"Holy Rat Race" concludes the most unique two parter of the entire series, as Malachi Throne's False Face continues his criminal reign of terror, while his accomplice Blaze (Myrna Fahey) tips off Alfred (Alan Napier) with a radio broadcast that leads him to contact Batman via wrist radio; ordered to destroy this means of communication, Alfred reluctantly does so, enough to free one wrist and enable the Caped Crusader to burn away the bonds tying himself and Robin to the subway tracks, watching it speed by with a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, False Face is determined to flood the Gotham City National bank with counterfeit money, only to be foiled by Batman yet again, leading the Batmobile on a merry chase inside an abandoned movie studio, and the adoption of several disguises to elude detection. The crafty villain was successful when impersonating Chief O'Hara, but as Commissioner Gordon fails to hold his handkerchief in Gordon's right hand: "always the little things!" False Face exits with another threat for Batman, but this time he wouldn't keep his word. Malachi Throne would receive billing in the closing credits and essentially enjoy the last laugh, working nonstop for another 40 years, one of the unsung villains who posed a very real threat to the Dynamic Duo.
5 Reviews
"When last we saw BATMAN & ROBIN........", aw you know! Run the Film, Schultz!
redryan646 March 2009
Warning: Spoilers
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!!
ACCEPTABLE FIRST PART, OUTSTANDING THE SECOND
asalerno1029 June 2022
In the first part of this adventure we see the adventures of False Face and his accomplice Blaze, both are dedicated to counterfeiting bills. Batman catches Blaze but she leads him into an ambush and the dynamic duo end up tied to a train track. In the second part Batman and Robin manage to avoid being run over by the express and pursue False Face to his lair located in the movie sets of an abandoned studio, there is a great pursuit of the Batmobile to the False Face truck and later the villain will try his escape aboard a motorcycle, until he is finally caught. It has been said that the actor Malachi Throne had been very upset with the producers since they made the decision not to credit him as a guest villain in the titles to maintain the mystery of who personified False Face and his name just appears in the closing of the second part. The episode is very good, especially part 2 in which you can see an excellent and dynamic chase scene between the dynamic duo and Blaze to capture the villain.
Possibly the best episodes overall
tforbes-217 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This one outing for False Face marked the very first time that I felt frightened from a Batman episode.
And I loved it, even as a kid!!
In reality, the episode benefits from a high level of unpredictability, which makes for a real sense of suspense. Malachi Throne's performance is absolutely stellar, as he brings a real sense of menace to the role. On an interesting note, Myrna Fahey manages to sport hairdos with different colors, almost like a prototype for the punks from the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is sad she did not live long enough to see this! Midget Billy Curtis, who made a memorable appearance in "Adventures of Superman" 10 years before, appears here as well.
And as per the previous review's reference to Michael Fox: His appearance as Inspector Basch in the pilot episode was likely a reference to ABC's crime drama, "The FBI." That was likely a one-shot deal, which explains why he appears here in a different role.
While the pilot episode is my all-time favorite, this episode may be overall the best of the entire series!!! Check it out!
And I loved it, even as a kid!!
In reality, the episode benefits from a high level of unpredictability, which makes for a real sense of suspense. Malachi Throne's performance is absolutely stellar, as he brings a real sense of menace to the role. On an interesting note, Myrna Fahey manages to sport hairdos with different colors, almost like a prototype for the punks from the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is sad she did not live long enough to see this! Midget Billy Curtis, who made a memorable appearance in "Adventures of Superman" 10 years before, appears here as well.
And as per the previous review's reference to Michael Fox: His appearance as Inspector Basch in the pilot episode was likely a reference to ABC's crime drama, "The FBI." That was likely a one-shot deal, which explains why he appears here in a different role.
While the pilot episode is my all-time favorite, this episode may be overall the best of the entire series!!! Check it out!
False Face Caught & Revealed
DKosty12316 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Humble Alfred saves the day, though I am not sure why Robin was in danger as Batman is on the right train track, Robin is on another one, unless two trains cross in the tunnel like ships in the night.
After being saved, the trap is set by Batman leading False Face to a False Vault, trying to steal Gotham Banks cash. Still, despite Batmans trap, False Face Gets Away Again. So the false face chase continues.
It leads to the abandoned Bioscope Studio. Here we see a lot of the back lot movie sets where the series is filmed at 20th Century Fox. There are several quick traps by False Face, and a clever ruse by Batman.
What is great about this criminal is the fast changes that keep the viewer guessing. At the end of this conclusion, the identity of False Face is revealed in the credits. That is the only truth about the false criminal.
After being saved, the trap is set by Batman leading False Face to a False Vault, trying to steal Gotham Banks cash. Still, despite Batmans trap, False Face Gets Away Again. So the false face chase continues.
It leads to the abandoned Bioscope Studio. Here we see a lot of the back lot movie sets where the series is filmed at 20th Century Fox. There are several quick traps by False Face, and a clever ruse by Batman.
What is great about this criminal is the fast changes that keep the viewer guessing. At the end of this conclusion, the identity of False Face is revealed in the credits. That is the only truth about the false criminal.
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