BOOTLEG FILES 947: “Batman Meets Mr. Fizz” (1965 student film directed by Richard Blackburn).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Unauthorized use of the DC Comics characters.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely, at least for now.
Hey, you never know what you can find on YouTube. An hour before I sat down to write this, I was not expecting to stumble over “Batman Meets Mr. Fizz,” a 1965 student film short that went online earlier this week courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. This short romp would probably not be given new attention had it not borrowed (without permission) the DC Comics characters of Batman and Robin for its no-budget shenanigans. And it would also not be recalled had its creator not progressed to being the force behind two of the most beloved cult movies of all time.
“Batman Meets Mr. Fizz” was made one year before the campy “Batman” television series premiered, but it had an eerie prescience that the material was ripe for an unapologetic camp treatment. Fred Stuthman’s Batman carries the stiff pomposity of Adam West’s Caped Crusader, although Marshall Efron’s Robin is considerably shorter, older, and fatter than Burt Ward’s Robin – plus, this Boy Wonder smokes cigarettes.
In this flick, Batman and Robin are summoned by “The Chief” (a young man with thick sideburns who is dressed like a race track denizen) to go after the archcriminal Mr. Fizz. This villain (who wears swimming goggles, a top hat and a cape) has a plan to bring the American economy into wreckage by damaging the soda pop industry. He is assisted by a gang of young thugs dressed like they stepped out a community theater production of “Guys and Dolls” plus a hot babe who has nothing to do but look decorative – and she does that job perfectly.
The crimefighters drive around in a Batmobile that is a normal car with a giant plaster bat attached to its hood. Batman gains his strength for his battle against Mr. Fizz by drinking a Campbell’s Soup brand of bat guano.
Batman and Robin quickly find Mr. Fizz and his gang in a soda bottling factory. After a chase that could charitably be described as enervated, Mr. Fizz tries to subdue Batman with a giant bubble wand. When that fails, the miscreant’s gang engage the Dynamic Duo in a fist fight, only to lose badly. Mr. Fizz tries to escape, but winds up being carbonated to death and is reduced to slime that can be packed in an empty soda bottle.
The film ends with a closing credit sequence obviously inspired by Orson Welles’ films – the credits are read aloud while photos of the cast are displayed in correspondence with their credits. The film’s creator saves himself for the end and is identified as Richard Comstock Blackburn.
Fast forward a few years and this student filmmaker went into the film industry without his middle name. As Richard Blackburn, he gained prominence as the writer-director of the 1973 horror classic “Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural” and as a co-writer of the 1982 comedy gem “Eating Raoul.” In a 2018 interview with the blog Room 207, Blackburn recalled that he intentionally sought to make “Batman Meets Mr. Fizz” as a cheap but silly escapade.
“It was a success with the faculty,” he said. “The only person who didn’t like it, the only faculty person, was Josef von Sternberg, who was teaching there at the time, and it was to him a kind of attack on his aesthetic. It upset him. Some of the students didn’t like it, because they thought it was frivolous. They were doing cinema verité, they were doing things about their burgeoning relationships. My pursuits of various women were at that point hardly dramatic enough to be recorded on film.”
Blackburn added his work was part of a student film festival that included an important audience member.
“Pauline Kael turned up, with two German Shepherds and a hip flask,” he said. “So, she liked it at least.”
Blackburn then sent a print to William Dozier, the producer of the “Batman” television series.
“He actually told me he thought it was un-American!” he stated. “He was just appalled at the film, he really was upset, and you know, because he was a year away from his project, ‘Batman’ on TV. He said Batman was too old, and I said, ‘Well, he is old, if you count when he was first drawn,’ and he didn’t like that at all, and then he said ‘Robin looks gay,’ and I said, ‘Naturally!’ He got all upset. It was my first encounter with Hollywood, and I thought they were gonna accept me with open arms, and it was quite the reverse.”
Whether “Batman Meets Mr. Fizz” ever turns up on a DVD or Blu-ray release remains to be seen. For now, here’s your chance to enjoy this highly unlikely but highly delightful swing through Gotham City:
IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.
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