First we got The Incredible Hulk. At first I wasn’t happy they changed his origin but I admit this new one does seem a little more plausible. And Bill Bixby is doing a great job as “David” Banner. I heard somewhere that the producers or the network thought the name “Bruce” sounded gay. So they changed it to David. However, David’s tombstone reads “David Bruce Banner”. Now, as far as the Hulk goes…this just isn’t the Hulk from the comics. And realistically speaking, there was no way they were going to pull off the Hulk on TV. I don’t think they could get him right in a theatrical movie either.
But when I saw that Spider-Man was coming on in the TV Guide I did get excited. A real, costumed super hero! And then I watched it. The Incredible Hulk, for all its faults, is still a pretty good show but Spider-Man? It was a joke! He shoots ropes from his web shooter, not webs. And when he climbs up a building it looks like the old Batman series. And to top it off he fights everyday thugs instead of super villains. But the worst came with the Captain America movie. This was not Captain America by any stretch of the imagination. My hopes were dashed at ever seeing a good comic book super hero show on TV. But…there was one more movie to come…Dr Strange.
This time I did not get my hopes up. And when I watched it I thought this is great! We get costumes! Super powers! A super villain! Demons! And some pretty decent special effects. Of course, changes were made. Dr Strange, played by Peter Hooten, was a psychiatrist instead of a surgeon. No car accident, no trip to Tibet. Stephen Strange was simply “chosen” by a very different Ancient One. His name was Lindmer and he was played very seriously by veteran British actor John Mills (father of Juliette Mills, “Nanny” in Nanny And The Professor). Lindmer (who only gets referred to as “Ancient One” in passing by Wong) has been waiting for Stephen who wears a ring with the “ancient symbol of light” .
Peter Hooten seemed to me to be a (pardon the pun) strange choice to play Stephen Strange. I actually have never seen him before and he seemed a little uncomfortable in the role, smiling a lot throughout the movie like he was embarrassed to be in a movie based on a super hero comic book.
It’s Jessica Walter who steals the movie playing villainess Morgan Le Fey. This is a character who appeared in Marvel’s (then Timely Comics) Black Knight series. With John Mills playing a more subdued character in Lindmer which was totally the right choice, Jessica Walters plays Morgan full hilt, dominating any scene she is in. Morgan Le Fey was banished long ago to the dark dimension and under the command of the Nameless One, a demon done in stop motion, she is to be given a release to Earth if she can find the Ancient One’s chosen successor (Strange) and destroy him before the power can be passed to him. So she takes possession of a young college woman, Clea, who she uses to attack Lindmer but he survives. Clea, unable to cope with the possession, winds up in the hospital under the care of Dr Strange. Later, after an attack on Lindmer in his Sanctum Santorum (never called that in the movie but we know) Morgan whisks Stephen away to the dark dimension to tempt him with power if he will commit himself to her. This is where he gets his first costume.
“Don’t defy me, Stephen, or I’ll take my pleasure from you in another way!” she exclaims when Dr Strange refuses to destroy Lindmer who Morgan has taken prisoner to the dark dimension. But defy he does and after the two trade mystic blasts of energy Dr Strange escapes with Lindmer.
Once back in Lindmer’s home the transfer of power is made by a disembodied voice (character actor Michael Ansara known for his deep voice). Stephen receives a new costume which I found inferior to the first costume. He asks Wong “What have I become?” to which Wong responds “You have become more than a man” echoing a line from Lindmer earlier. I really hope this becomes a series or at least some more movies. I think Dr Strange is the best comic book TV movie ever!
And that, dear readers, is how I probably would have written a review of Dr Strange back in 1978. I thought it was important to convey what a movie like this would have been like to see in a world before super hero films had taken off mainstream. This was before we had any super hero films, just prior to Superman The Movie and long before the MCU happened. For those who saw this first Dr Strange movie as I did when it came out it was really something special. I was so enthralled with Walter’s Morgan Le Fey I used her as inspiration to build my own villainess for a super 8 movie I made for my college drama class. Today, many fans would probably find Jessica Walter’s performance as a powerful woman villain to be triggering. And many would simply laugh the movie off. If you want to see it for yourself, the movie is available for a low price on DVD at Amazon.
