Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze Blu-ray Movie Review

Strange Doctor

Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 2, 2016

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze is the latest cult classic from the Warner Archive Collection, where it will vie with The Ice Pirates and The Deadly Trackers for the honor of being the release most cited by people who complain about WAC's Blu-ray choices. In fact, Doc Savage has a devoted fan base for several reasons, not the least of which is that it was the last work from legendary sci-fi animator and producer George Pal, who gave us The War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (which Pal directed). The film also has the distinction of being the only screen adaptation to date of the popular series of novels and comic books featuring Savage: adventurer, scientist, inventor and all-around good guy. To play the iconic hero, Pal and director Michael Anderson (Around the World in 80 Days) recruited actor Ron Ely, whose résumé otherwise consists of supporting roles and a stint as Tarzan in a Sixties TV series. With his sculpted physique and his hair dyed gold, Ely certainly looks the part, but he's encumbered with a movie that manages to be simultaneously frenetic and inert. A box office flop when it was released in 1975, Doc Savage remains, at best, a curiosity. (A new version starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is reportedly in development.)

In 1936, Doc Savage (Ely) returns from a sojurn in his Arctic Fortress of Solitude (identified by a giant plaque at the entrance that says "Fortress of Solitude") to his New York penthouse at the top of the Empire State Building. There he learns that his revered father has died under mysterious circumstances in the jungles of Hidalgo, a fictitious Central American republic. A package sent to Savage by his father just before his death becomes the object of an attack by a lethal assailant, prompting Savage to undertake a journey to Hidalgo in search of the truth about his father's demise.

As always, Doc is accompanied by his faithful sidekicks known as "The Fabulous Five". Monk Mayfair (Michael Miller) is a heavyset chemist. Ham Brooks (Darrell Zwerling) is a successful attorney with a penchant for foppish attire. Renny Renwick (William Lucking) is a construction engineer whose favorite expression is "Holy cow!" Long Tom Roberts (Paul Gleason, pre-Breakfast Club and Die Hard) is an electrical genius. Johnny Littlejohn (Eldon Quick) is a geologist who speaks as if he'd memorized a thesaurus and routinely exclaims "I'll be superamalgamated!" When these five are not busy feuding among themselves, they assist Doc in retracing his father's expedition to find a lost Mayan tribe known as the Quetzamal. But Doc is being stalked by the nefarious Captain Seas (Paul Wexler), whose goal is to enslave the Quetzamal and steal the vast cache of gold on their land. To assist in his nefarious plot, the Captain has obtained the covert assistance of a high government official, Don Rubio Gorro (Bob Corso), who, for unknown reasons, sleeps in a giant rocking cradle. But Doc gets unexpected help from Don Rubio's assistant, the beautiful Mona Flores (Pamela Hensley), who serves as the requisite damsel-in-distress.

Doc Savage dutifully checks off references to the source material, including the constant bickering between Monk and Ham, the antics of Monk's pet piglet and Doc's retro inventions such as a Rube Golberg-style answering machine. But the film never finds a consistent tone, wavering uncertainly between campy comedy and fantasy adventure. Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles appeared one year earlier, and Doc Savage often feels like an unsuccessful attempt to apply Brooks's brand of anything-goes parody to the adventure genre. Sequences like the extended showdown between Doc and Captain Seas, with the combatants adopting one fighting style after another in obedience to onscreen titles specifying "Judo" or "Fisticuffs" (and many others) are obviously played for laughs, while others, like Doc's death-defying plunge down a steep elevator shaft, beg to be taken seriously. Doc Savage routinely winks at the audience, reveling in the absurdity of its proceedings and the artificiality of its surroundings, but it also wants to evoke the swashbucklers of old, exemplified by the Captain Blood marquee past which Doc drives near the end. Failing to deliver either laughter or thrills, the film ends up providing little more than shout-outs to the existing fan base and a ripe opportunity for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 commentary.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doc Savage was shot by Fred J. Koenekamp, the cinematographer of Patton and an Oscar winner (with Joseph F. Biroc) for The Towering Inferno. For the film's first-ever 1080p presentation, the Warner Archive Collection commissioned a new scan of an interpositive, which was performed by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility, followed by extensive color-correction and cleanup. The resulting 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray has the analog softness characteristic of many Seventies films, but the image is remarkably detailed, even in the many opticals, which the clarity of Blu-ray renders instantly recognizable. In closeups, fine detail is excellent, revealing minutia such as the individual strands of Doc's unnaturally golden locks and the (obviously fake) rubber skin of the deadly green snakes revered by the Quetzamal tribe. The film's nighttime sequences feature solid blacks, and its palette ranges from the pale, cool tones of a snowy mountain crossing to the rich, saturated hues of the jungle sequences. Noise, interference and other artifacts are wholly absent, and the film's grain pattern is finely resolved. WAC has mastered Doc Savage at its usual high target bitrate, with an average just under 35 Mbps.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's original mono soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, and the track has impressive dynamic range for its era, best exemplified in the deep bass drumbeats of the rousing John Philip Sousa standards adapted by Frank De Vol (The Dirty Dozen) to create the film's score. The dialogue is clearly rendered, as are the essential sound effects, which are usually more goofy than realistic, as in the mixed martial arts showdown between Doc and Captain Seas.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The sole extra is the film's trailer (1.78:1; 3:01), which has been remastered in 1080p.

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

WAC's Blu-ray is a gift to fans of Doc Savage, who should be pleased with its technical quality. Everyone else should proceed with caution.