Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze is a 1975 American action film starring Ron Ely as pulp hero Doc Savage. This was the last film completed by pioneering science fiction producer George Pal and was directed by Michael Anderson. The movie received mostly negative reviews.
Plot In 1936, Doc Savage returns to New York City following a visit to his top-secret Arctic hideaway, the Fortress of Solitude. He learns that his father has died under mysterious circumstances while exploring the remote interior of the Central American Republic of Hidalgo. While examining his father's personal papers, Doc finds himself the target of an assassination attempt. Doc Savage chases and corners the sniper on the nearby Eastern Cranmoor Building, but the would-be assassin loses his footing and falls to his death. Examining the body, Doc discovers that his assailant is a Native American with peculiar markings; his fingertips are red, as if dipped in blood, while his chest bears an elaborate tattoo of the ancient Mayan god Kukulkan. Returning to his penthouse headquarters, Doc finds that intruders have destroyed his father's personal papers. Vowing to solve his father's murder, Doc Savage flies to Hidalgo with "The Fabulous Five", his brain trust, at his side.
Waiting for Doc Savage's arrival is the international criminal and smuggler Captain Seas who repeatedly attempts to kill Doc and his friends, culminating in a wild melee on board his yacht, the Seven Seas. Meanwhile, Doc's investigation uncovers that, years ago, Professor Savage received a vast land grant in the unexplored interior of Hidalgo from the Quetzamal, a Mayan tribe that disappeared 500 years ago. However, Don Rubio Gorro of the local government's land office informs Doc that all records to the land transaction are missing. Doc receives unexpected help from Gorro's assistant, Mona Flores, who saw the original papers and offers to lead Doc and his friends to the land claim.
Following clues left by his father, Doc and his friends locate the hidden entrance into the Valley of the Vanished where the lost Quetzamal tribe lives. Doc separates from the group and finds a pool of molten gold. Doc also learns that Captain Seas is using the Quetzamal natives as slave labor to extract the gold for himself. Meanwhile, Seas' men capture Mona and The Fabulous Five, and Seas unleashes the Green Death, the same airborne plague that killed Doc's father and keeps the Quetzamal tribe under his control. Doc overpowers the Captain after a protracted clash of different fighting styles and forces Seas to release his friends, whom Doc then treats with a special antidote. Seeing their leader captured, the Captain's men try to escape with the gold, but exploding dynamite causes the pool of gold to erupt, covering the henchmen, including Don Rubio Gorro, in molten metal. Freed from Captain Seas, Chief Chaac offers the gold and land grant to Doc, who vows: "I promise to continue my father's work ... his ideals. With this limitless wealth at my disposal, I shall be able to devote my life to the cause of justice."
Doc Savage returns to the United States, and at his private rehabilitation center located in Westchester County, New York, Doc subsequently performs acupuncture brain surgery on Captain Seas to cure him of his criminal behavior. Later, during Christmas season, Doc Savage encounters the former supervillain, who is now a bandleader for The Salvation Army, flanked by his former paramours Adriana and Karen. Arriving back at his penthouse headquarters from shopping, Doc hears an urgent message about a new threat that could cost millions of lives, recorded earlier on his telephone answering machine. Doc Savage leaps into action and speeds to his next adventure.
Cast
Main cast Ron Ely as Clark "Doc" Savage Jr. Paul Gleason as Major Thomas J. Roberts William Lucking as Colonel John "Renny" Renwick Michael Miller as Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair Eldon Quick as Professor William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn Darrell Zwerling as Brigadier General Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks Paul Wexler as Captain Seas Pamela Hensley as Mona Flores Bob Corso as Don Rubio Gorro Federico Roberto as El Presidente Don Carlos Avispa Janice Heiden as Adriana Robyn Hilton as Karen Victor Millan as King Chaac
Other noteworthy cast Robert Tessier as Dutchman, one of Captain Seas' henchmen. Michael Berryman as Juan Lopez Morales, Hidalgo's chief coroner (film debut). Stuntman Dar Robinson as the Mayan would-be assassin. Carlos Rivas, who played the renegade Mayan shaman Kulkan, also appeared in episodes "The Ultimate Duel" and "Perils of Tanga" of the 1966 NBC TV series Tarzan starring Ron Ely. Grace Stafford, the wife of animation producer Walter Lantz, played an elderly woman who was helped across the street by a Boy Scout near the end of the film. George Pal and Lantz were good friends, and Lantz's most famous creation, Woody Woodpecker, often made a cameo appearance in Pal's films. Ms. Stafford provided the voice for Woody Woodpecker. Tony Epper as Ron Ely's stunt double and film stunt coordinator
Development Film rights As co-creator of Doc Savage, author Lester Dent retained the radio, film, and television rights to the character as part of his contract with Street & Smith Publications, publishers of the Doc Savage pulp magazine. Although Dent succeeded in launching a short-lived radio program, he was never able to interest Hollywood in a Doc Savage film. Upon Dent's death in 1959, his widow, Norma Dent, acquired the radio, film, and television rights to Doc Savage.
Failed Goodson and Todman production The production team of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman (best known for their many game show productions) announced the intention to produce a Doc Savage film to cash in on the popularity of the re-issued pulp novels by Bantam Books and the James Bond craze sweeping the movies. The film would be based on the July 1934 pulp novel The Thousand-Headed Man, with Chuck Connors as Doc, for a 1966 release. Unfortunately, the producers and Condé Nast Publications, the new copyright owner of the Doc Savage brand, failed to secure the film rights from the estate of Lester Dent. By the time the legal issues had been resolved, the production team and cast had moved on to do the offbeat western Ride Beyond Vengeance.
Only the one-shot comic book movie tie-in published by Gold Key, with cover artwork by James Bama, remains to mark this aborted film undertaking.
Development under George Pal "I've always enjoyed browsing in book-stores," George Pal said later. "I kept noticing these stacks of Doc Savage paperbacks; every time I would come back to the store this stack would get smaller and smaller. When I found out more about this fantastic character I realized what a wonderful film this could make." In August 1971 George Pal announced he had secured the film and television rights to 181 Doc Savage novels from Norma Dent. Pal wanted to start production on a Doc Savage film by the end of the year.Pal Secures 'Doc' Screen, TV Rights Los Angeles Times 28 Aug 1971: a9. He said getting the rights involved "long and difficult negotiating."
Prior to filming Pal said "In the last six years the Doc Savage Bantam books, the reprints alone, have sold 11,400,000 copies. It's an awful lot of copies! Somebody buys them. I figure my audience are the people who read those books, plus I think we can create enough excitement about Doc Savage to attract the people who don't know about him. I'm sure we can get most of the kids, most of the science fiction fans, and most of the nostalgia buffs who remember Doc Savage."Johnson p 4
Pal wanted to make "several Doc Savage pictures. After the first one is successful, we'll make another one, and then we'll sell the series to television. By that time, every network will fight for it. At least, that's my conviction."
Pal originally contacted Steve Reeves for the role of Doc Savage but when filming was about to begin a Hollywood writers strike put the film on hold, and Reeves and the original director were replaced.
In January 1974 Pal announced that Michael Anderson would direct the movie for Warner Bros. Pictures. The first movie would be Man of Bronze and the second film in the series - which had already been written - was Archenemy of Evil.Movies: Out of the past comes Doc Savage! Vernon, Scott. Chicago Tribune 7 Jan 1974: b15.
"With luck I will produce all 181 movies," said Pal. "The pictures will be pure escapism. But they will be well done because we take great pride in the rebirth of Doc Savage."
Writing Pal said when they started they considered making The Man of Bronze, the first Doc Savage book but then decided to come up with their own story, Doc Savage The Arch Enemy of Evil. "We were going to make the best Doc Savage movie we could, the best story we could ever think of" and they combined several stories. However Pal says "When we finished the screenplay we discovered something: we don't know who Doc Savage is! Who were his parents? Why is he so wealthy? How did all this happen? And it was all there in The Man of Bronze." So they went back and wrote another screenplay based on Man of Bronze. It was decided that Arch Enemy would be the sequel.
Pal and Joe Morhaim wrote the screenplay based on The Man of Bronze, the first Doc Savage adventure, with additional story elements from other Doc Savage adventures, such as the November 1938 novel The Green Death and the January 1935 novel The Mystic Mullah. The villainous Captain Seas, played by Paul Wexler, was based on the flamboyant and brutal Captain Flamingo — unrelated to the Canadian television character of that name — from the February 1936 pulp novel Mystery Under the Sea.
Pal kept the story a period tale. "We do it correctly, we don't hit it hard. We use much of the dialogue of Doc Savage, straight out of the books. It's wonderful. A bit campy today, but it's wonderful. It's honest. It's the way they talked."Johnson p 38 Pal did not want to set it in modern times because "You couldn't believe the Doc Savage code if somebody said it today. But coming from Ron Ely, and this proves what a great actor he is, you say: "I don't believe what he says, but I'm with him!" It shifts you back to a time when heroes were heroes and men were men. You can't help but be inspired by it."
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze was fairly faithful to the novels and characters, which included such elements as: Doc's trilling (although it sounded like bells tinkling rather than a more lifelike trilling (such as a cat purring)) Bickering between Monk and Ham Renny's signature expletive "Holy Cow!" Renny's love of slamming his fists through solidly constructed doors or door-panels. Monk's pet pig, Habeas Corpus Doc's Fortress of Solitude (pictured) The penthouse headquarters on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. The Crime College and Doc's brain surgery techniques to remove the criminal element from crooks he'd captured, making them incapable of committing further crimes. Doc's dramatic descent down a skyscraper elevator shaft Doc's daily two-hour exercise regime Doc standing on an automobile's running board in hot pursuit. Johnny's use of long, obscure words when simple words would suffice. Johnny's signature expletive "I'll be superamalgamated!" A plethora of retro gadgetry such as heat detector, globes of fire-fighting chemicals (extinguisher globes), phonograph-based recording machine, remote-controlled aircraft, a ray gun disguised as a cigarette lighter, lightweight bullet-proof vests, miniaturized SCUBA-type underwater breathing gear, and the Whizzer, a prototype helicopter—all his inventions and designs.