"Batman" on TCM

[Progress Pigment]

Turner Classic Movies have been airing segments of the first Batman movie serial lately. If you search "Batman" as I do, you probably are aware already. I have the serials on DVD, but recorded these anyway, although I missed the first few. I'm curious if they use the uncut, politically incorrect version.

[Jim K, Bat fan]

The comment found in another topic about cigarettes falling from Batman's cape got me wondering - does it appear the serial being shown on TCM has been remastered in some way? Does it look better than the DVD?

[Progress Pigment]

No sure. I have it on DVD, and there are lots of blips & scratches on the negative. I think mine is just a transfer of the old VHS copies. It isn't the more modern release. And the soundtrack on it changes things like "Dirty japs!" to "Dirty Criminals!" -- very noticeably. The TCM copies are pristine. You can tell Batman's cape & cowl are basically a stitched up blanket -- there's no flow at all.

[AndyFish]

When they showed it a few years ago it was the unedited version complete with some negative comments about the Japanese villains. I'm glad they didn't show the silly redubs Goodtimes released on VHS in 1989.

I'm pretty sure its the same print Sony released on DVD. Trust me, if there was a better master out there I would have found it.

Back in the days before commercial VHS releases of serials, I belonged to an organization that would "borrow" the 35mm masters from the studio vaults (usually over a weekend so we could get them back before anyone noticed) and we would then film -chain them to Video. It wasn't as "Oceans Eleven" as it sounds-- the studios didn't care about them at the time and the films were in decay-- we actually did it to preserve copies so they would not be lost to disintegration.

My group "found" several thought lost serials including THE PHANTOM and BRENDA STARR.

I used to take out ads in the Comics Buyers Guides selling them on VHS and some of my customers were DC and Marvel comics (I was in high school). We even made a trip to the Library of Congress to examine the copyrights on them to see what was public domain.