Making The Man of Bronze (1975)
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- This is a featurette about the making of George Pal's 1975 film, "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze". It has been reconstructed from multiple sources, so expect some variations in quality throughout.
Yes! Ron Ely was born to be Doc Savage, and Tarzan. Love Ron. ❤
Yes!Daniel from Rio de Janeiro.
I wish that The Rifleman star could have played Doc, as was originally intended. I think he was absolutely perfect for Doc, though I also think Ron Ely was an awesome choice too! Too bad that the final product failed to live up to what could have been.
The making of film turned out so much better than the actual movei.
It's such a shame that the George Pal turned out so weird -- Ron Ely was nothing short of amazing as Doc Savage.
Yeah, they made it part comedy, part action. Unfortunately, at the time, super heroes weren't as popular in movies as now. I guess that's why it was made that way.
It was fun for meas a Lad except the spirit snakes, of course.
@@brotherkellymatthewbarnes8882 the "spirit snakes" were cool and kind of frightening to me when I was very young. That is the one thing I remembered from the film as I grew up, something that literally no one else had a clue about when I would mention it. For years and years i sported memories of those snakes floating across the room, hiding in closets, and being inside a cave with the people sealed in by a boulder. Everyone thought I had been doing LSD when I would mention it!🤣 It took forever before I FINALLY discovered that it was Doc Savage, which was a surprise and not where I ever expected to find the snakes. Having finally saw it again, some other elements were very familiar as my memory was refreshed, such as Doc chasing the Indian on the skyscraper rooftops. I am glad I found it all, though, so I could prove that I was not making up the floating cartoon snakes!😜
Well, the film did not turn out how George Pal wanted. I have read that there was a change in leadership at the studio which resulted in the movie no longer having priority or support. Ron Ely was very disappointed, as this was not the film he had in mind when taking the role. In its original intention, I think the movie might have been really good, but it was basically sabotaged by the new leadership who did not want to see the prior administration's greenlit projects become successful. Thus is the stupid mentality in Hollywood where egos are more important than good films.
Cool video. I would like to point out that Kenneth Robeson didn't really exist and was just a house author name for that publishing company. Most of the Doc Savage books were written by Lester Dent. Not a big deal but I thought it would be nice if the man could get credit where credit was due.
I've got tons of Doc memorabelia and the shadow, the Avenger and other pulp heros. it is my firm belief that if they get good directors behind them and good actors ( although I'm not entirely keen on the idea of Dwayne "I'm in everything" Johnson) that these heroes could be just as cool as the Batman Superman and the Marvel heroes. but they need to stick firmly whereever possible to the source material.
Well, I think the time has passed for such things to be made. There are so many agendas and such in movies today and it would be practically impossible to bring Doc Savage to the screen without utterly rewriting him into something unrecognizable just to make sure no one gets upset. It is sad, but true. Doc Savage is a creation of the distant past that does not have a place in the modern era.
Why isn't MCU behind the scenes footage this interesting?
Doc Savage was doable to a kid of the 1930s. Ridiculous is The Batman, the Superman or The Captains Marvel and America. You are cool when you like what is NOT cool.
I know where you are coming from Paul. Your talking about the real deal.
Check out my fanedit, "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze - DETARNISHED!" It's not perfect - but it goes a long way toward removing the ridiculousness from the movie.
You know, i can enjoy the film on a certain level due to fond memories of seeing it when I was a child. Really, though, one cannot ignore how flawed the end product was. George Pal had a good crew assembled, so it is strange how the movie ended up looking so generic and cheap. It literally looks like a made-for -TV movie. I have heard that a change in leadership at the studio resulted in this film being thrown under the bus, but I will never really understand why this happens in Hollywood. Doc Savage could have been a profitable series of adventure films had it been done right.
As it stands, the final product flopped because of its generic style. The scenes are staged in such a dull, uninteresting way. The visual effects, a staple in past George Pal productions, are pretty laughable. The cinematography, set designs, and mood are very good in certain scenes where such talents are allowed to flourish, but more often than not, said talents are stifled. The campy approach really hurts. There is debate over where the camp originated. I think it was always there, but not to such excess. I think a decision late in the production was made to amp it up with such nonsense as the sparkle in the eye and the subtitled fighting styles, etc. Lastly, the music really drove the whole thing down. A good music score can really elevate even bland material, but this just shines a spotlight on the generic aspects of the film.
It is a real shame. The cast was overall pretty good, though I really think that the villain needed to be bigger. The actor playing Captain Seas most likely could have delivered a lot more had he been given better scenes, but as it stands he is mediocre and just not a threat. I imagine what this film could have been like if it had been presented in a more serious fashion, had The Rifelman actor as Doc Savage (though Ron Ely was fine too), a good music score by someone like Jerry Goldsmith, and a larger, more international villain played by someone like Christopher Lee. Oh what could have been!
Well, at least I still got a fun film to thrill me as a child with the neat tribe and the bizarre but kind of scary Green Death. The floating green animated snakes were creepy to me and really stayed with me while the rest of the film became forgettable as I grew up. Oh the nostalgia!🙂
I feel sorry for Ron Ely here. He played it straight down the line and looked terrific as Doc. But the filmmakers couldn't decide on a proper tone for the film. Instead, they opted for an extremely corny, overly sanitized presentation that has you rolling your eyes - particularly when Doc and his intrepid crew head for Hidalgo and discovers a sea of South American stereotypes. Add a low budget, shoddy special effects, uneven acting, and Saturday morning cartoon level humor, and you really don't have much to work with here.
To be fair, no one gave a crap about stereotypes back then. That concern is only a big deal with modern audiences. It's just the truth. That is why I do not want to see Doc Savage made today. There is no place for the character in today's society, not without rewriting the him and his world into something unrecognizable.
The problem was that the studio was most likely repulsed with the idea of a blonde muscular hero once they realized what Pal was doing (studio hands may have changed too) and they forced it to be a campy comedy. They sabotaged it deliberately. Enter the Dragon had none of that silliness and it was also a pulp adventure released by Warner Bros but Bruce Lee is the opposite of Ron Ely.