[Batman] Episode 49 & 50: The Devil's Fingers/The Dead Ringers

[Ubiquitous]

: World-famous pianist Chandell is being blackmailed by his brother, Harry,
: who insists on being paid five million dollars or the world will know that
: his brother uses a player piano. Unable to cope with being the world's
: biggest fraud (until Milli Vanilli, that is), Chandell hatches a scheme to
: marry Harriet and off Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward (and Harriet's
: nephew) Dick Grayson to inherit the Wayne millions. Meanwhile, Batman and
: Robin have taken off on separate vacations. Will they get word of the
: dastardly plot before Harriet walks down the aisle?

PE: So, let me get this straight (bear with me): Bruce is off muskrat hunting
with his millionaire pals and doesn't have a radio to hear what's going on,
in his absence, back in Gotham? No, that's not right because he's listening
to Chandell's great finger work over the radio when he suddenly hears an
errant C Minor chord in Danse Arab and knows that something's gone foul in
Gotham. I'm with Bruce's "male companion" on this one, "I don't follow you,
Bruce." Meanwhile, Dick, utterly clueless about any crime wave, is putting
the moves on a sweetie in the ice cream parlor (he hasn't had these kind of
thoughts in his head since he went undercover in a biker uniform several
episodes ago) when he gets the word from Bruce. Subtly sweeping his date's
ice cream into her lap (the closest he'd get to a girl's midsection, I hasten
to add), Grayson answers the call and won't even admit that he's been asleep
at the wheel while Batman takes a well-deserved shot at some muskrats.

JS: I loved how Chandell cast a wayward finger in the direction of the
Batphone when he insisted that the commissioner call in the dynamic duo to
save the day. Somewhat surprising, considering he wouldn't have known they
were on vacation.

PE: Biggest laugh of the season when Gordon gets word that Batman and Robin
are on vacation (two minutes after hearing the news that Bruce and Dick are
on vacation!) and looks at Chief O'Hara with terror in his eyes:

Gordon: You know what this means, don't you?

O'Hara: If you're thinkin' what I'm afraid you're thinkin'...

Gordon: Precisely, Chief O'Hara. The moment we've dreaded for
years has arrived. This time... we're going to have to solve a
case ourselves!

JS: And Chief O'Hara was clearly shaking in his boots as he realized he was
going to finally have to go to work.

PE: Gordon fills the upper theater box seats with machine gunners and tells
his men that, if and when the trouble starts, "to make every bullet count!"

JS: And note that it's not just an armed guard... it's a full blown machine
gun nest with barb wire protection. Makes you wonder how they set up to
target jaywalkers in Gotham when Batman takes a day off.

PE: Batman calls Gordon just in time, it seems, to tell him that he's back in
Gotham. Gordon's about to take the easy way out.

JS: With the lineup of pill bottles, it begs the question-is Bonnie still on
vacation?

PE: Batman seems astonished that Robin could hypothesize that there might be
some funny business going on when Chandell is alone with Aunt Harriet. "Your
Aunt Harriet," Batman scolds, "is utterly above reproach!"

JS: Yes, the Boy Wonder certainly touched a nerve. Do you think there's
something going on between Bruce and 'Aunt' Harriet?

PE: Did I really hear Robin refer to Chandell as "The World's greatest
penis?"

JS: He didn't say it, but yes, I'm sure you heard it. This episode had one of
the more memorable choreographed fight sequences, with the three harem girls
weaving in and out of the fisticuffs. Batman initially says that he can tell
by the look in their eyes that the girls were victims of criminal hypnotism.
One wonders if it was in fact their eyes he was looking at, as he later
referred to them as, "poor, deluded females..."

PE: Bats finds an ingenious way of evading death as a roll of music paper.
I'm not one to sidestep genius but wouldn't it have been easier to roll
themselves off the conveyor belt?

JS: While Batman tells Robin to match his notes precisely, their white boy
scat is hardly what I would call harmonious.

PE: Judging by the "Subtle Interrogation Lighting," Alfred's been
moonlighting making equipment signs at police headquarters. Meanwhile, the
Batcave's a mess.

JS: How dare you! After Alfred went so far as to cover things up in the
Batcave while the boys were on vacation. One wonders just how long they were
planning to be away.

PE: Credit must go to Robin for not saying "I told you so" to his mentor when
the boys find out that Chandell is trying to get into Aunt Harriet's
knickers. Judging by his "jovial" manner, I'm not so sure he's not trying to
wear Harriet's knickers.

JS: To think, seducing the old broad with root beer. She hardly stood a
chance. Although it's worth noting he did drive her to ask for a brandy
later...

PE: WTF moment of the entire series so far: Harriet with a heater! Blow my
mind completely and drill the SOB full of holes. She'll get two episodes in
the slammer if that.

JS: Ma Parker certainly opened the doors for firearm violence on Batman. No
more machine guns hidden in sarcophaguses! Ol' Lib got to put the capper on
his Cagney impersonation by unloading a tommy gun on what he thought was the
black widow and her butler.

PE: Chandell and his pals are obviously carted away to a different pokey than
Catwoman, Riddler, and the rest of the boys. He's forced to wear prison
stripes rather than his hoodlum gear. But at least they gave him a piano!

PE: Best episode of Season Two so far is the perfect meeting of Real Camp and
Reel Camp. Liberace looks absolutely inspired playing both roles (actually,
his only acting comes as tough guy twin brother Harry), and you can tell he
was having a blast every minute he's onscreen.

JS: I too was quite surprised to have enjoyed this episode so much. There's
something endearing about the way Liberace sells himself as a cigar-chomping
man's man.

JS: Another performance worth noting was James Millhollin, who did a
fantastic job as sleazy lawyer Alfred Slye. Earlier in the year Millhollin
appeared alongside Don Knotts in the classic The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.

PE: Equally feminine are Chadell's three sirens, played by Batman-vet Edy
Williams, Marilyn Hanold, and Sivi Aberg. Hanold is fondly remembered by
genre fans for her roles in Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster and The
Brain that Wouldn't Die.

JS: Edy gets a little more screen time here than she did in The Pink Sandbox.

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PE Rating: 3.0 batsignals
JS Rating: 3.5 batsignals

--
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to see the president fail and to call every administration misstep a fiasco
risk letting their partisanship blind them to the demands not only of civic
responsibility but of basic decency.