I would have loved to see a serious, big-budget Batman film done circa 1941-42. Ideally, it would be filmed at Warner Bros. as an adventure/gangster film thriller in the pulpy style of the early comics.

Here is my dream cast:

Bruce Wayne/Batman....... Tyrone Power (Loaned to the studio as a follow up to his role in THE MARK OF ZORRO)
Alfred.............. Claude Rains
Vicki Vale.............Glenda Farrell
Julie Madison.............Olivia DeHaviland
Jack the Joker.............. James Cagney
Joker's Henchman...............Frank McHugh
Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot............Edward G. Robinson
Harvey Dent....................... Cary Grant

Directed By Michael Curtiz

Tyrone Power hot off the success of ZORRO would be a perfect Batman at the begining of his crimefighting career. I figure Claude Rains would need to be in there somewhere, why not as Alfred? In BATMAN, the Pre-Joker Nicholson always reminded me of James Cagney. Cagney would have made a terrific gangster Joker and he had the sinister smile and look for it. If not him, an older Conrad Veidt would be interesteing with a recreation of his MAN WHO LAUGHS make-up.

Give him a prosthetic nose and Edward G. Robison would be perfect for the sly mobster, Penguin Cobblebot.

Who better to play a blonde wisecracking reporter, Vicki Vale than Glenda Farrell? Cary Grant always wanted to star in a horror picture, so this would have been a perfect chance for him to pull off both Harvey Dent: handsome DA, and Two-Face: The villainous gangster.

If Michael Curtiz directed it, it would have been cinematic gold!