"A Piece of the Action" is unusual in that, instead of the 'Special Guest Villain' we have a crossover with the fading GREEN HORNET series, starring Van Williams as wealthy newspaper publisher (and boyhood rival of Bruce Wayne) Britt Reid aka The Green Hornet, billed as 'Visiting Hero,' with Bruce Lee as chauffeur/sidekick Kato, billed as 'Assistant Visiting Hero' (the duo had previously contributed a Batclimb cameo five months earlier in "Tut's Case is Shut"). Authorities in Gotham City consider a new arch criminal is on the loose once they learn that The Green Hornet is in town, but the actual villain is Roger C. Carmel (Harry Mudd in two STAR TREKs) as Colonel Gumm, foreman of the Pink Chip Stamp Factory owned by Pinky Pinkston (Diane McBain, previously the moll for David Wayne's Mad Hatter), daughter of the late Pincus Pinkston, whose collection of rare stamps is missing the rarest and most valuable one of all, the Gotham Gothic. The Green Hornet and Kato pay a midnight visit to Colonel Gumm, in the middle of his usual snack of alphabet soup, clearly establishing themselves as potential accomplices out for 'a piece of the action' (later the title of a comic STAR TREK episode). In fact, Batman and Robin aren't sure about anything, apart from the suspicious behavior of Boris Sevaroff, actually Colonel Gumm in disguise, his employer unaware of his activities in stamp counterfeiting. Among the henchmen are familiar faces Seymour Cassel as Cancelled, and a young Alex Rocco as Block, whose beginnings in low budget horror ("Blood Mania" and "Stanley") would yield to blockbusters such as "The Godfather." The cliffhanger has The Green Hornet seemingly blocked, gummed, and perforated into a full sized stamp thumbtacked to the wall, with the Dynamic Duo next to be 'stamped out.' The flirtatious sexy models on display are played by Jan Watson and Angelique Pettyjohn, the latter in just her fifth television appearance, soon to appear as Shahna in STAR TREK's "The Gamesters of Triskelion."
Review of A Piece of the Action
