From his arctic Fortress of Solitude (yes, before Superman) to his headquarters on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, Doc Savage burns through shirts like a squirrel through a bag of peanuts.
Before Steve Zissou, before Buckaroo Banzai, before Jonny Quest, Doc and his brain trust, the “Fabulous Five,” kept the world safe from megalomaniacs and cryptozoological terrors, through a combination of moral righteousness, forward-looking technology, and good old-fashioned fisticuffs. And superheroes weren’t even a thing yet. Furthermore, James Bond and Indiana Jones owe a thing or two to Doc. Would that his sole motion picture, “Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze” (1975), would have been a patch on “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
TV’s Tarzan, Ron Ely, plays Doc with an animated glint in his eye, in George Pal’s final feature. Pal, you’ll recall, was responsible for the enduring classics “The War of the Worlds” and “The Time Machine.” And director Michael Anderson gave us “The Dam Busters,” “Around the World in 80 Days,” and “Logan’s Run.”
Alas, a compromised budget, a camp tone, and maybe even just plain old bad timing doomed “Doc Savage” to failure. (“Doc” shot out of the gate ahead of “Superman” and “Raiders.”) For all his forthrightness and valor, his movie, sadly, lacks the courage of his convictions.
Nonetheless, it’s a fun Fourth of July flick, what with Frank De Vol’s score adapted from Sousa marches (the composer credited as “John Philip SoUSA” – with the “USA” in red, white, and blue). Heck, the first thing we see is the American Flag, unfurled above Doc’s snowmobile, as our hero makes his entrance. If it was ever your desire to put lyrics to Sousa’s “The Thunderer,” then this is the movie for you!
Doc on horseback, silhouetted against the setting sun, or leaping in slow-motion, feet-first toward the camera, is as good as it gets. Just don’t expect the whole movie to be on that level.
TV’s Tarzan, Ron Ely, plays Doc with blond hair and an animated glint in his eye. Over the decades, there have been rumblings of other attempts to revive one of the pulps’ greatest heroes, with Chuck Connors, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Dwayne Johnson (The Rock as Doc?) as the lead, but so far, the 1975 version is all we’ve got. Maybe Doc is just too clean-cut for the jaded sensibilities of 2022? If so, more’s the pity!
I hope you’ll join us, as Roy and I flex our muscles, even as we make inroads into rocket science, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Bring your sheet music to the comments section. We’ll bellow the lyrics to Doc’s march, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!
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