Word: batmanic
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Fantomas is the name of France's glossy riposte to both James Bond and Batman. Modeled on a French fictional supercriminal, he is dedicated to evil rather than good deeds. Fantomas steals diamonds from Van Cleef & Arpels, hijacks a gambling casino, terrorizes Paris and kidnaps blondes, all the while disguised as several law-abiding characters by means of "the most perfect artificial skin." Beneath the masks lurks another mask, a bluish-grey rubbery face girdle that gives him the fiendish aspect of a dirty Mr. Clean...
...foggiest of reasons, both Fantomas and the hot-shot Parisian journalist who seeks to undo him are played by Jean Marais. He has neither Batman's flair nor James Bond's cool, though he can easily look squarer than Superman. Passionate self-parody is Marais's gimmick, and he earns a snicker whenever he detours into the arms of that demoiselle-in-distress, Mylène Demongeot, at one point with such fervency that he seems about to fling himself out of a rising helicopter...
...first show, The Service for Joseph Axminister, written by George Dennison, is a bland serving of existentialism dished out the self-conscious way the man who created the TV Batman would have done it. Alas, despite its mellow content, it will make...
Staging a play within a play is a good way to get at the serious question of reality and illusion--provided the playwright is skillful. Dennison isn't. Instead of treating the device seriously or comically--as in Batman when a BLAM sign is flashed--he tries to do both at once and winds up with something that is laughable. There is, for example, an actor who "portrays" a train and at least four times walks across the stage carrying a framework that is suggestive of a train. Not to subtle...
...before adults crouch down in first-base position, they'd best reconcile themselves to being already out. For as soon as grownups catch on, it's time to change-and there goes the Philly Dog, right out in left field with the Slop, the Mashed Potato, the Batman and the Jerk...