Douglas Croft

            On Sunday morning the heat was much more tolerable in my apartment since I reset the thermostat yesterday from 25 to 22. I think at 25 the furnace would have been on all through spring. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse and a half of “No Man’s Land” by Serge Gainsbourg. I think once I have the second verse that will establish most of the song’s pattern. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions and had a good time despite it being constantly out of tune. Next week I’ve really got to get it fixed. 

            I weighed 85.95 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I brought in the stepladder and finished sanding the areas I’d filled in the bathroom ceiling. Next, starting with the east side I’ll sand all the parts of the walls I need a ladder to reach. 

            I weighed 86.15 kilos before lunch. I had guacamole and potato chips with a glass of soy milk. 

            I took a siesta and slept about 45 minutes longer than usual and so it was definitely too late to take a bike ride all the way downtown. I rode as far as Ossington and Bloor and stopped at Freshco on the way home. I checked out the grapes but they were all too soft. I bought a bag of frozen lima beans and a jar of salsa. On the way home I stopped at Queen Fresh market where I bought two bags of red grapes. 

            My bike saddle has gotten loose, tilting up and down and shifting from left to right a bit. I don’t have an Allen key that fits it. I went to Metro Cycles but they were closed and so I’ll pop by there tomorrow before my ride to get it tightened. 

            I weighed 85.95 kilos at 18:45. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:30. 

            In the second Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I reduced the duration of the frames of my second animation to 37% of a second. But that they were still too long to end at the point when I start singing. So I reduced their duration to 33% of a second. I think that’s going to work but I hadn’t quite reduced enough of them when it was time for supper. 

            I made a quick chili with frozen lima beans and a jar of salsa. I had a bowl with potato chips while watching episodes 4 and 5 of the 1943 Batman serial. 

            In part 4, Batman has been knocked out after tossing a bomb off a railroad bridge to save a supply train. But now that train is about to run Batman over. Robin rushes out onto the bridge and rolls Batman off to fall in the water, just before jumping himself. Meanwhile Daka is feeding crabs to his pet alligators. He considers telling his zombie Martin Warren to jump in so they can have a special treat but someone is at the door. Foster arrives to report their failure to blow up the supply train and to retrieve the radium gun. Daka warns him he will get someone else to replace him and Foster says that’s fine with him. He says he’s switching sides because he knows the Allies are going to win. Daka orders two of his zombies to seize Foster but Foster shoots one of them. He then points the gun at Daka and orders him to open the door. Daka does so but before Foster can reach it Daka opens the trap door and Foster falls to become food for the alligators. Daka gets word that a new shipment of radium is arriving today and that Linda Page has the papers to receive the shipment. Meanwhile Bruce Wayne gets a call from Linda who says someone has phoned her about her Uncle Martin. She’s been told to go to a fortune teller called Swami Dhar Hindu Mystic who will let her know how she can find him. She asks Bruce to come with her but he turns her down. He does that so he can be there to investigate on his own. Bruce and Dick get there first. The swami tells them to leave and tries to force them but Bruce knocks him out and puts on his turban and robe. When Linda comes, Bruce disguises his voice and tells her she is in grave danger and should leave and go home immediately. But on her way out she is quietly grabbed and pulled into another room. When Bruce leaves the storefront he learns from Dick and Alfred that Linda never left the building. Inside they find her unconscious and Bruce checks her purse to find that the delivery order for the radium has been stolen. They see an armoured car leaving and Bruce says they need to head it off. I don’t see how they would know that’s the armoured car they are looking for. Bruce changes to Batman as Dick drives after the armoured car. Daka’s men in the armoured car fire at Batman’s car. Dick pulls up beside the armoured car as Batman climbs on top. He uses the radium gun to blow a hole in the roof and it also knocks out the two fake guards. He now climbs into the cab and struggles with the driver but the armoured car goes over a cliff. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            In part 5, Batman jumps out of the armoured car just before it goes over the cliff. Later Daka gets a shortwave radio message from a Japanese submarine off the coast. The captain tells Daka they have a large package for him and will leave it at Smugglers Rocks at low tide. Meanwhile at Wayne Manor Alfred brings Bruce his mail but is about to throw away something he thinks is junk mail. Bruce tells him never to throw away any mail and points out how the stamps are arranged on that particular letter because it’s a coded message. Inside is a blank page but after treating it with chemicals Bruce causes text to appear: “Enemy has knowledge of construction of new design airplane motor at Lockwood. May attempt sabotage. Take necessary action to forestall any such move. Signed DX-5-NQ”. Bruce tells Dick they will both be working at Lockwood tomorrow. Later a coffin is delivered to Daka. Inside is the body of a Japanese soldier. Daka attaches wired clamps to the body’s wrists and pulls a switch. His body is electrified and it sits up to speak to Daka and deliver a message: “Secure Lockwood plant with new secret motor. Fly to Pelican Island for rendezvous with submarine”. He pulls a button off his uniform and says further information is inside. Then the body dies. That seems like a complicated and cumbersome way to deliver a message, carrying a corpse in a coffin all the way from Japan and animating it for five minutes, especially when compared to the way Bruce got his information. Inside the button is a microfilm map of the Lockwood airplane plant. Later at the House of Horrors fair ride in what used to be Little Tokyo, two factory workers from the Lockwood Plant are listening to the barker when he offers them a free ride through the House of Horrors. Halfway through the ride their car stalls and Daka steps out to invite them into the secret chamber where two of his zombies grab them and take them to Daka’s lab where he transforms the two men into zombies. The next day they show up for work, where Bruce and Dick are also working. Bruce sneaks onto the new plane with the secret motor. Daka’s newest zombies enter the room where the pilots are preparing to leave, then knock them out and take their places. Dick tries to stop them but he is also knocked out. The plane takes off with Bruce stowed away in the back as he changes to Batman. Dick regains consciousness and radios Batman about the fake pilots. Batman tells Dick to contact headquarters while he rides to their hideout. Daka somehow has video contact with the plane and sees Batman. The pilots fight with Batman. Meanwhile headquarters orders the plane shot down and it crashes. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            Robin was played by child actor Douglas Croft, who was 16 at the time. He was the first actor to play Robin on the screen and the only teenage actor to ever portray the teenage Robin. His film debut was in Remember the Day in 1941. He co-starred in Not a Ladies Man. He died of alcoholism at the age of 37.