The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967)

User Rating:

2.1/10   

Director:

Lindsay Shonteff

Writers:

Kevin Kavanagh (screenplay)
Sax Rohmer (stories)

Release Date:

17 May 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

SHE is the most SADISTIC...DIABOLICAL...WOMAN WHO EVER LIVED! (original ad - all caps)

Plot:

Frankie Avalon and George Nader (that guy from "The Robot Monster") are a couple of wise-cracking, swingin' secret agents...

Plot Keywords:

Woman Shot | Shirtless Male Bondage | Kissing | Arms Tied Overhead | Women Killing Women

Cast

Frankie Avalon	...	Agent Tommy Carter
George Nader	...	Agent Nick West
Shirley Eaton	...	Sumuru
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Colonel Sir Anthony Baisbrook
Klaus Kinski	...	President Boong
Patti Chandler	...	Louise
Salli Sachse	...	Mikki
Ursula Rank	...	Erno
Krista Nell	...	Zoe
Maria Rohm	...	Helga Martin
Paul Chang	...	Inspector Koo
Essie Huang	...	Kitty
Jon Fong	...	Colonel Medika
Denise Davreux	...	Sumuru Guard
Mary Cheng	...	Sumuru Guard

Also Known As:

Sumuru (UK)
The 1000 Eyes of Su-Muru
The Slaves of Sumuru

Runtime:

95 min | West Germany:80 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:A | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Shaw - Brothers Studios, Hong Kong, China

Company:

Sumuru Films

Trivia:

According to director Lindsay Shonteff in a 1994 interview, Klaus Kinski had numerous ideas for unusual behavior exhibited by his character President Boong, including that whenever someone entered a room where he was he would climb out from underneath a huge pile of cushions and that whenever he was talking to a pretty girl an abnormally long tongue would emerge from his mouth and try to lick her face. Sadly none of these made the final cut, but if you watch carefully you can see his tongue starting to come out in some scenes.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Million Eyes of Sumuru (#1.18)" (1989)

A beautiful female version of Fu Manchu attempts to take over the world

Just as Prehistoric Women is the ultimate vehicle for Martine Beswick and the favorite film of her cult following, so is this the ultimate for Shirley Eaton - and many of us who are Eaton cultists are also Beswick devotees, as one was a brunette and the other a blonde, but all difference ends there - slinky, sophisticated English lovelies who in the 1960s each had a second female lead in a bond film (Beswick in Thunderball, Eaton in Goldfinger) and each went on to play deliciously decadent bad girls, particularly in their best remembered films. Here's the pity - while Prehistoric Women can easily be picked up on video or DVD, Su Maru remains difficult (to say the least) to find. Even among those semi-secretive distributors of great-bad B movies on the Net. Anyway, the old Sax Rohmer story is updated and given a 60s feel, with George Nader as a flimsy James Bond wannabe and Frankie Avalon (?!), fresh from the Beach movies, as his sidekick. (By the way, about 20 years ago, Avalon swore to me that Eaton was the most beautiful single woman he'd ever seen in his life, and that as incredible as she is on film, cinema doesn't do her justice - looking at her in person, at least back then, made you want to pass out. I believe him!) She's the leader of an all (gorgeous) girl conspiracy to take over the world, and at one point hangs George Nader in a jail cell and whips him. (Leather whip, of course - this may be where 'mainstream kink' all began). Each of her associates is a knockout, all wearing black satin and leather costumes, and they seduce then kill men. This is a decidedly anti-feminist vision, made perhaps in response to the then-recent publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, which kicked off the modern woman's movement. Lots of near nudity, as this was made just before the ratings system fell apart and full frontal would be allowed about two years later. A tease, but lots of fun, very campy, and played with tongue firmly in cheek.