Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Michael Anderson

Writers:

Lester Dent (novel)
Joe Morhaim (screenplay)

Release Date:

June 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot:

Doc and the Amazing Five battle Captain Seas and "the green death" for control of a fabulous resource.

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Murder | Based On Pulp Magazine | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ron Ely	...	Clark 'Doc' Savage Jr.
Paul Gleason	...	Maj. Thomas J. 'Long Tom' Roberts
William Lucking	...	Col. John 'Renny' Renwick (as Bill Lucking)
Michael Miller	...	Lt. Col. Andrew Blodgett 'Monk' Mayfair
Eldon Quick	...	William Harper 'Johnny' Littlejohn
Darrell Zwerling	...	Brig. Gen. Theodore Marley 'Ham' Brooks
Paul Wexler	...	Capt. Seas
Janice Heiden	...	Adriana
Robyn Hilton	...	Karen
Pamela Hensley	...	Mona
Bob Corso	...	Don Rubio Gorro
Carlos Rivas	...	Kulkan
Chuy Franco	...	Cheelok
Alberto Morin	...	José
Victor Millan	...	King Chaac

Runtime:

112 min | USA:100 min | UK:100 min | 94 min (Fan Edit)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG | USA:G | Germany:12

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Popular "sci-fi" author and pulp fiction fan Philip Jose Farmer wrote a book entitled "Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life", a biography of "the man of bronze". In it, he theorized that Clark Savage, Sr. (the father of Doc Savage) was James Clarke Wildman, who appeared in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Priory School". Farmer wrote an unused script for a sequel to "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze" entitled "Doc Savage: Archenemy of Evil", in which Holmes himself made an appearance, commenting on Savage as the greatest student of deduction he ever had and referencing his encounter with Savage's father. It remains unknown whom Farmer wanted for this role.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: During the scene where Doc Savage and his comrades are pursuing the sniper, modern (1970s vintage) automobiles can be seen in one of the aerial shots. The film is set in 1936.

Quotes:

Monk: [when asked the dead Mayan's identity] One thing's for sure: he ain't no native New Yorker.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985)

Well, yes, it _is_ camp...

The problem is that the movie rode in on the coattails of the 60's-created concept that comic books could only be done as "camp" (i.e., the 60's Batman show) for TV and movie. Thus you have combat sequences with subtitles (come on!), a cluelessly unromantic Doc Savage (he was uncomfortable around women in the pulps, not an idiot), Monk Mayfair in a nightsheet (a scene guaranteed to give you nightmares for several nights), and the totally hokey ending with the secondary bad guy encased in gold like a Herve Villechez posing for an Oscar statute. And when they're not doing booming Sousa march scores, the tinkly little "funny" music undercuts much of the drama.

Even as such, this movie is...okay. It's fun, and when it stays serious it's a very accurate representation of the pulps. Except for Monk, as has been mentioned before: he's hugely muscled, not obese. And Long Tom, who is supposed to be a pale scrawny guy with an attitude, not Paul Gleason with an (inexplicable) scarf.

The Green Death sequences, for instance, are remarkably gruesome and not something I'd recommend for children. But they are very close to the feel of the pulps. When the writers and producers get it right, they do get it right - I'll give them that.

But if the producers had done Doc with the loving care and scripting of, say, Reeves' first two Superman movies, think what we might have had then. I think the problem is the movie's schizophrenic. There's a definite sense of trying to do a 30's homage, but they're also trying to give in to the "heroes must be camp" attitude that Batman created. One gets the impression there was a sober, pulp-style first draft and then someone came in and said, "Hey, let's make it funny - it worked with the Batman show 8 years ago!"

But Doc lives on, thanks to Earl MacRauch and Buckaroo Banzai. If MacRauch ain't doing a homage to Doc Savage in that movie, the man is truly demented. So when the series actually gets on TV (allegedly mid-season in '99-00), Doc Savage, updated to the 90's, will live once more.