User Reviews

We found this on the H&I channel today. Van Johnson dressed up like a troubadour and playing the tune "A Wandering Minstrel" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado on the lute was a nice, creative touch. This villain was also an electronic genius that Batman found hard to foil for a while but in the end, Batman always wins, right? I Van Johnson carried the part rather well!!!

"The Minstrel's Shakedown" features an intriguing new villain, a musician and electronics genius calling himself The Minstrel, successfully wreaking havoc on the Gotham City Stock Exchange, a plot to extort $1000 per week from each Stock Exchange member. All of his prerecorded messages show him on a television screen, strumming a lute and singing his demands to the tune of "A Wandering Minstrel I." The biggest drawback for this two parter is the unfortunate casting of former screen heartthrob Van Johnson as Special Guest Villain, at age 50 far too old to play what is described as a 'nice looking young man,' his questionable singing sinking even further the character's credibility as a menace. There is a memorable cameo from Phyllis Diller as a whistling scrubwoman, before the Dynamic Duo find themselves tied to a rotating spit, their respective gooses ready to be thoroughly cooked.

I have seen this three times, in the last several years, and I now agree with most reviewers

Van Johnson, even in Brigadoon, was not enjoyable to watch, and the same here.

Perhaps he was having difficult times, or his homosexuality was causing it, but here, it could have been a really good episode, but as others said, it was boring.

Van Johnson tried to cope with his movie career hitting the skids by creating a singing nightclub act. This episode was clearly written so as to promote his singing, which gets tiresome and embarrassing quickly. Also, the director used his little minstrel tune as the instrumental cue for Johnson, so that by the time you are done, you have this awful song virus, even worse than the Verve's dreadful 1990's pop song 'Bittersweet Sympony.'

Johnson was getting soft and jowly by the 1960's, so he is, in general an unimpressive villain anyway, even without the singing. He and Alan (Alfred) Napier had worked together in '30 Seconds Over Tokyo,' Johnson's best movie, so maybe they had a drink together after shooting this episode, or maybe not. Regardless, this show was another step on the long way down from being an A-lister in the mid-1940's. By the late 1970's, Johnson would be shucking Poly-Grip and appearing on The Love Boat.

The death trap, slow roasting of the Dynamic Duo, is in worse taste than usual, and their escape is unimpressive. The high point for the whole episode is a cameo by Phyllis Diller. I recommend skipping this one.