Directed by: Jerry Warren
Starring: Katherine Victor, George Andre, Steve Brodie, Richard Banks, Lloyd Nelson, Bruno VeSota
Easily one of the most ridiculous and incomprehensible films you will ever see, it’s no surprise that The Wild World of Batwoman was so eagerly embraced by the Mystery Science Theatre crew.
Warren was active throughout the 50s and 60s and specialised in buying up low-budget foreign horror movies – usually from Mexico – on the cheap. He then chopped them to pieces and added new footage of down-on-their-luck US actors such as John Carradine and Robert Clarke. His woeful attempts at adding narration to smooth over the gaps usually made them even more incomprehensible.
‘Batwoman’ is played in played by Katherine Victor, aka Katena Ktenavea, an imperious-looking lady with no discernible acting ability who moonlighted in poverty row productions as a bit of light relief from her day job working in animation for companies like Hanna-Barbera and Walt Disney!
There’s no Batcave for this Batwoman, because the budget would only stretch to a normal modest suburban home, where our heroine spends most of her time sitting around looking bored, or chatting on the phone while playing den mother to her ‘Batgirls,’ who get up to more energetic pursuits, such as wrestling. At one point they are slipped some happy pills – probably from Jerry’s personal stash – that causes them to hit the dance floor and gyrate to wild swinging guitar music in a fashion that we’ve never seen before, and frankly never want to see again.
Put aside all normal rules of narrative because this movie will have you shaking your head in bewilderment right from scene one. This shows a guy being stabbed in an alley but bears no relation to the silliness that follows and seems to be from another film altogether. Maybe it is?
It seems that The Wild World of Batwoman was cobbled together by opportunistic Jerry Warren on a slow weekend to capitalise on the popularity of the Batman TV show. Of course as soon as he announced the film’s release in the trade papers, DC Comics promptly sued him over the name, forcing him to initially release it as She Was A Hippy Vampire.
Who cares, really. The fact remains that under any title, it’s a stinker.