Batman 1946 by Orson Welles - What if?

[Wh3nYour3Strang3]

with Dwight Frye as the Joker

[Eastwoodisboss]

opening from Citizen Kane

[deadman00]

clips from an acutle batman serial. the Batman and Robin film serial was better written.

[DrN0OB]

Sigh, it's really sad that I know where most of the footage came from. The Batman T.V. show was originally black and white. In the pilot episode batman had long ears which they changed because the audience that previewed it said the character looked like the Devil.

[Skull10]

@DrN0OB The Batman footage wasn't taken from a television show. It was taken from the theatrical serial.

[dgehen]

@DrN0OB you really are a noob if that's what you think. the 60s tv show was made in order to take advantage of and captivate audiences with its brilliant colors. the black and white footage is from the 1943 Batman movie serial.

[bitzofdataz]

@DrN0OB Yes, but is he a genius or a madman?

[ziggycat999]

Nah......don't work.

[Jucatogoskate]

Orson Welles, un Genio Incomprendido!

[DrDespicable]

No Conrad Veidt as the Joker? The Joker's look was based on "The Man Who Laughs", after all - starring Conrad Veidt...

[Skull10]

@DrDespicable I made this exclusively with clips from the '43 serial and "Citizen Kane". Conrad Veidt would have looked out of place.

[TheDrYes]

@Skull10 actually clips from the man who laughed (after watching it) would only look slightly out of place but i think you could have pulled it off though personally i wouldve liked to see basil rathbone in the role and conrad veidt as ra's al ghul (if the character was created back then and not in the 70s)

[Skull10]

@TheDrYes I could have been a lot more elaborate had I taken the time. I only put about an hour of work into this one.

[TheDrYes]

@Skull10 well it looksa great for an hours work

[Skull10]

@TheDrYes The one thing I wish I would have taken the time to do is put the music track through a filter so that it sounds vintage.

[ReiK0Z]

YOU SHOULD HAVE TITLED IT "THE BAT - MAN". MORE CANON TO THE "GRAMMATICAL CUSTOMS" OF THE "ERA".

[Skull10]

@ReiK0Z Orson Welles was well ahead of his time.

Also, the serial of from this era was titled "The Adventures of Batman and Robin", not "The Adventures of The Bat-Man and Robin".

While the use of "The" before "Batman" is debatable, I have never seen the eponymous title hyphenated.

[ReiK0Z]

@Skull10

IN THE FIRST APPEARANCE ISSUE OF "BATMAN" IN "DETECTIVE COMICS" NUMBER TWENTYSEVEN, HE IS CALLED "THE BAT - MAN".

AND I DO NOT SEE WHY THE USE OF "THE", BEFORE "BATMAN", IS "DEBATABLE".

[TheSunmanho]

the mic looks like a big dick with hairy ballz

[Skull10]

@jericoparazo Come to think of it, the lives of Charles Foster Kane and Bruce Wayne somewhat parallel each other. They both grow up to be wealthy, powerful men who are defined by a pivotal childhood experience.

[Neville6000]

@Skull10: Except that Bruce transcends his by being Batman, while Kane is ultimately destroyed by his.

[Skull10]

@Neville6000 Exactly.

[Skull10]

@jericoparazo "Citizen Wayne", perhaps?

[RavenholmFilms]

@jericoparazo very clever...um not

[ufoengines]

Hey I'd buy it, He was "The Shadow".

With computer animation you could have "The Shadow" and "Batman" fight it out at the big finish where just as Batman heaves The Shadow off the roof of the Daley Plane just as it's reveiled that they were twin brothers serpeard at birth. You could also have a death race between the Black Beauty and the Batmobile.

Lot of suff to be had with this idea..

[MsPandaRosa]

@ufoengines

I think the Black Beauty was Green Hornet's car, but it's still a great scenario.

[pylgrym]

It's 1941 all over again! And remember, Orson would have been 27 and playing Bruce Wayne/The Batman... in the best shape of his career!...This is a fantastic premise! Sidney Greenstreet as King Tut? Imagine Peter Lorre's eyes staring wldly out from the mask of SCARECROW! and the score by a young Bernard Hermann would be very much like his "Citizen Kane" work!

[LordNapalm]

Amazing. Herman makes it.

[bondurango]

Nice idea. I like the casting. But you forgot Batman. Assuming that it's Welles, you'd have to change the title to "Fatman". Other than that, I suppose you could cast parts from other Welles films So, here's my preferences:

Batman - Charleton Heston (Touch of Evil)

Penguin - Akim Tamiroff

Joker - Joseph Calleia

Catwoman - Janet Leigh

Riddler - Dennis Weaver

Poison Ivy - Marlene Dietrich

Vicki Vale - Rita Hayworth (Lady From Shanghai)

Robin - Tim Holt (Magnificent Ambersons)

[Skull10]

@bondurango Orson Welles was slender in the 40s.

[johnnynoirman]

God Skull..It the mind boggles @ the idea of Welles doing a his own version

of "Batman"he would be perfect Riddler...and Raymond Massey or Conrad Veidt would be a perfect Joker...Peter Lorre as the Penguin....Tim Holt as Robin...Rita Hayworth as the Cat Woman...ect..

[JudgeJulieLit]

@johnnynoirman In 1940s Welles was a handsome young leading man . . . as Lord Rochester in Jane Eyre.

[SergeantLuke]

Orson Welles as Batman... God I wish that had been true. It would have been amazing.

[inr21sevier]

oh man he had lazers n this one this beats the dark knight haha not realy

[sclogse1]

when he shoots the ray...it's really great.

[errolfan]

You're delusional. I like that.

[dirtycelinefrenchman]

good cast

[DivineNucleus]

(1(OATHCollin owns time travel and time stop = Justice --)1)

[Skull10]

@DivineNucleus

Huh?

[kaven06]

Nice job! It is what the name of this music?

[Skull10]

Excerpts from Bernard Herrmann's "Citizen Kane" score.

[JiffySpook]

I've never read of any mention of this in any Welles books I've read. It would have been a very interesting idea and I like your casting.

[Skull10]

I make it clear in the video info box that "this speculation has been proven to be a hoax".

[SadClownMovies]

personally i think welles was peerless, nobody could ever better kane only himself but as he said he was never given the opportunity ever again. most movies are utter garbage today. i do like some directors though, linklater is interesting. scorsese has a few masterpieces left in him i think. i'd like to see tarantino return to what he does best instead of all those exploitation-homage pics, i know he likes them, IB was good. Who else is there. help me out.

[eslubin]

this is cool

nice job

[langelapine]

brilliant!

[Nuclearman2]

This is very good, although yes, the Batman footage isn't great.

Personally, I'm not very fond of the first serial, from 1943, but I LOVE the one from 1949, with Robert Lowery as a much better, more intimidating Batman. That 12-chapter serial is more entertaining (both intentionally and unintentionally) than all of the Adam West show put together.

[yohannbiimu]

"Columbia?" Didn't Welles have a contract with RKO?

[Skull10]

I believe it expired by 1946.

Anyway, the Welles-Batman legend stated that Columbia was to produce the movie, since they owned the film rights to the Batman franchise at the time.

[leandrusi]

Very interesting!

I wonder what the script was?

[Hudsucker94]

Rumour was, They were gonna get James Cagney to play the Joker. The more I think about it, the more I think how awesome that would have been....

[detroyes2]

Music would have been by Bernard Herrmann.

[pianodan10]

Awesome

[pagano60]

The sad thing is that if Orson Welles were, in fact, working in Hollywood today, directing the next installment of the Batman franchise would be the best project that he could hope for. As action films, Christopher Nolan's Batman movies are pretty good, but I don't think that Welles would be allowed to work on today's equivalents of "Citizen Kane," "The Magnificent Ambersons," or "Touch of Evil." Where are those equivalents, anyway?

[Misterioso]

There isn't any and that is why we continue to research the past when it was an art form.

[Aped991]

@pagano60 There are no Equivalents of great films shot years ago. That's the mistake every remaker does today.

[JudgeJulieLit]

@pagano60 There's a 3D film remake of "The Great Gatsby" (to star Leonardo deCaprio) in the works. As for remakes today of the Welles 1940s films noir you list, as now nearly no black/white films are made, no chance to recreate that great melodramatic chiaroscuro and thus focus, high relief of form values possible only with the absence of color. Color makes viewer feel is looking at everyday reality, not a special world interior to the film as art. An ironic reversal of color in Wizard of Oz.

[Neville6000]

@pagano60: Sorry to have to say this, but I call 'bullshit' on that one. Orson Wells would be able to make movies independently, have them premiere at Sundance or Telluride, and then have them be shown on the Sundance Channel and IFC. Plus, the movies would be distributed through IFC Film, Thinkfilm, Fine Line Features, Paramount Classics/Vantage, Fox Searchlight, Samuel Goldwyn Company, Focus Features, MARV, etc., and have the critics applauding him all of the time.

[RighteousBrother]

Hey! I'm not knocking it though, its still mightily impressive, very reminiscent of Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, and of course Orson Welles good work my man!

[RighteousBrother]

as someone earlier said, it looks great until you see the Batman footage

[Skull10]

Sorry, it was the best vintage Batman footage I could find. I still think it looks better than the Adam West series.

[brianmen9]

The only problem with this "What if" is that Welles movies looked alot better than this Batman footage does. We all know he was ahead of his time, making movies that look as good as today's movies do.

[Skull10]

Oh, I know it. No doubt Welles would have used noirish camera techniques and dressed Batman in a higher quality suit.

Unfortunately, these stagy-looking old serial clips are the only halfway decent vintage Batman footage out there. At least it doesn't look quite as silly as the Adam West series.

[jokercrazed]

Easily one of the most creative Batman vids I have ever seen!

Excellent work.

[DeutscheBagge]

Excellent video, five stars. Say, which Bernard Herrmann score is this music from?

[Skull10]

Citizen Kane, in fact. Excerpts from the opening and closing shots of Xanadu.

[predlycon]

That was a good idea, Skull10. Think about it, Joseph Cotten makes a pretty good Harvey Dent.

[Skull10]

I thought so. Ergo Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt".

[lordofwastelands]

the one posted by Sirrus79 looks better, more authentic

[Skull10]

I agree.

However:

A. He has better software

B. I'm sure he spent much more time on it

[lordofwastelands]

that's exactly my point. i'm not saying that yours is bad though

[PepeTheDon666]

Obviously this is NOT Welles. The internet is bullshit, my friend.

[Skull10]

OBVIOUSLY you didn't read the video info box.

[clintrock]

very interesting and well done. Closer to the original concept of Batman than what we see now. Thanks for the video.

[GabeMaher]

Wouldn't it be known as "The Batman" back in the 40's?

[Skull10]

Perhaps. However, Orson Welles was so ahead of his time, it is not a stretch of the imagination to think he would have simply titled the film "Batman".

[idcook]

:-D Very nicely done.

[Skull10]

If I had better software, I could have produced something far more dynamic. But, alas, I am circumscribed to Windows movie maker. Best I could do with available tools.

[MannequinSkywalker]

Even though its a hoax, it still is a good story. The best part is imagining what the whole movie would have been like.....

[miscvids818]

Joseph Cotton as Two Face. I love it.

[bigpimpinliquidcool]

Orson Welles very cool i like Orson Welles

[KentAllard]

"According to a widely-believed internet rumor" - no its been proved to be a hoax

[Skull10]

Apparently you didn't read my commentary further: "Though this has since been proven to be a hoax, it remains an enormously fascinating idea."

[KentAllard]

however in the 1960s he did consider a film for The Shadow.

[Skull10]

Well, he did provide his voice for the title character in the 1930's radio drama.