ORIGINAL AIR DATES: 2/09/1966-02/10/1966
EPISODE NUMBERS: 9-10, Production Code 8705
PLOT SUMMARIES:
Zelda The Great:
Once every year, on April Fool's Day, an unidentified villain robs one of Gotham City's banks of exactly $100,000. That thief is none other than Zelda The Great, a world-famous magician/escape artist who uses the ill-gotten gains to pay off a strange Albanian mastermind answering to the moniker of Eivol Ekdal, who devises Zelda's each and every escape device. The Batman decides to trap the thief by planting a story in the newspaper claiming the stolen money was counterfeit. When Eivol reads the fake article, he refuses to give Zelda his latest device, The Inescapable Death-Trap, until his demands are met.
Noticing a story about a rare gem on display in a local jewelry store (another phony article instigated by The Caped Crusader), E.E. send Zelda to swipe the gem in exchange for his creation. Zelda guesses the bugged-gem trick and confounds our heroes when she successfully steals the jewel — only to throw it away and then put through a phone call to Aunt Harriet and dupe her into believing her nephew Dick Greyson has been injured by a pop fly ball, and lure her to the Gotham playground. There Zelda kidnaps Harriet and spirits her away to her hide out, where she encases her in a straitjacket suspended over a vat of boiling oil, and holds her for ransom!!
A Death Worse Than Fate:
Just as Zelda's deadline is about to expire, Bruce Wayne, Commissioner Gordon, and Robin arranges to deliver the ransom money through live TV and manage to convince her the money she heisted from the bank was real. When Aunt H. is returned, a matchbook advertising Ekdal's Gnome Bookstore falls out of her pocket. This clue Zelda hopes will lure The Dynamic Duo into her trap. Batman and Robin speed to Eivol's Bookstore, where they fall prey to Ekdal's Inescapable Doom Trap, a alrge transparent cage made out of Jet Age plastics. When deadly gas fills the cage, The Caped Crusader ignites it by placing hit metal utility belt buckle against the electrified grating at the cage's base, causing it to blast open the door and release them.
Zelda, who has bore witness to the aggrandizing affair from Ekdal's hidden room, feels guilty and warns Batman and Robin about the gunmen hidden inside 2 mummy cases just outside The Doom Trap, waiting to blow them away! The Duo quockly duck out of the way just in time to avoid the gunmen's bullets, which insidiously do them in. Eivol Ekdal tries to make a break for it, but is stopped by a well-aimed Batarang tossed at him, and moments later, a wet-cheeked Zelda quietly surrenders. Ekdal is put away and Zelda — having helped save Batman — gets a reprieve and a job as a childrens' magician.
WRITTEN BY: Lorenzo Semple Jr.
DIRECTED BY: Norman Foster
CAST:
Anne Baxter (Zelda)
Frankie Darro (Newsman)
Jack Kruschen (Eivol Ekdal)
Barbara Heller (Hillary Stonewin)
Jim Drum (Officer Clancey)
Stephen Tompkins (Bank Guard)
Victor French (Hood #1)
Bill Phillips (Hood #2)
Jerry Doggett (Announcer)
Douglas Dumbrille (Doctor)
INTERESTING NOTES:
- This was Anne Baxter's first appearance on the show but her only one as Zelda. She later would appear in the final season as Egghead's paramour Olga, Queen of the Cossacks
- Both Zsa Zsa Gabor and Bette Davis were considered for the role of Zelda. (Gabor eventually wound up playing Minerva in the series finale, Minerva, Mayhem And Millionaires.)
- Frankie Darrow, who plays a newsman, was previously a Dead End Kid.
- These episodes were originally entitled "The Inescapable Doom Trap"/"Zelda Takes the Rap" and scheduled to air January 26 and 27.
- Based on "Batman's Inescapable Doom-Trap!" from Detective Comics #346 by John Broome. Although the evil character Eivol Ekdal appeared in the story, Zelda didn't; instead the magician was a man named Carnado.
- For once, The Dynamic Duo enter through the rear of Police HQ!
BACK TO EPISODES MENU
Home
