ORIGINAL AIR DATES: 3/09/1966-03/10/1966
EPISODE NUMBERS: 17-18, Production Code 8713
PLOT SUMMARIES:
True or False-Face:
The wily master of disguise, False-Face, steals The Mergenberg Crown by masquerading as the Queen's escort, and replaces it with a false one right under the watchful eyes of the police. Included with the paste crown is an obscure clue revealing to Batman and Robin that False-Face's next crime will be the hijacking of an armored car. They catch him red-handed at the Gotham City Bank, but he escapes in his Trick-Truck. The Dynamic Duo spirit False Face to an alley, where his flunkies give battle. The police arrive in time to apprehend the gang, but Fale-Face disguises himself as Police Chief O'Hara and escapes.
Suspecting a counterfeit money scheme is in the works, The Caped Crusader and The Boy Wonder rush to the bank note printer's office and capture False-Face's slinky assistant, Blaze, who is attempting to make off with a load of money paper. At Police Headquarters Blaze is interrogated, with the fake O'Hara taking part. She is torn between infatuation with Batman and her loyalty to False-Face, but finally she agrees to lead the Caped Crusader to the criminal's hideout...but it's a ruse! False-Face, disguised as a gumball machine, gasses Batman while Blaze clonks Robin over the head. The Dynamic Duo are glued to the subway rail tracks by a super-strong epoxy, as a train hurtles toward them and will momentarily trisect them!
True or False-Face/Holy Rat Race:
As the train barrels towards our heroes, Alfred hears a strange transmission on the radio that alerts him to the Dynamic Duo's peril. He contacts Batman who requests that Alfred throw the short-circuit lever of thhe Battransmitter, causing Batman's radio to blow up and melt the epoxy on his wrist. He uses his free hand to reach The Batlaser in his utility belt, which he uses to melt away the remaining epoxy and free himself and Robin just as the train passes through the station and by our heroes! Batman and Robin return to Gordon's office at Police HQ and deduce that False-Face will attempt a bank robbery in which real money will be replaced with his own fake bills, so that the only money that will be any good will be False-Face's ill-gotten gains. (After all, who would think of telling the real tender from the fake?)
The two heroes secret themselves in the bank vault, surprising the villains. False-Face and Blaze escape in the disguised Trick-Truck but are pursued by The Dynamic Duo to Bioscope Movie Studios. False-Face, discovering Blaze's crush on Batman (she was the one who sent the radio message earlier), holds her hostage and lots of mayhem ensues in and around the matchstick movie sets. False-Face blows up Batman's clever inflatable Batmobile as the chase through the movie sets continues, ending with False-Face disguising himself as a cowboy to slug it out with Batman. One last diversionary smoke screen and out pops Commissioner Gordon — a fake Commissioner Gordon. Batman sees through the disguise and rips off this last false face, and takes the protean criminal off to jail. Blaze reforms and goes off to become a shepherdess with her brother.
WRITTEN BY: Stephen Kandel
DIRECTED BY: William Graham
CAST:
Malachi Throne (False-Face)
Gary Owens (TV Announcer)
Joe Brooks (Brinks)
Billy Curtis (Burns (midget))
Myrna Fahey (Blaze)
Chuck Fox (Pinkerton)
Michael Fox (Leo Gore)
S. John Launer (Mr. Ladd)
Holly Bane (Cowboy)
Patrick Whyte (Curator)
INTERESTING NOTES:
- False-Face was a more substitute version of Two-Face, who Bat-creator Bob Kane patterned after the 1926 horror film The Phantom Of The Opera starring Lon Chaney. Two-Face's name was Harvey Kent, but changed to Dent. Two-Face wouldn't be back until the early 1970s because of a 1954 book written by Dr. Fredric Wertham called "Seduction of the Innocent", Wertham also thought that Batman & Robin were homosexuals (because of his own homophobia he decided to take it out on The Caped Crusaders) but there was no proof,that's why from 1955 to today reader would see a comics code in every issue.
- Linda Harrison (Cheerleader #2) later portrayed Nora in the 1968 20th Century-Fox scifi classic Planet Of The Apes; she was married to Fox president Richard Zanuck at the time of thie episode's production.
- Although Finger's original creation hasn't reappeared in recent times, the animated Batman Beyond series revived the idea of a villain named "Falseface" for its episode Plague. Malachi Throne did not do the voice of the character, although he was involved with that animated series (in the episode Speak No Evil.
- Malachi Throne's real face can be briefly glimpsed. When he is "disguised" as the armored car guard, that's actually Throne's real face (although he's wearing a presumably fake mustache).
- At the ending epilogue of this episode, in the living room of Wayne Manor there is a meeting of two cast members from Elvis Presley's movie "Loving You" (1957). Myrna Fahey (Blaze) was the 3rd girl in "Loving You" and Madge Blake (Aunt Harriet) was the Hired Agitator in "Loving You".
Take the first letters out of the 2 words Hired Agitator
(H A) then switch them around (A H) They stand for Aunt Harriet.
- During the scene at The Bioscope Movie studios in which Chief O'Hara drives up to The False Inflatable Batmobile, look carefully in the rearview mirror. You can see cameraman Howard Schwartz in the car's back seat!
- Malachi Throne (False Face) later provided the voice of The Judge in the October 31, 1998 "Judgement Day" segment of The New Batman Adventures and voiced Fingers in the November 4, 2000 "Speak No Evil" segment of Batman Beyond. He is best known to Trekkies as Commodore Jose Mendez/Voice: The Keeper in the 2-part "The Menagerie" episode of the classic Star Trek (NBC, 1966-69) and as Senator Pardek in the 2-part "Unification" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Syndicated, 1987-94).
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