User Reviews

There has to be a production story behind this episode, since it is quite probably the dumbest, cheapest one they ever filmed. Under the influence of feminist Nora Clavicle (a very dull Barbara Rush, who does eyebrow calisthenics on every line), the women take over Gotham City. The Mayor's wife is made police chief, and all the men on the force are fired and replaced with bimbos who can't be bothered to stop a bank robber because they're putting on their lipstick. An army of deadly mechanical mice subsequently forces every woman in the city onto a chair or desk until they cry "eek!" and faint. Batman, Robin and Batgirl, of course, lead all the mice away by playing penny whistles, ala the Pied Piper. The viewer tries in vain to look for a level of satire in the presentation of all women (except Batgirl) as hopeless, vain idiots who belong in the laundry room and kitchen, but it just isn't there. Worse, the villainess's motive is moronic, there is no Batfight (the Dynamic Duo wouldn't be slugging out girls, after all), and the death trap is mind-bogglingly bizarre: Batman, Robin and Batgirl are literally tied into some kind of knot, with the results looking like a particularly kinky threesome. Then there's a stylized cardboard set at the end purporting to represent the Gotham City docks that has to be seen to be disbelieved. It looks like something out of a high school play. Clearly, the team had run out of time, money, and ingenuity on this one, not to mention a sense of taste.

By season 3 "Batman" was really running out of steam. It had lost its twice a week slots, so no more regular "Bat trap" cliff hangars, and budgets had been dramatically reduced. All the producers had was the new addition of Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) to the show to help rescue sagging ratings - which didn't work. In this environment, viewers who still bothered to tune in were confronted by a whole raft of season 3 stinkers, of which "Nora Clavicle" is one of the grimmest examples.

As to what makes this episode so bad, it's hard to know where to start. It has a plot hinging on women being too terrified to do anything about an invasion of mechanical mice, said mice eventually being "pied pipered" into Gotham river by Batman and co dancing about playing tin whistles! There is confusion in the writing as to the motivations of the villainess. She is an extreme feminist, fighting for women's rights/she is just a straightforward selfish and greedy crook, using a "cause" cynically to loot Gotham to make herself rich. Which is it? The lazy, incoherent script never deals with this. The portrayal of the useless, gossipping, shopping obsessed policewomen, who make up the new Gotham police force after Nora gets herself made commissioner, is something which looks antediluvian, even for 1968, and its sheer crassness might stun a dedicated male chauvinist. In mitigation, it could have been said that Nora chose deliberately to recruit only certain sorts of unsuitable women for the job, so her gang would have little trouble from them when it came to looting the city - however, we aren't told that by the script, so it comes across just as a blanket piece of clunking "satire" saying "Hey guys! This is funny - see how girlies make terrible cops"! But it's not all a one way street. We see a man, one who has managed to become mayor of a big city, is incapable of cleaning a shirt, or of cooking for himself when his wife goes on strike. Gotham should rename itself "Stereotype city". And, most terrible of all, the sheer ill disguised cheapness of the thing. A lot of season 3 is shot on indoor studio sound stages that the makers can no longer be bothered to make look like anything but indoor studio sound stages. "Nora Clavicle" has its share of sound stage pantomime like scenes, the worst being the one at Gotham river side, which features a painted backdrop of supposed buildings which would shame a kindergarten school play. To cap it all, this wretched little episode, uniquely, doesn't even have a Bat fight! Not content with parading the reactionary concept across the screen that women are not suited to being good cops (had the guys not heard of Batgirl then?), these producers and writers were too priggish to even let them fight, in an episode where the situation demanded that they should.

Is there anything to be ventured to attempt a defence of this episode? Well, Barbara Rush, who plays Nora, is a good enough actress, but she's too serious a player to adapt comfortably into the "Batman" atmosphere (something which happened with a few other guest villains, such as Michael Rennie) - this is not her forte. She's also cursed with probably the worst script of her career, portraying a baddie whose motivations are inconsistent. Nora's statuesque "Greek goddess" henchwomen are a sight to behold, but the ridiculous script asks us to believe these nasty gun toting women and their cunning boss can be captured (off screen - naturally) by 2 old men, Alfred and Gordon, along with the inept Chief O'Hara (who couldn't catch a cold!). The human knot is an interestingly unique "death trap", which leads the series into slightly "kinky" areas - which one might speculate the maker's were not really aware of.

So, despite a few little hints at the potential of a "Nora" story, in sum this is a really horrible episode. One where the makers had clearly forgotten" camp" does not mean simply "stupid", the attempt to mine humour from extreme stereotypes comes across as jaw droppingly outrageous, and it appears nobody cared any more about having quality in any aspect of the "entertainment" they were presenting to audiences.

How this episode was ever made was beyond me. I had stopped watching the series when this episodes first aired, and this is a prime example of why. The idea of a group of women taking over Gotham City here ("Woman Power") is beyond insulting to women, back in 1968 and more so today.

And the episode is an insult to the performers, from Adam West to Elizabeth Baur, and also to Barbara Rush. The sets are beyond atrocious, especially when Batman, Robin and Batgirl are luring the mechanical mice in the downtown area.

In all fairness, we do learn about the "Siamese Human Knot." Overall, this episode is so rotten that it has to be watched, in order to be believed!

Okay, we'll forego discussing the rampant sexism and condescension in which this episode wallows. It's the main reason this episode has aged so badly, but not the only one. Taken in and of itself, this is still a poor episode, with plot holes up the wazoo and a lot of filler to pad it to twenty-two minutes.

The big problem is setup for the bat-deathtrap. Batgirl has held her own against trained fighters. She's even gone toe-to-toe with Catwoman, fer cryin' out loud--even if all she had to do was toss the Princess of Plunder into Chief O'Hara's waiting arms. But the second she's grabbed by Nora Clavicle, who has no fighting skills to speak of, she might as well be one of Nora's decorative henchwomen for all the fight she puts up.

There are lots of shots that seem unnecessary, usually of mice going all over the city--maybe the writers didn't think they had enough for a full episode? And then you have the usual third season problems--the low budget sets, the writing that was less phoned in than it was attached to a blind, arthritic turtle and aimed in the general direction of the studio, the lack of wit or genuine humor--and you have an unholy mess of an episode that is truly painful to watch.

All of these were problems throughout the season, but some of the episodes were still salvaged by old stalwarts Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Victor Buono, or especially Burgess Meredith (who could always be counted on for a good ad-lib or three), or by series newcomers like Eartha Kitt or Joan Collins. Unfortunately, the usually stellar Barbara Rush delivers the most uninspired performance of her career, partially because she's working with arguably the worst script in the series.

OK, OK, I lied. Let's talk about the sexism and the condescension. It's rampant, it's ridiculous, it's even worse than most of the series (and that's going some), and it turns the episode from painful to watch to impossible to watch. All in all, this was the low point for the series, and even with Penguin, Shame, and King Tut on the way, pretty much the kiss of death.

....when they came up with this storyline? The bar is pretty low to begin with, but this one? Non police officers replacing the actual police force. The police comissionioner fired, because the wife of the mayor demands it. A feminist and non police officer replacing him. A human knot. Pied piper. Mechanic mice. Women afraid of mechanic mice. Lord help us.

I have been a fan of "Batman" in all his incarnations for many years. The 1966-1968 Batman series is FAR from the serious, gritty Dark Knight we know and love today. This series was made during a time when comic book superheroes were what I like to call "Ultimate Boy Scouts". Essentially, they were ALL like Superman in terms of their attitude toward criminals. This series is known for its comical plots, the ridiculous schemes of the villains, and the absurdly obvious traps that Batman and/or Robin and/or Batgirl fall for. THIS episode "Nora Clavicle and the Ladies' Crime Club" stretches the "Theater of the Absurd" genre beyond its comedic limits.

Its chief villainess, Nora Clavicle (whose name is an all too obvious verbal jab at Feminist Gloria Steinam) is portrayed as the stereotypical "Militant Feminist", but done in typical absurdist fashion. She manipulates her way into stealing Commissioner Gordon's job (running to the Batphone and calling Batman and Robin), then appoints the mayor's wife as chief of police. While the major's wife replaces all the Gotham Police with grossly incompetent women, Ms. Clavicle, in typical villain fashion, plots to take down Batman and Robin, and ONLY because Batgirl's involvement makes them a threat.

One of Nora Clavicle's stated goals is to prove that women can run Gotham City better than men, but her female cohorts do nothing of the sort. For example, the new all-female police do nothing but put on makeup, swap recipes, and worry more about their new shoes than enforcing the law.

As I said, this episode stretches "Theater of the Absurd" to its absolute worst ends. At the time this episode was filmed, it was common for a family-friendly television show to broadcast a "Girl Power" episode. This usually involved a female villain somehow subduing or overpowering the male cast members. Often, this left any female heroes to save the day. In this case, the villain's plan was so half-hearted and ill conceived that Batman, the supposed World's Greatest Detective, came up with a pan of action that is just as half-hearted and ill conceived. This episode has been considered the absolute worst of the show, and demonstrated just how far "Batman" fell during its third season.

I'm a pretty forgiving viewer. I'm willing to endure some pretty bad episodes of television, but this episode stretches even MY tolerance. I might be willing to accept this episode as a jab against militant feminism if it had been written better, However, the villain in this episode isn't even all that militant. She comes off as an angry housewife acting out of spite rather than a career criminal. This episode has been called "Sexist". I call it "stupid", it's filled with bad sexist and sexual stereotypes of both men and women. For example, the mayor complains about not having clean clothes or a good meal because his wife refused to cook or clean, and the feminist police dispatcher is too busy telling the rest of the feminist police force about sales and deals at stores to inform them of crimes in progress. Batman's process of figuring out what's happening and how to stop it stretches the limits of believability and credibility, even for Ultimate Boy Scout Batman and the Clean-Cut Boy Wonder. AND, this episode is one of the few in the series where there was NOT a bat fight...mainly because all the villains were women, and Batman and Robin refused to fight women. We didn't even get to see Batgirl's ballet moves and straight-leg cheerleader kicks.

I have certainly seen BETTER feminism stories in TV shows and movies. The only reason to watch THIS episode is for completeness....as in, you're watching the series from beginning to end, and you can't bring yourself to skip even THIS episode. I can enjoy a plot that involves a militant feminist, but only if she's written well. This episode did nothing but make bad gender jabs on both genders.

Then there is the "Trap" that our heroes found themselves in. The "Siamese Human Knot"? And it was just Batman, Robin, and Batgirl sitting on the floor with their arms and legs tangled together, and Batman's solution is to wiggle this and flex that to "loosen the knot". I mean, this is stretching the "Mortal Peril" bit too far, especially when you consider that Nora Clavicle captured our heroes by holding a poisoned knitting needle to Batgirl's throat, and Batman makes a passing remark about it being coated in some poison or other.

Overall, this is a bad episode that only proves how far an excellent series fell in their third season.

This episode is one long push back at The Woman's Movement of the late sixties. Sadly, the message to young girls, who watched the show back in the day, was simple: Only kooks and criminals want to place women in leadership roles. And it promoted the lie that the women's movement, at its core, was filled with nothing but men haters. One egregious example: as soon as Ms. Clavicle and her evil team take over Gotham, they oust all men from their jobs. But once the newly anointed women take over they simply can't get past their "natural tendencies." For example, the female police allow a bank robbery to take place because they are too preoccupied with trading recipes, and gabbing about sales at their local department stores. It's really painful to watch. It had a horrible message for its young audience. And it's unbearable to watch today. Plus all the female "criminals" (with the exception of their leader Ms. Clavicle) dress to suit a male fantasy-short skirts and large breasts are very much on display.