[Batman] The Batscholar on Episodes 25 & 26

[Ubiquitous]

While not the best episode of the first season and not the Joker at his best,
It is a fun episode. When the Joker first shows up at the fur salon to steal
a hairpin from the wife of the golf club owner, he is draped in a cape and
slouch hat, he looks like the Shadow.

Later, one of the odd things about this episode happens, we see the Joker
high above the trees on a moving platform watching the Maharajah playing
golf, but only moments later Joker's men kidnap the now unconscious ruler
with the same platform. As we learn later in the story the Joker and the
Maharajah are the same person. Unless he is taking lessons from FalseFace,
there is no way he could have been playing golf and watching himself on the
platform at the same time let alone, quickly change costumes to have his men
kidnap him moments later. It gets even stranger when Bruce and Dick find
Joker's hideout behind the Novelty store. Using the reverse prism, Bruce
spots the Maharajah and the Joker's men in the storeroom, but not only does
he see them, he can hear them as well (or is that just for our benefit).
Henchman #1 (Joker's men have their usual costumes but this time have no
names) played by Norman Alden seems to be perturbed by the Maharajah. Doesn't
he know that it is the Joker. Also unless Joker knows someone is watching why
is he dressed as the Maharajah when it is not necessary to do so. Norman
Alden who played the Captain on Tim Conway's short lived Rango tv series,
would later take over the reins from Marvin Miller as the voice of Aquaman
for the cartoon Super-Friends tv show.

When Batman and Robin track Joker to the abandoned Oil Refinery, only to be
tricked by the folding mirrors on Joker's truck. The truck features the logo,
Let Gay Fellow take you to the cleaners. Considering Cesar Romero was gay, it
was an ironic turn of phrase although the word gay was not being used at this
point in time.

Joker for no apparent reason breaks into song as his men tie up the duo and
lead them to the chimney where he intends to drown them in poison gas. What
is never explained is why a chimney has a locked door, with a chain latch to
keep it closed, hardly airtight, yet the gas does not leak out. But more
importantly, why is there a two way intercom system imbedded in the wall of
the chimney? I do love Joker's response to his henchman commenting on how
Batman and Robin escaped from the chimney. He told him they took the
elevator. A snappy answer to a stupid question.

After Batman and Robin surprise Joker (no longer in Maharajah clothing) and
his men at the Novelty store, Joker and Jill manage to escape while Batman
rounds up his henchmen. That is the last time you ever see Jill. No
explaination, no nothing. When the Maharajah arrives at the bank with two
guards, she is no where to be found. Also, these two henchmen were not among
those captured at the novelty store. Where were they hiding? After the Joker
is in his words 'deflated', Batman removes his leftover FalseFace mask and
you see the extent of Cesar's makeup, it sort of ends at his neck. He is seen
wearing a t shirt underneath his costume and a chain with an unseen religeous
medal around his neck. I supose like his mustache, Cesar refused to remove it
as well.

Besides the future Aquaman, this episodes features Dan Seymour as the
Maharajah, who was one of the most frequent guest villains on the George
Reeves, Adventures of the Superman show. Also known as the doorman at Rick's
Cafe in the film Casablanca, Seymour (whose real name was Daniel Seymour
Katz) played numerous fat man parts (he was 265 pounds) mostly Arabs, like
Abbott & Costello in the Foreign Legion and Meet the Mummy, He gave his last
known appearance on the 1989 game show 3rd Degree where appeared alongside
Leonid Kinskey (Uncle Oscar from the 2nd Mad Hatter episode) where panelists
had to guess what the both had in common (besides Batman), which was they
were the last surviving members of the cast of the film Casablanca. he died a
few years later at the age of 78. He was sort a cross between Sidney
Greenstreet and Victor Buono.

--
Every American should want President Trump and his administration to handle
the coronavirus epidemic effectively and successfully. Those who seem eager
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.