In the seventies Ron Ely of Tarzan fame .appeared in the title role of doc savage directed by George pal .there were plans for a sequel has any one sen this film if so whats yoru opinion of it.i only seen parts and familiar with Ron Ely through Tarzan.,
Well, when I was 8 years old, I loved it. When I watched it on late-night TV a few months ago, I was less impressed.
It was originally meant to be the pilot episode of a TV series, and has the production values of a cheap 1970s made-for-TV movie. It is lightweight, family-friendly entertainment.
None of the actors involved were Master Thespians, but I don’t think they were too bad. At one time, there was talk of Chuck Connors playing Doc. Ron Ely is OK in the role, but Connors would have been better.
I thought the guys playing Monk and Ham were pretty good. Some people on this message board think that the actors playing Renny and Long Tom should have swapped roles.
The plot is (very) loosely based on the first novel, Doc Savage, Man of Bronze, with a few elements cribbed from The Green Death and The Mystic Mullah. Sadly, they did not have the budget to build pyramids of gold-flecked quartz, so we had to settle for what they could build on a Hollywood back lot.
There is a fair description of the film here:
there are new doc savage novels being written
check amazon
When I said “family-friendly”, I was judging by 1970s standards. Today’s parents might consider it a little violent. There is one scene, where a guy gets attacked by a supernatural critter, that is pretty intense. Also, there are some attitudes about race and gender, that might cause some protest today.
You can tell it was written for television. There are a couple of abrupt scene changes, that are rather jarring in a theatrical film, but would have made perfect sense with a commercial break.
The music is . . . unfortunate. Really stupid lyrics written to a John Philip Sousa tune.
Despite its myriad flaws, I still enjoyed it. Grab a tub of popcorn and a bottle of your favorite beverage, leave your brain at the door, and just sit back and enjoy the ride.