I love the 60s series Batman. I love it, I love it, I love it. I was too young to watch it live, but that didn’t stop me from slopping up every single episode I could, growing up. Now, as an adult, I have the whole thing on DVD and can watch it whenever I want.
The thing about Batman is that it had a slate of unbelievable guest-stars that it stuck in goofy, funny, fully wild roles. Let’s just pause for a second and reflect on the luminaries that came onto this program: Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, Vincent Price, David Wayne, Victor Buono, Van Johnson, Milton Berle, Carolyn Jones, Anne Baxter, Cliff Robertson, John Astin, Bruce Lee, Ethel Merman, Dina Merrill, Hermione Baddeley, James Brolin, Ida Lupino, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Roddy McDowall, Walter Reed, Shelley Winters, Liberace, Art Carney, Tallulah Bankhead, Jill St. John, Joan Collins, Glynis Johns, Estelle Winwood, and Rudy Vallee. And more! So, so, much more.
But my favorite situation concerns the villain known as named Dr. Art Schivel/Mr. Freeze. Good ol’ Mr. Freeze, a scientist turned villain (aren’t they all?). In his introduction, he was played by George Sanders. George Sanders!!!! He’s a suave, authoritative Mr. Freeze with a German accent… (a bit of a damning quality in the 60s, no?). He’s cold-blooded, and not just literally… he kills innocent people!!
Sanders stopped playing Mr. Freeze after this double episode. And guess who took over the role after him?
Celebrated film director Otto Preminger. Yes, that’s right, three-time Academy Award nominee Otto Preminger, director of Laura and Anatomy of a Murder, among many other classics. (He did act occasionally… most memorably as a Nazi in Stalag 17.)
But yeah, he’s Mr. Freeze. And here’s what he looks like… note the aesthetic departure from Sanders’s Mr. Freeze, please.
I’ve seen the show a million times and yet I’m speechless.
The only thing that’s consistent between Otto and George’s Mr. Freezes is… the German accent. These two versions of the character could not be more different. Otto is way more in line with the silly, manic tone of the other Batman villains. He seems to be having way more fun than George, also.
Later, Eli Wallach would take on the role, carrying on the tradition of a silver-skinned, wild-eyebrowed mad scientist. He has hair, this time. And a different suit. Oh, and once again, he’s a completely different guy.
As Otto Preminger’s Mr. Freeze would say: “Wild!!”
