. A nice print with subtitles is available on YouTube. (Sometimes with these things, the subtitles are burned onto the film, as they are here, and sometimes you have to turn on the closed captioning to see them.)

Enjoy your holiday weekend, everyone!

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Gamera977

Wow, I’ve only seen the movie in the MST3K version and I don’t remember the red sleestak-like critter. But still it’s a cool looking monster!
Dorothy P Cobb

I think you’re thinking of “The Wild Wild World of Batwoman” which was a MST3K show.
Gamera977

So this is a different movie? Thanks, I had no idea!
zombiewhacker

If memory serves, DC Comics did sue the makers of that film.
zombiewhacker

I’ve always wondered how DC got away with suing others for allegedly ripping off Batman yet DC itself never got sued for ripping off Zorro.
rtpoeman

Or for Green Lantern ripping off the Lensmen novels….
GreenLuthor

While there was some Zorro influence, Batman was really more a copy of The Shadow. (Bill Finger even admitted that Batman’s first appearance was taken from a Shadow story.)

Not that that answers the question of how DC never got sued over it. From what I understand (but I’ve never read the Shadow story in question), the lifting was VERY blatant.
Rock Baker

It’s a shame, too. This may beat out SHIP OF MONSTERS for sheer oddball fun.

To clarify, I’m not opposed to subtitles when it comes to films that never got a dub, I just rankle at being denied a dub when there is one.
zombiewhacker

Creator Bob Kane explicitly stated that he got the idea for the Batman character after seeing a revival showing of the film The Mark of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks.

Also the Joker was ~~ripped off~~ inspired by another silent era film, The Man Who Laughs, but you probably already knew that.
GreenLuthor

On the other hand, a LOT of what Bob Kane had to say about the creation of Batman was… less than accurate, to say the least. (Like taking sole creator credit, when just about everything we think of as “Batman” came from Bill Finger.)

Which isn’t to say there wasn’t a Zorro influence there, but I’d say the Shadow influences are probably more readily apparent. (At least to me.) (But at least we can agree that Batman was a pretty huge ripoff.)
KeithB

I don’t know if this is old news for aficionados, but NPR this morning reported that Grizzly II is available for streaming and drive-ins (!)

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