Back in the golden age of exploitation cinema, when American studios released foreign genre films, they would always tamper with the original version of the film. This tampering usually consisted of removing existing scenes, re-editing the film, and creating new footage (in addition to dubbing). Schlockmeister Jerry Warren’s claim to fame is that he was known as an "Americanization" specialist who performed this mutilation on numerous Mexican genre flicks such as CREATURE OF THE WALKING DEAD, ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY, and FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF. In 1966, Warren finally got a break and created his own film from scratch—he performed triple duties on THE WILD WORLD OF BAT WOMAN. This picture was a comedic version of the super hero genre, shot on a shoe-string budget and without any talent or special effects. Warren caught the attention of D.C. Comics, the copyright holders of the popular BATMAN franchise, and before he knew it, their lawyers slapped a lawsuit on him. Warren quickly re-shot a short prologue suggesting that the Bat Woman was a vampire (instead of a super hero), and changed the name of the film to I WAS A HIPPY VAMPIRE. This costly incident pretty much ruined Warren’s career, and he only worked again on one other film (FRANKENSTEIN’S ISLAND in 1981). THE WILD WORLD OF BAT WOMAN is pretty much terrible in all regards, which makes it a perfect target for those dudes at MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (in fact, THE WILD WORLD OF BAT WOMAN was one of the most popular MST 3000 episodes of all time). Rhino home video has the rights for the MST 3000 episodes, and they released THE WILD WORLD OF BAT WOMAN on DVD in first quarter 2001. Like all their MST 3000 DVDs, the disc also includes the original uncut version of the film in addition to the actual MST 3000 TV episode.

THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN opens with two sexy women indoctrinating a third into the ranks of the Bat Women. The ladies do not drink blood or anything, but instead drink yogurt. After the credits, a man is mugged and shot by two thugs in an alleyway. This deplorable act is witnessed by two young members of the Bat Woman team, who use their wrist radios (shades of Dick Tracy) to report the crime to Bat Woman. Next, the two criminals, Tiger and Bruno, enter a go-go dancing tavern, populated by voluptuous women dancing (in hot pants, yet)! A young girl at the bar is one of Bat Woman’s associates. The thugs drop a mickey into her drink, which causes her to pass out. They nonchalantly carry her out of the tavern and deliver her to the laboratory of the a monster-loving mad scientist, Dr. Neon and his idiot assistant, Heathcliff. Meanwhile, Bat Woman traces the location of the girl through her wrist radio, but Dr. Neon and the thugs know that Bat Woman is headed for the lab to rescue her protégé. When she shows up, she is greeted by her old nemesis Ratfink, who broadcasts his image on a large monitor while he is safely holed up in a remote location. The masked villain wants Bat Woman to break into the Ayjax Development corporation and steal their atomic hearing aid, in exchange for the life of her protégé. Dr. Neon slips Bat Woman one of his "happy pills" but Bat Woman switches drinks and the hippy scientist ingests his own concoction and begins dancing throughout his laboratory and crashing into things. Bat Woman uses the distraction to rescue the girl and escape. Ratfink is peeved at his clownish henchmen and orders them to break into Ayjax Development and retrieve the atomic hearing aid so Ratfink can intercept top-secret government communication. This hearing aid can also be turned into a nuclear weapon with the addition of the element, Cobalt.

Flanigan, vice president of Ayjax Development corp., visits Bat Woman’s headquarters (interrupting her PHANTOM OF THE OPERA style organ playing) and attempts to bring her and her team into the picture to protect the company from Ratfink’s goons. Bat Woman agrees to help, and she and her girls keep tabs on the device at the Ayjax Development building. But, Dr. Neon, Tiger, and Bruno all put on disguises (Groucho Marx mustaches and beards) and make their way into the complex. By giving away free food filled with Dr. Neon’s "happy" drugs, the villains cause everyone in the building (including Bat Woman and her team) to trip out and go-go dance. This makes it easy for the bumbling crooks to steal the much-vaunted item. When Bat Woman realizes they’ve been stiffed, she holds a seance to determine how the perpetrators committed the crime. She sends her girls to the beach to keep an eye out for Ratfink and his gang. This allows the girls more opportunities to flirt with boys and dance to surf rock music. One by one, Ratfink kidnaps the girls and takes them to his subterranean base. This underground fortress is guarded by Dr. Neon’s monsters (stock footage from THE MOLE PEOPLE). With the help of Flanagan, Bat Woman discovers the location of her enemy’s base, and arrives just in time to save her protégé’s. The battle is on between the forces of the mysterious Ratfink and Bat Woman and her team!

Jerry Warren’s script constantly mentions monsters, and Dr. Neon professes to have created some monstrous beasts. Dr. Neon loves monsters, and gets into an argument with his boss Ratfink just so he can spend time with his creations. At last, in the final five minutes we finally get a 3 second glimpse of these "monsters", which are stock footage from THE MOLE PEOPLE! A lot of things in Warren’s script just don’t make sense. For instance, the opening scene where a man is mugged is never explained. When Bat Woman hosts a seance, nothing ever becomes of it (except some racist humor). Dr. Neon’s thugs force a young girl to imbibe an early date rape drug, and they kidnap her in full view of a packed rock n roll club, but no one does a thing (or even looks concerned)! The whole plot is merely an excuse for the go-go dancing and surf rock in every other scene.

Warren’s direction is as bad as his script. There are so many technical glitches in THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN, you swear this was a high school production. Katherine Victor plays the character of Bat Woman, a super heroine without any powers or physical ability (or acting ability for that matter). She has a bat tattoo just above her lovely bosoms. Her costume consists of a dark teddy and panty hose with a black party mask with peacock feathers sticking out, and of course, the requisite black gloves. The mysterious villain Ratfink is a throwback to the serials of the 1930s and 1940, and is named after the Ray Dennis Steckler’s RATFINK A-BOO-BOO. Ratfink’s enforcers are of the bumbling henchmen variety. Dr. Neon particularly contributes many funny moments.

-  Phil Chandler

BACK TO: