Psychotronic Cinemavision: Doc Savage The Man of Bronze

In 1936, Doc Savage (Ron Ely) senses something is wrong while at his top secret Arctic “Fortress of Solitude” and heads home to New York, where his friends, The Fabulous Five, are all gathered.  There he learns that his father had died of a rare tropical disease in the remote area of Central America in the Republic of Hidalgo.  The Fabulous Five consists of Monk (Michael Miller), a brilliant chemist; Ham (Darrell Zwerling), an accomplished attorney and well dressed man constantly at odds with Monk; Renny (William Lucking), a well respected engineer and builder; Long Tom (Paul Gleason), an electrical engineer; and Johnny (Eldon Quick) an archaeologist and geologist who has an impressive vocabulary and isn’t afraid to use it.  Doc’s father had sent him a package, but before he could examine its contents, the team is attacked and the papers burned.  Realizing that his father’s death was murder, Doc and friends travel to Hildago to ascertain what really happened.  Professor Savage had befriended a mysterious tribe in the interior of Hidalgo and in gratitude they had deeded him some very special land.  A crafty and greedy man going by the name of Captain Seas (Paul Wexler) are after what’s on that land and make several attempts to dispose of Doc and the Fabulous Five, but Doc is too clever for him and eventually defeats the evil Captain and saves his friends and the Tribe that his father had befriended.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze is a 1975 action film based on the pulp hero Doc Savage, created by Henry W. Ralston, John L. Nanovic and Lester Dent for Street & Smith Publications.  The stories were written under the house name Kenneth Robeson although most of the stories were written by Dent.  Doc’s father had him train his mind and body to near-superhuman condition almost since birth and the characters is thought of as the first superhero pre-dating Superman.  He is a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior and he lives by a very strong code of ethics described in his mantra:

Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.

The film was released in June 1975 and was the last film produced by George Pal.  The movie was both a critical and financial failure.  Variety noted that, “Execrable acting, dopey action sequences, and clumsy attempts at camp humor mark George Pal’s Doc Savage as the kind of kiddie film that gives the G rating a bad name.”  The one person who did like the film was Norma Dent, Lester Dent’s widow, who said, “… I thought my heart would burst with pride. I saw the movie three times that day. I cried when I heard Ron Ely deliver the Doc Savage code – he said it as he meant every word of it. It was wonderful.”  There have been several attempts to bring Doc Savage back to the big screen, but the emphasis has shifted and it is now in development for a television show.

I saw this film on television when I was probably ten years old and even through a child’s eye, I knew it wasn’t very good, but I still enjoyed it.  Watching it now, as an adult, there really are few redeeming qualities to the production.  It is interesting to note that during filming, the head of the studio changed the budget of the film was slashed dramatically, this affected everything from the music to the setting and the finished product suffered greatly.  The movie was done in a high camp style, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for this film.  Ron Ely seems unemotional and stiff with none of the natural charisma he usually portrays.  The dialogue is clumsy and unrealistic.  The story pulls in the Fabulous Five, all experts in their respective fields and yet they never use any of that expertise to help move the story along.  The action scenes were lacking any suspense or danger.  The patriotic music based on John Philip Sousa’s The Thunder feels out of place and adds nothing to the films tone.  The movie is set in 1936, and yet the clothes and hair all look contemporary to when the film was made.  Overall, whether due to the budget cuts or by design, the high camp and low production values made this a difficult movie to watch.