I just happened on this trailer via some random YouTube surfing. Apparently Orson Welles’ “secret project” was The Bat-Man, with himself in the title role. Why was this movie never released? Welles obviously must have shot a lot of the footage, to make this trailer – with Edward G. Robinson as the Penguin, yet!
Or is it, as some of the comments suggest, a hoax?
Fairly obvious hoax, from various sources. (I recognize the bit about “the bird of night” from the Mercury Theatre’s Julius Caesar, for instance.)
Several shots used here appear to be Ruth Warrick, the first wife in Citizen Kane. There were some others that looked like they might be from The Lady from Shanghai as well. I’m inclined to think hoax as well.
Toward the end of part 1, there’s a brief clip of someone cutting through a pane of glass, followed by a shot of a clawed hand reaching through a doorway. These came from The Bat (1959). An earlier film version, The Bat Whispers, is said to have been one of the inspirations for Batman. In that version, the title character (a villain) wears a cape and occasionally casts a shadow resembling a giant bat.
But there’s actually much more bat imagery in the earliest film version of the story, The Bat (1926). That’s where the “bat signal” in part 2 of the fake trailer is lifted from.
Yep . it was a hoax. A clever one, though.
from 2003 by Mark Millar -
Conrad Veidt made a great Joker in the sequel! Ditto Clifton Webb as Alfred, but I really question casting Mae West as Catwoman.
He wasn’t prepared.
I understand they did some make-up tests for it.
Well, I obviously hadn’t watched the whole thing when I posted. I thought they were just sticking with The Penguin. Glad to see I did call Veidt for the Joker.