So, the Mrs. & I were watching Batman Returns on A&E this afternoon. After Michelle Pfeiffer made her first appearance in costume, the following exchange ensued:
Me: Eh. Halle Berry was better.
Mrs: No, she wasn’t.
Me: Yeah, she was.
Mrs: No. She just wore less clothes.
(beat)
Me: OK. You and I obviously have very different definitions of ‘better’.
But seriously … Ms. Pfeiffer and Ms. Berry are both lovely, talented actresses. And I know that Berry won a Golden Raspberry for that performance. But IMHO, that had a lot more to do with how horrendously terrible that movie was, than anything about her performance, which I thought was mostly pretty decent. And Pfeiffer’s performance, on review, seems a bit campy & over the top. (Like most everyone’s performance in every movie in the series starting with Burton’s Batman, save possibly Michael Keaton’s.)
So–what are your opinions? Who is the ultimate Catwoman, so far? (I’m not going to try to exclude Julie Newmar etc., because you crazy people will throw those names in even if I do …)
Well, of the live action Catwomen, I have to say…Julie Newmar.
I haven’t seen the Halle Berry movie, so I can’t compare her to the other 3 (Pfeifer, Kitt and Newmar), but of the three I have seen, Newmar wins.
She had a certain level of fun that I found to be missing in Kitt’s verion, and Pfeifer…meh. I can think of nothing good to say about that movie, really.
I have to say though, criticising Pfeifer’s performance because she went with the effect the director was going for - everyone was campy in that flick, and so were the sets - is kind of a weak position. That it failed to be fun, despite that, however, is.
And well worth picking up the DVD, too, particularly as it’s the only authorized 60s Batman available right now. “Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”
Oh, and another vote for Newmar as the finest Catwoman. Rrrowl.
I’d like to vote for Lee Meriwether. I think she was a good actress, as well as being an extraordinarily beautiful and attractive woman, and I don’t think she gets her share of nostalgic recognition and attention.
I’ve nothing against Michelle Pfeiffer (more’s the pity, ba-dum, rimshot), but I don’t think she was any good at all. When the movie came out, I think the only thing people were impressed by and raved about was the suit, and the fact that the producers got Pfeiffer to wear it. The suit, the suit, the suit… not the actress or the acting.
Haven’t seen the Halle Berry flick, based on the advice of millions.
Halle Berry is sexy. Catwoman is sexy. And ripped skintight leather is sexy. And yet, somehow, the people behind that movie managed to make the combination of those three elements completely and totally un-sexy. I can’t imagine how this is possible, but it had to have involved a great deal of skill. You can’t screw up that badly by accident.
Michelle Pfeiffer was better, inevitably (since it’s not possible to get much worse than Berry as Catwoman), but I wasn’t too impressed by her, either. She never seems too remarkable in anything I’ve seen with her (unlike Berry, who as I mentioned is usually very hot).
The others, I’m too young to remember them on the screen, but based on still pictures, I’d go with Julie Newmar. Which might not be entirely fair; I’ve heard that much of Eartha Kitt’s appeal was her voice, but I can’t judge that.
Well, for a sample of Ms.Kitt’s voice in its prime, think back to last Christmas and the memory of Santa Baby you undoubtedly heard a time or two. That’s her. Now, imagine that voice pitched lower and more, hmmm, cat-like.
I must be alone in liking Halle Berry’s Catwoman. I only vaguely remember Pfeiffer’s performance, but I do remember what ianzin mentioned: the suit.
The old Batman TV show was so long ago, and it’s been about three decades since I watched it in reruns as a kid, so I really don’t remember much about any of those performances. I was also young enough that I never really noticed that sometimes she was white and sometimes she was black.
Actually, although Kitt doesn’t get my vote, you raise a good point: she was the one who actually sounded most like a cat woman.
Can someone with a higher comix IQ than me please clear up something for me while we’re on the subject? Was Catwoman supposed to have any special powers or abilities, other than a pleasing inclination to dress in skin-tight black leather?
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Uh, I don’t think you and I could ever be friends! Halle Berry was better? She was just naked-er. No way, she didn’t even come remotely close and every copy of that movie should be burned and forever removed from the Earth, and I say that about almost no movies.
Michelle Pfeiffer, for sure! I’m surprised no one else agrees!
