AS our story opens, where the last show left off, Batman & Robin had fallen into the trap that False Face had prepared for them. Finding themselves tied to the track with a train approaching their fate seems to be sealed. Then, using all of his wits and scientific knowledge, Batman instructs Alfred the Butler to short circuit his wrist communications device by using a remote device in the Bat-cave. This frees Batman, who quickly frees his Teen Companion; saving them both from certain death by meat grinder.
FOLLOWING the trail of the gang, with False Face having been lulled into a False (Faced) Sense of Security, Batman & Robin track the criminal mastermind to an apparently abandoned movie studio, where False Face and his mob were holed up. The belief that Batman & Robin were kaput having served as sort of psychological sedative; leading the Great Imposter into dropping his guard.
FOR once, the Police were on hand to help with the capture. Both Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara were there in leading a detail of Goham's Finest on a good old fashioned raid! ("IT's THE COPS!!!!") In a rare and amazingly well coordinated piece of police work, the whole gang is captured, except for False Face, himself.
THEN, as Batman observes "the Commissioner" about to exit the studio, he stops him; having deducted that this "Commissioner" was as phony. He had captured False Face at last. And what would you suppose was the giveaway? Well much like Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, it was a wardrobe malfunction. It seems that old Falsie had donned the wrong tie!
SO ended the career of what had the potential to be a great and even somewhat unique Batman villain. After one appearance in the Comic Books and one on the electronic medium, False Face went the way of so many undistinguished thugs, gunmen and petty thieves who were never heard from again; having been swallowed up by the Black Hole that was the Board Room of DC Comics or 20th Century-Fox. The character had and still has great potential for the Batman Franchise; at least in our humble opinion (Schultz and Me that is.)
THE two-part False Face saga had an exceptionally conceived and executed of a cast in support of the principal players. Not counting the regular cast supporting characters, this story boasted of a veritable troupe of sideshow attractions as gang members. Featured in this Roster of Infamy were: Billy Curtis as Midget (Typecasting?), Joe Brooks as Brinks the Fat Man, Chuck Fox as the Thin Man (No Schultz, not William Powell!), Mike Ragan as Cowboy, Michael Fox*as Leo Gore (Al's cousin?) and Gary Owens inextricably caught up in the quagmire of casting, doomed to play yet another TV Announcer!
THAT leaves only the moll of the False Face Mob to deal with. In the role of Blaze we were treated to the presence of one Myrna Fahey. The beautiful starlet (Woo, woo, woo, woo!) was the cast as the typically unlucky, hard luck storied girl who fell in with wrong crowd and naturally became the female assistant to a Comic Book Bad Guy; it's as American as Pork Barrel Spending. As the character Blaze, Miss Fahey addressed Bruce Wayne (Adam West) as a Graduate of the Wayne Foundation's Criminal Rehabilitation Center, relating to the prominent Millionaire Philanthropist that she had seen the light and was moving to New Zealand, where she would live with her brother; who was a " Poor but Honest Shepherd"! (Guffaw, guffaw!)
AS a sobering post script to this wonderful madness that was the BATMAN Show, we find that her career was cut short at age 40. It was due to terminal Cancer. This came after 40+ appearances in Movies and on Television. (Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself! It's Later than You Think!)
NOTE: * Michael Fox had the role of Inspector Basch in the Batman 2 Part Pilot (Hi Diddle Diddle and Smack in the Middle), which was the first Riddler episode; but the role was excised from the show following the initial Wednesday and Thursday evening showings. We don't know why, although we have a sneaking suspicion that it was the old "Bottom Line"; which is a shame as the character could have given the writers another angle to use in their scripting chores. (Schulz says that Basch got bashed!)
POODLE SCHNITZ!!
FOLLOWING the trail of the gang, with False Face having been lulled into a False (Faced) Sense of Security, Batman & Robin track the criminal mastermind to an apparently abandoned movie studio, where False Face and his mob were holed up. The belief that Batman & Robin were kaput having served as sort of psychological sedative; leading the Great Imposter into dropping his guard.
FOR once, the Police were on hand to help with the capture. Both Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara were there in leading a detail of Goham's Finest on a good old fashioned raid! ("IT's THE COPS!!!!") In a rare and amazingly well coordinated piece of police work, the whole gang is captured, except for False Face, himself.
THEN, as Batman observes "the Commissioner" about to exit the studio, he stops him; having deducted that this "Commissioner" was as phony. He had captured False Face at last. And what would you suppose was the giveaway? Well much like Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, it was a wardrobe malfunction. It seems that old Falsie had donned the wrong tie!
SO ended the career of what had the potential to be a great and even somewhat unique Batman villain. After one appearance in the Comic Books and one on the electronic medium, False Face went the way of so many undistinguished thugs, gunmen and petty thieves who were never heard from again; having been swallowed up by the Black Hole that was the Board Room of DC Comics or 20th Century-Fox. The character had and still has great potential for the Batman Franchise; at least in our humble opinion (Schultz and Me that is.)
THE two-part False Face saga had an exceptionally conceived and executed of a cast in support of the principal players. Not counting the regular cast supporting characters, this story boasted of a veritable troupe of sideshow attractions as gang members. Featured in this Roster of Infamy were: Billy Curtis as Midget (Typecasting?), Joe Brooks as Brinks the Fat Man, Chuck Fox as the Thin Man (No Schultz, not William Powell!), Mike Ragan as Cowboy, Michael Fox*as Leo Gore (Al's cousin?) and Gary Owens inextricably caught up in the quagmire of casting, doomed to play yet another TV Announcer!
THAT leaves only the moll of the False Face Mob to deal with. In the role of Blaze we were treated to the presence of one Myrna Fahey. The beautiful starlet (Woo, woo, woo, woo!) was the cast as the typically unlucky, hard luck storied girl who fell in with wrong crowd and naturally became the female assistant to a Comic Book Bad Guy; it's as American as Pork Barrel Spending. As the character Blaze, Miss Fahey addressed Bruce Wayne (Adam West) as a Graduate of the Wayne Foundation's Criminal Rehabilitation Center, relating to the prominent Millionaire Philanthropist that she had seen the light and was moving to New Zealand, where she would live with her brother; who was a " Poor but Honest Shepherd"! (Guffaw, guffaw!)
AS a sobering post script to this wonderful madness that was the BATMAN Show, we find that her career was cut short at age 40. It was due to terminal Cancer. This came after 40+ appearances in Movies and on Television. (Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself! It's Later than You Think!)
NOTE: * Michael Fox had the role of Inspector Basch in the Batman 2 Part Pilot (Hi Diddle Diddle and Smack in the Middle), which was the first Riddler episode; but the role was excised from the show following the initial Wednesday and Thursday evening showings. We don't know why, although we have a sneaking suspicion that it was the old "Bottom Line"; which is a shame as the character could have given the writers another angle to use in their scripting chores. (Schulz says that Basch got bashed!)
POODLE SCHNITZ!!