A visual history of the Batman

You batboys and batgirls who didn’t get to see The Dark Knight this weekend can at least take a trip down Gotham’s memory lane, with the Batman Battles the Bad Guys photo gallery compiled by Time.

“Some” of your favorite characters from the Batman universe are featured, including Adam West as Batman, Julie Newmar as Catwoman, Cuban-American Cesar Romero as The Joker, Frank Gorshin as The Riddler, early Batman Robert Lowery, from the 1949 film, The New Adventures of Batman and Robin, plus more recent incarnations like Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, Jack Nicholson’s Joker, Danny DeVito’s Penguin, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze, and more. But where the hell is Eartha Kitt, who had the sexiest Catwoman speak ever…puurrrrrrrfect in fact. Yvonne Craig is also missing. She played the bright-eyed and sexy (in a uniformed schoolgirl sorta way) Batgirl, also from the 1960’s Adam West TV show. Actor Victor Buono was fiendish as the larger-than-life criminal King tut, in the same show.

That said, there’s still some really nice classic B/W shots in the presentation.

CLICK HERE to view a “limited” history of Batman in TV and cinema.

Thanks to Sadé for the heads up on this link.

Film Fetish Trivia: Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t the first major Hollywood figure to don the really “cool” Mr. Freeze outfit. The 1960’s TV series featured renowned director Otto Preminger in a two-part story arc, as the frozen villain. Green Ice, which aired on November 9th, and Deep Freeze, which aired the very next day, in 1966, during Season 2 of the cult show. Preminger is famous for directing Carmen Jones with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in 1954, The Man with the Golden Arm with Frank Sinatra in 1955, and Bunny Lake Is Missing with Sir Laurence Olivier in 1965, about a woman who reports her young daughter missing, but there seems to be no evidence the child ever existed. Joe Carnahan (who helmed Narc and Smokin’ Aces) is co-writing and directing a remake of Bunny lake, due out in 2009.