Episodes 115 & 116
The Great Escape/The Great Train Robbery
Plot:Shame escapes from prison with a new plan.
Guest Stars:Cliff Robertson as Shame
Trivia:This is one time the bat fight in the end had no stunt men or other participants. It was just Robertson and West, who later became friends.
Niitpick:Calamity Jan is played by Robertson’s then wife Dina Merrill. What is up with the 4th wall breaking here?
Bat Silliness:Gordon asks if the world has gone batty. Batman takes offense (lol) The trio get a healthy dose of fear gas. And we even get a Superman reference snuck in!
Bat Gadget:Bat answer phone, kind of an answering machine which can respond
Bat Trap:Last time we had a Siamese trap keeping the trio huddled, here we have Shame giving the trio a dose of fair gas and they again huddle, in terror.
Final Thoughts:I guess we didn’t cover all the western stereotypes last time. Like our Calamity Jane knockoff. Called Calamity Jan because subtlety is just no fun. The episode begins with Shame breaking out of prison. In a stolen tank. Shame sends a threat saying what he is going to do and challenging Batman and Robin. The duo figure out what Shame is doing (with help from Batgirl of course) and catch up to Shame at the opera house. Where Shame is after some diamonds and kidnaps Batgirl. Shame steals some weapons for the train robbery while Batman interrogates Jan’s mother, Fanny. I love how both Batgirl and Barbara is missing but no one makes a connection. Shame offers to exchange Batgirl for Frontier Fanny. This starts a fight which ends when Shame knocks out our trio with pinata’s. So what is the train robbery? There's a train collecting all the tattered and torn money and taking it out of town. Yeah, a money train. The diamonds were used as a drill to break into the money room. Batman challenges Shame to a man to man combat, which is given a lot of weight for some reason. He seems to be channeling cowboy movies but as a person who hates Westerns, it’s lost on me.
Grade:A-, not bad especially for this season. It was a good story which made sense. And the cowboy puns were downplayed. Though I think Shame was dumber this time which was disappointing. And we have Gordon worrying about Barbara being missing all episode, even though Batgirl assures him she’s ok, and no reunion. It’s weird how the writers simultaneously care and don’t care about them being father and daughter.
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