Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975). Third Place Adventurer. 

"Only Alloys". For such a brief, throwaway joke, that tickled me.

"Clark Savage, the Man of Bronze with his Fortress of Solitude" all appeared in print from 1933, years before Clark Kent, Man of Steel with his identically named Fortress of Solitude, saw print. This pulp hero also inspired *The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension* which you have already covered, but at least the creators of that movie readily acknowledged the fact. Buckaroo's team, The Hong Kong Cavaliers were also a nod to Doc's band of followers, sometimes referred to as the Fabulous Five.

Me: Doc Savage, kind of a silly name Stam Fine: then the doc lobotomizes the movies bad guy at the end of the film Me: i stand corrected. He is pretty darn savage😂

This was a solid movie and Doc Savage is still one of the most iconic characters ever written.

OMG, I saw this during a Saturday children's matinee almost 45+ 😳 years ago . So what happened after this movie ended 🤔 ? Where's the sequel that was promised ?

I saw that "fighting styles" scene randomly on TV years ago! And I saw some scenes from this film on a RU-vid vido about pulps. Finally two and two are put together

I absolutely loved this movie when I first saw it as a kid , and still do ..I got into the black and white comic books that came out not too long after the movie came out ...would have loved to have seen The Arch Enemy Of Evil...

Well I'll be Superamalgamated😎

Would have worked better as an Republic Serial in the 30s - this just looks like an over lit TV movie, there is nothing cinematic about it at all.

You put your finger on the main problem. It tries for 60's atman camp but it does it badly. Leaving only a mediocre film.

The source material (all 181 novella-length stories) was MUCH darker in tone. This film was such a disappointment!

I remember this stupid movie. My favorite line was "Mona, you're a brick." I think it's time for a reboot, this time with Alan Ritchson as The Man of Bronze.

A lot of tropes parallel with Buckaroo Bonsai.

George Pal failed with this film, I think, because he didn't have the insight that helped make Star Wars and Superman from the similar era so successful: no matter how fantastical the premise, play it straight. Don't try to chuckle away the fantasy elements, or tell the audience they're not supposed to take it seriously.

is this your career? just watching old media and commenting? awesome

Now need to watch it again as an adult . I loved this as a child. Fantastic review, thank you

I read the books, as a teen, I was a bit disapointed by that TV-movie. I didn't know it was a George Pal movie.

Loved this movie when I saw it years ago.

Should of been more serious and PG rated.

I feel like Trump watched this movie and decided he wanted to be Doc Savage but then forgot to become smart, strong and good.

Will you please cover the films of the immortal Neil Breen?

I saw this movie in 1975. It was much too campy as compared to the source material. Steve Reeves, who starred in the 1958 movie "Hercules", turned this film down because he found it much too silly. I agree. Read the books and see if you agree. And there was no Captain Seas in any of the novels. George Pal was a better producer than writer.

Y'know, this could have been good if they hadn't played it as pure camp (which it is - I know deliberate absurdism when I see it, and this ain't it). The novel they're sort of using here was a solid Indiana Jones style story with plenty of action, some okay mystery elements, and plenty of interesting settings to visit, not least of which being 1930s NYC. It's all played written dead straight and the stakes and dangers are real and a lot more plausible than the film's idiotic vapor snakes. I'll give it this much, of all the odd scifi/fantasy elements randomly added into the film, the brain operations to "fix" criminals? Straight out of the books. It was a big part of Doc's lore that tied in with period discussions about reform and the role of the prison system, so very topical in its day. It's also why Buckaroo Banzai is specifically shown to be a brain surgeon when they made the film. Direct homage to Doc, which makes sense because BB is an 80s spin on the character, both a gentle parody and a loving homage at the same time. Much better film, too.

I like the movie. I only wish I would have seen it when I was a kid. I knew about the books becuase they were at the newsstand at the market. But only enjoyed the fantastic cover art and never really read them.

you forgot ..Paul Gleason - The principal in "The Breakfast Club" - Discuss

Classic 😊

Why have I never heard of this??

This makes me appreciate the Rocketeer. The Rocketeer felt like it was in the correct time period. Doc Savage was a mess

My Grandfather wrote some of these, back in the original print form. He did not get rich, as it was a normal-paying job for most back then. Neither did it bring any real fame or accolade. But I think it's pretty cool, nevertheless. I have a few copies that will be framed, eventually.

Doc Savage, and Ron Ely are peak nostalgia for a 60s kid. 5 stars!

Still love to read the novels; as a kid I liked the movie, haven't seen it since.

Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, is just another version/clone of Doc Savage…

Thanks Stam Fine, you're an absolute legend. You solved a mystery of my childhood. I remember being about 4 or 5 and seeing a guy dressed in white on a ship lying on a bed with green vapourlike snakes coming under the door....freaked me the hell out and gave me nightmares😅. At least I now know 40odd years later what that crazy crap was.😅

Monk was horribly miscast.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark was everything Doc Savage wasn’t sadly.

Big, muscular, lantern jawed guy who could actually act? WHY DIDN'T THEY USE THIS GUY!

plum dingy vid

6:54 Just a heads up for those who don't have the closed captions on, when Savage tells the love interest "you're a brick"... that's not what the closed captions say! Lol. I will leave it at that. Check it out for yourself!

Most interesting thing is Superman totally ripped off Doc Savages Fortress of Solitude

until you realize that Doc Savage is Buckaroo Banzai's grandpa.......

Saw this in theatrical release.

For knowing the comics i'm livin' on the wrong side of the ocean and am not old enough, but i love this movie for so many reasons. Doc Savage is an ideal hero, like Billy Zane in "The Phantom". Like the Alan Quartermain movies with Richard Chamberlain it's kinda light hearted, easy to rewatch movies, cause it's not so dark. The humor is well dosed, so the audience know that the movie doesn't took itselve too serious, but enough to tell an nice upto thrilling story with a villian that was more on the harmless end of the scale, compared to someone like Tharnos, Sauron or Voldemort. The Fab Five represents the spirit of progress and professionality with an optimistic view towards the future. Compare this to the Avengers or the Justice League. This movie feels refreshing, stylish and well entertaining and i wish that some filmmakers will find the guts to bring that kind of movies back to life. It seems to be necessary.

This would make a fun spoof comedy, If done by Will Farrell

Think Ron Ely would have made a superb Batman - Got the physique and sounds like Kevin Conroy - or Superman

Read the books back in the early 70s forgot all about how he would lobotomize the bad guys.

This movie basically killed George Pal's career. A sad end to a legend.

*this film is so much fun to watch...have this on video (yes, i'm that old)...a personal favorite*

I remember seeing this in the cinema and feeling disappointed, it was not as good as the books, not even close.

So a more serious Buckaroo Banzai?

As a pulp mag DS lasted from 1933 to 1949. His revival lasted pretty much from 1965 to 75, with four or five later new paperback efforts. Some later comic book Attempts. As is the film crippled the characters revival.

Just like the 1960's Batman, this film was a pathetic excuse for the subject mafter. Some day they will do justice to Doc Savage and Flash Gordon and we'll all realize these "Camp" directors were incredible idiots.

THIS would be a bade ass cartoon series.

Long Tom: "You mess with the Bull, you get the horns!"

Was that Michael Berryman in a scene?

This PRE-Indiana Jones film probably looked great on-paper to the studio heads. Too bad that it did poorly and if I'm mistaken...George Pal's swan song. But alas, it's a slightly higher than average budgeted TV-Movie-esque movie that for me, was just silly enough to make it enjoyable at the theater. With all the reboots these days, a more thoughtful reimagining of Doc Savage might be a possibility???

Ahh, the Doc Savage movie… an extremely guilty pleasure 😅 Would love to hear your take on the other notable pulpy-type Hollywood outings, both good and bad 😁

I was eleven when I saw this at the Peckham Odeon and I felt rather disappointed by it. I liked Ron Ely from all the Tarzan tv show I watched and thought he'd be perfect in the role of Doc Savage and, to be fair, he was pretty good, but the whole tone of the film was wrong. It wasn't until 1981 that I saw the film Doc Savage should've been, Raiders of the Lost Ark. As it was it was too cheap and campy to really succeed.

I saw this at the cinema back in '75 and thought it was highly original and pretty darned good. I was surprised there was no sequel as the movie was perfect for one. As a young kid in the 70's I wasn't familiar with the old radio show which _Doc Savage_ was based upon nor the pulp books, but I feel this movie was aimed at me due to my age---meaning the tongue-in-cheek humour didn't bother me so much as it reminded me of TV's _Batman_

I hope one day you have a fan get-together with Aunt Beryl and Dickhead Dave as special guests.

I never heard of this film. It seems like it may be worth watching while high. Seems like the 90s Shadow movie unintentionally recreated the some of the same problems this Doc Savage movie has.

For the last time Dwayne Robinson was not an antagonist He was a cop in over his head like john mcclane

Loved the books..Hated the movie.. To this day, I own 5 sword canes, all because of "Ham" Brooks. They were going to revive the project with a new movie in 2016 starring The Rock, but that got shelved in favor of a TV series in 2020, and it''s been in development hell ever since..

This review of Doc Savage was entertaining. I liked it when it was first run in theaters (I was a Marine when I saw it first). Two flaws--the Five were a waste of screen time, and the movie attempted to be both comedy and drama and failed to be either. Doc Savage would have been better off doing things alone--since Doc Savage did do most everything. I still enjoy it, but now achieving that "willing suspension of disbelief" is more difficult than before.

I believe this film is a failure because it can't make up it's mind what it wants to be. There are times where it wants to be campy like the 60s Batman TV series, and other times it's holding back too much. If you want to make a campy movie, you have to swing for the fences.

I have not seen this since the 80s I enjoyed it. It is a very old cartoon strip tho. The Superman and Batman comics both nicked things from the Doc like the fortress of solitude for Superman and the worlds greatest detective with his own crime lab for Batman. I half would like to track down a copy and see it again. Those snakes were creepy as a kid :)

I saw it twice the year it came out; as an 11 year old I really enjoyed it, and reading some of the novels a few years later, I thought the actors in all the main roles really brought the characters to life. Now that I'm nearly 60, I can see the movie in a different light. I would have preferred the movie to have been played more straight, and would like to see a remake with new actors. The only thing is, is that Doc Savage seems similar in some ways to Indiana Jones, and I wonder if a Doc Savage franchise would be seen to be trying to compete?

Ron Ely reminds me of Adam West, They could even be related in my mind. Would have been interesting to see Ron as Batman.

Kind of like the Phantom film of the 90s; good idea but did not translate well.

I saw this as a kid in the theater. I thought it was great then but its of it's time. Maybe Raiders of the Lost Ark took some inspiration from Doc Savage and improved on the weaker aspects of it.

The biggest problem with the film other than its limited budget was that it was not shot in Anamorphic Panavision. The photography is tightly framed making it look like a TV movie . Too bad that Pal could not muster up a bigger budget.

The movie was not good, the review of it was great.

Always remember the special angled glass in his apartment, out by about 4 inches or something just incase someone was trying to shoot you, Bahahahaha

He lobotomizes his enemies.. this Doc is Savage.

Madre de dios I have spent about 4 decades trying to remember what this film is saw as a kid was and I watched this is felt it may be it then saw the green snake things and finally I know...thanks

Like it or not, 1960s Batman was the source of many bad decisions to camp up films and TV which would have been far better without. I only recently discovered that it was also the reason that the later, sillier, episodes of Man from UNCLE differed so much from the more dramatic first series. The edict came down from above that because Batman was so successful UNCLE had to emulate it.

Would've been good if produced by Mel Brooks ... similar to. .. GET SMART .

As a teen I read the books over and over again.

Grew up with watching reruns of him as Tarzan.

Would love a reboot 😊

Another film I saw when it opened and felt bad for. I remember the novels with those distinctive covers and George Pal always rocked. I even watched the Ron Ely TV "Tarzan" and hoped the film of Doc Savage would be more like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (not yet a concept). Instead we got a spoof. Very disappointed, and I loved Anderson's "Logan's Run". Maybe they can bring it back with "The Rock" after the "Black Adam" debacle. LOL.

My dad bought all the reprints back in the 1960s, the ones with the James Bama covers, when he was in the Air Force in Vietnam and I inherited the lot of them, including a neat poster showcasing Doc Savage that hangs on my bedroom door now. 😎

It’s buckaroo Banzai 1930’s style !!! Love this movie - just appeared on Apple TV as well so now can get my fix of Stam Fine and the Doc 👍

Awesome video, I never even heard of this movie.

Awesome video, I never even heard of this movie.

I had a Doc Savage action figure when I was a kid. I have no idea why.

This was a disappointment when it came on the telly back in the late 70s, I didn't really know what to think as a kid. I do remember there being frequent large ads in the back of film mags/comics for a Doc Savage bronze figurine. This was in the early 80s, years after the film's release so I'm guessing someone had a warehouse full of them, anyone else remember that?😄

Completely forgot about this one .. had the comics ..didn’t think much of the film .. but I was young ..

My grandfather left me a bunch of the original pulp novels and a handful of the paperback reprints when he passed away in 1971. I think collected everything Doc Savage and I am the proud owner of all of the novels, many of the pulps, and all of the comics and magazines. I once spent 50 bucks on one novel because it was a double and very hard to find. It is now worth over 500 bucks but I won't sell mine. I was so excited in 1975 when this movie came out and while I didn't mind it being so campy, it is hard to rewatch today. I wish someone had done a proper movie with a serious tone like the books. I still own this on DVD and watch it every few years but I find that I watch The Phantom with Billy Zane much more than Doc Savage.

I still have no idea what doc savage is about or why he's called the man of bronze.

Michael John Berryman sighting at 13:42.

For anyone interested in the movie I highly encourage you to track down the detarnished fan edit which goes a long way toward removing the excessive camp and redeeming the movie as a more traditional adventure movie.

Hilarious flick.

A great popcorn flick.

A bronze member after an unfortunate smelting accident.

Being a Doc Savage fan since the 70s I loved that movie. Have it downloaded on one of SD card. Even Lester Dent's (real name of writer) widow liked it. (there was an interview with her in one of the issue of Marvel's B&W Doc Savage magazine) magazine. And they got most so on point. Johnny's long words. Monk and Ham good natured bickering. Ham's sword cane. Renny's Holy Cow. Doc riding outside the car. Even got Johnny's glasses right. (He's mostly blind in one eye, so the lens to that eye is used as a magnified glass) Again, loved it. And glad I have it saved so I can watch it whenever I want. Recommend Buckaroo Banzai for a modern version of Doc and his Amazing Five.

Ron Ely was the Buster Crabbe of the sixties and seventies

I always thought the Five were the weakest parts of the franchise.

I really only remember the glowing snakes on the boat

truly horrid adaptation ... if they burn the negatives the world will be a better place.

I remember seeing at the age of twelve at cinema back in the 1970s and was looking forward to the sequel but unfortunately it never happened . . .