The Super Cops

The Super Cops ~ Okay, I have to admit, when I first saw this movie back in the mid to late seventies I felt tricked. The name of the movie is 'Super' Cops, and the movie posters, TV advertising, and even the novelization said it was about the real life Batman and Robin. What an awful thing to do to a ten year old. If you promise me Batman and Robin, I'd better get Batman and Robin.

Sadly, there's really none to be found here. In the footage of the real cops at the beginning, Dave Greenberg is wearing a red and white Batman t-shirt. In the midst of the movie there's a sequence where neighborhood kids tease Greenberg, played by Ron Liebman, and Robert Hantz, played by David Selby, calling them Batman and Robin. That's about all you get. Of course it doesn't help that "Batman" TV show writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. scripted the film. I felt tricked. I wanted superheroes.

Batman and Robin on the wall in their only cameo.

That said, this true story of two unorthodox cops in Brooklyn, who both the citizens and the press dubbed Batman and Robin is a intriguing and entertaining one. The story of Greenberg and Hantz is pretty typical of the 1970s cop movie, lighter fare than the similar and earlier Serpico. There's also a bit of "Charlie's Angels" in there as well, because the two are patrolmen who want to be more.

While it is funny and entertaining, sadly there's very little actual chemistry between Liebman and Selby. And Selby's bug-eyed staring into the camera is just unnerving and a little bit creepy. It might've made a half decent TV show rather than a movie. Some of the humor is forced, juvenile, and seems to be desperately in need of a laugh track. That might help it actually. Worth a watch if nothing else is on, or as a time capsule for the 1970s. It's no Batman and Robin, ya know?