When a Batman femme fatale becomes heroine
On a Saturday night, 8 May 1976, ABC aired a pilot filmed in March and April of the previous year, Brenda Starr. Produced by David L. Wolper, and directed by Mel Stuart, who had directed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, this seems to have been a test to see if a series based on the comic strip newspaper reporter was feasible.
The network clearly took a pass on this. But when we finally saw this production 46 years after it aired, it has its flaws, but it also has much going for it as well.
First of all, Jill St. John plays the lead character with a real sense of humor and wit. She and Victor Buono, both veterans of the 1966 Batman series, both know how to handle the material well. The rest of the movie is well cast, especially with a pre-Dukes of Hazzard Sorrell Booke and BarBara Luna. The production here is less William Dozier campy, and more like a glossy Aaron Spelling production crossed with that of Quinn Martin. When it comes to the scenes in Brazil, if they had indeed been shot in California, it’s much harder to tell, since Wolper Productions took a lot more care in integrating stock footage of Rio de Janeiro that was current at the time with the footage it shot. That wasn’t the case with Jill St. John’s 1959 movie Holiday For Lovers, which had a slightly slipshod quality to it. And the newspaper scenes were filmed at the Torrance Daily Breeze in Torrance, California.
Before we forget, Victor Buono brings more of a menace to his character of Lance O’Toole than he did as King Tut in Batman nearly a decade earlier. His performance is absolutely superb, and Jill St. John spoke very highly of the talented actor.
The one major flaw here is that there seems to be a confusion as to where this pilot might take us. Using voodoo seems to make this production seem like a feminist version of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, which was finishing its run on ABC when this was filming. However, this idea may have been used because it had been used in the James Bond movie that immediately followed Ms. St. John’s 007 outing, Live And Let Die (1973). The pacing seems to drag on a bit as well. And in 1976, the idea of a female crime-fighting lead was still resisted in some quarters.
And that’s too bad, because one thing that the script has are some delightful surprised. Ms. St. John brings a real likability to the character, as well as the wit, humor and moxie. She also bring a sensuality to the role as well, both with a bathing scene where we get to see her bare back (implying that she’s nude) and this scene with a bikini just before taking off for Rio:
If you get a chance to see it, Brenda Starr is absolutely worth watching because it has many fine elements to it, and also because it’s a time capsule back to early 1975, when times were different. In our view, had Jill St. John been 40-50 years younger, she would have more likely been an action hero performer, because her best roles were in such productions as the 1966 Batman series, as well as in Diamonds Are Forever. She’s one of the most gorgeous-looking women, in our opinion, and it really helps that she has a tough quality to her that would make her a fine candidate to play a DC Comics heroine.
