The Adventures of Doc Savage Now available! The Legendary Radio Series Restored and Remastered to Digital Stereo!
This eight-CD collection also includes a fascinating documentary “The Sound of Bronze: The Making of ‘The Adventures of Doc Savage'”, as well as original cover artwork by Doc Savage Bantam artist Bob Larkin.
RadioArchives.com is proud to present “The Adventures of Doc Savage”, the definitive version of the radio series that most Doc Savage and pulp fiction fans consider the finest audio version of the legendary Man of Bronze and his Fabulous Five!
First heard over National Public Radio and produced by Roger Rittner’s Variety Arts Radio Theatre, this brand new eight-CD collection presents two complete classic Doc Savage stories, fully dramatized and starring some of the best professional voice talents in the country. Based on the original novels by Lester Dent, writing as Kenneth Robeson, these timeless tales of adventure were adapted for audio by Rittner and well-known pulp historian and author Will Murray. Produced in full range stereo, each episode includes impressive sound effects and a full musical score.
This new compact disc collection – the first commercial release of this impressive thirteen-episode series – features two exciting multi-part adventures. First is the seven-part “Fear Cay”, an action-packed adventure in which Doc, Monk, Renny, Ham, Long Tom, Johnny, and cousin Pat Savage pursue the Fountain of Youth Gang to a remote Caribbean island full of booby traps and intrigue – including a mysterious force that can turn a man into a skeleton in a matter of seconds! Then, Doc and his team are enmeshed in the atmospheric six-part lost-city thriller, “The Thousand-Headed Man”, where they seek a lost expedition in the jungles of Indochina and an ancient treasure guarded by the fantastic Thousand Headed Man.
This collection has been completely remixed, remastered from the original recordings, and is presented in enhanced digital stereo. Also included is a brand new documentary, “The Sound of Bronze: Making ‘The Adventures of Doc Savage'”, featuring interviews, anecdotes from the cast and crew, and never before revealed details of how the series was conceived and created. The set, released in cooperation with Conde Nast, also features cover art by Doc Savage Bantam artist Bob Larkin and two bonus radio shows featuring two of the top detectives from 1940s, Philip Marlowe and Michael Shayne. And, at our website, you’ll find extensive liner notes written exclusively for RadioArchives.com by pulp historian and author Will Murray, writer of seven “Doc Savage” novels.
Priced at just $24.98, this exciting CD set, full of action, suspense, and mystery, is sure to occupy a special place in the personal library of any Doc Savage, pulp fiction, or old-time radio fan – and it’s now available from RadioArchives.com!
RadioArchives.com is one of the largest distributors of old time radio and pulp fiction entertainment in the United States. Specializing in fully restored radio programs, remastered from original recordings, we are known for our outstanding audio fidelity, impressive packaging, and commitment to top quality customer service. In addition to radio shows, RadioArchives.com also carries a full line of reprinted pulp fiction favorites, including all of the issues of Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Spider, The Avenger, and The Whisperer.
AND MEANWHILE, OUR HERO…- Pulp Character Spotlights
Character currently written by and profile completed by AARON M. SHAPS
1. The Phantom Detective’s secret identity is…? Richard Curtis Van Loan, wealthy New York socialite and philanthropist.
2. In five sentences or less, The Phantom Detective’s origin is…? Van Loan’s parents died when he was very young, leaving him heir to a vast fortune. He led a life largely devoid of direction until a dear friend suggested he help the police with a grisly murder case they were having difficulty solving. He found that he had a natural propensity for sleuthing, and thus the Phantom Detective was born.
3. The Phantom Detective’s first appearance was..? “The Emperor of Death” by D.L. Champion, 1933.
4. The Phantom Detective’s most recent appearance is…? I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think there have been any Phantom Detective adventures since the end of the original run of the pulp stories back in 1953…I believe the final novel was “Murder’s Agent,” written by Norman A. Daniels.
5. The 4 most important people in the Phantom Detective’s life are…? Frank Havens, publishing tycoon, and a mentor of sorts to Van Loan, he was best friends with Van Loan’s father; Muriel Havens, Frank’s daughter, and the love of Van Loan’s life; Steve Huston, a young, hungry, and fearless crime reporter working for Havens’ primary publication, the New York Clarion newspaper; Inspector David Denham, a grizzled, hard-boiled NYPD homicide detective who often works hand-in-hand with the Phantom Detective.
6. The 3 top villains the Phantom Detective has faced are…? In the original run of Phantom Detective pulps, the Phantom had only one recurring villain: Clifford Boniface. Boniface will be returning to menace the Phantom in the new series as well, and he’ll be joined by a number of new villains of my own creation, including a nefarious illusionist known only as The Diabolist, and a mad scientist named Dr. Andrew Darke.
7. The Phantom Detective likes… A challenge, both physical and mental; driving a racecar; enjoying an Old Fashioned while playing pool with Frank Haven’s in his Clarion office.
8. The Phantom Detective dislikes… Criminals, feeling listless, and leaving a case unsolved.
9. Existing characters the Rook has met/had a crossover with include…? The Phantom Detective has never had a crossover to date, but there are several planned. First up is a prose adventure with the Spider.
10. The Phantom Detective’s greatest fear is…? Becoming obsolete.
11. The Phantom Detective’s favorite food is…? Ballpark hot dog at Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
12. If the Phantom Detective couldn’t be there to save the day, the person he’d pick to takle his place is…? The Spider, one of the few other “mystery men” whom the Phantom trusts.
13 Free-for-all-Say anything, in ten sentences or less, you want about your character. That would be…? The Phantom Detective is one of the all-time great pulp heroes, and a character that helped to inspire many others in a number of other media, most notably comic books. It is a great honor and privilege to re-introduce him to modern audiences in both comics and prose, and to help the character to evolve and remain relevant. My goal is to make the Phantom Detective into a modern, cutting edge pulp hero unlike any other.
REVIEWS FROM THE 86TH FLOOR- Reviews by Barry Reese FIRST WAVE #4 DC Comics Brian Azzarello & Rags Morales
The fourth issue in the First Wave “kick-off” limited series is finally here, despite the fact that the line has progressed far beyond it at this point. As with the first three issues, the art is stellar — Rags Morales is one of the best working in comics today and I enjoyed his interpretations of Doc Savage, The Spirit, Rima and The Bat Man quite a bit.
Unfortunately, the story is still a bit of a mess, with an unclear plot-line and some unlikeable characterization along the way. How does Doc Savage know the Golden Tree is evil? Because they claim to be interested in promoting peace but they haven’t invited him to be a member, and he’s practically the face of fighting for peace! I’ve seen some reviewers online who seem to like that reasoning but it stopped me in my tracks and made me wonder just how big Doc’s ego is supposed to be. They must be evil because they didn’t invite me to join? What?
I did enjoy The Bat Man’s internal narration at the end and there is an undeniable thrill to seeing Doc alongside The Spirit and Bat Man but if this is the best DC can do with these characters, I think the First Wave isn’t going to be around much longer.
AP: Thanks for joining us, Michael! Can you start by telling us a little about you and how your interest in pulps began?
MB: I have long been a science fiction fan. So to a degree, my interest in pulps began with interest in early science fiction stories. I recall reading some of the early books on science fiction, and seeing the colorful pulp sf magazine covers, and reading stories from that era: Burroughs, Asimov, EE “Doc” Smith, etc.
Sometime in middle school (late 70s) I stumbled upon Doc Savage. I believe it was “The King Maker”. The cover grabbed me. The titles of the other Doc novels grabbed me (they still do. those titles still have an unusual feel). I was soon looking for Doc novels in used bookstores. At some point I went after the Avenger, the Shadow (if I could find them), and started to read about the other hero pulps. (at the time reprints of them were hard to find. It would be years before I would find the paperback reprints of the other that had been reprinted).
Another pulp field I got into was the writing of HP Lovecraft, tho much later. I had first heard of them in my sf reference books. But it wouldn’t be until the mid-80s that I finally got his works and started to read them. A sort of related author I also got into was Manly Wade Wellman.
Today, thanks to several publishers like Altus Press and Sanctum Books, I am finally getting the chance to read some of the hero pulps I had know about, but never had the chance.
AP: What classic pulps are your favorites?
MB: As to classic pulps, there are several. I enjoyed the space opera yarns of EE “Doc” Smith, the works of Lovecraft and the larger “Lovecraft circle”, the southern Appalachian horror/fantasy of Wellman. When it comes to hero pulps, Doc Savage is still my favorite, with the Avenger a close second.
AP: Of the newer pulp characters and series, are there any you’d recommend?
MB: Not sure if I am as well read with some of the current “neo-pulp” hero series, but there are several I have enjoyed. The Rook is a series I have been enjoying very much. I have the latest on order and look forward to it. Art Sippo’s rework of Sun Koh is very good. He’s done a good job of transcending the characters original origins. I have enjoyed many of Tom Johnson’s works. There are probably other good characters and series out there I just haven’t had the chance to read. And not sure if you include pastiches in this group, but I am been enjoying Wayne Reinagel’s “Pulp Heroes” series greatly. Black Coat Press’s “Tales of the Shadowmen” series is also great.
AP: There’s been a lot of discussion lately about pulp hero revivals. Can you tell us a little bit about what you think on the subject? Do you prefer a more faithful revival or do you support significant modernizing of the concepts? Feel free to mention specifics from Moonstone, First Wave or elsewhere.
MB: Here is my take on it. At present I have been reading the First Wave. What I know of Moonstone is what I’ve read on-line, I have yet to read their comics. I have also read some other neo-pulp works, such as the use of pulp pastiches in the “Planetary” comics and Brubaker’s “Incognito” series.
IF you are going to do comics using the original characters, you MUST be faithful to the characters. Some feel that these characters only work in the time period of their creation. That’s fine. Some feel they can bring these characters into modern times. That’s fine with me. But the bottom line, the character must be faithful to the originals. They must conduct themselves as we would expect. This is my biggest complain about First Wave. They totally do NOT get these characters.
Now, if one wants to do more modern takes of the characters, I rather the author create either wholly original, or pastiches, and use those. This is what Brubaker did in “Incognito”, creating pastiches of Doc & the Shadow, and using them in his modern hero pulp work. And I really, really enjoyed that. I didn’t have to be upset that he ruined these characters, because he created new ones. AND the fact that he included some great articles on the originals by Jess Nevins shows me that he had more respect for the source material then Azzarello et al does.
Now, one should also mentioned some of the written revivals of some characters being done. Airship 27, Moonstone and to a degree Wildcat is doing this. I’m more familiar with Airship 27’s stuff, and have enjoyed what I have from them. Unlike what we are seeing with First Wave, we are seeing works by authors who are pulp fans. So we are seeing more faithful works.
I should also say that I think in some ways some of the ‘techno-thriller’ authors are in some ways writing a new genre of ‘pulp hero’. I got into reading Cussler’s Dirk Pitt because he was likened to Doc Savage. Ron Fortier calls Preston/Child’s Agent Pendergast a modern Shadow. Authors like DuBrul, Dirgo, McDermott, and others are in some ways writing characters that would have been larger then life pulp hero adventurers back in the 1930s.
AP: In terms of the future of pulp, what things would you like to see more of? Are there things going on that you’d like to see a bit less of?
MB: When I got into the pulp fandom world in the 80s, it was hard to find out other fans. Most fan publications were of poor quality (production & reproduction, not quality of writing). I think that the combination of the Internet plus “print on demand” has really changed things. You are now able to reach out to fans thru websites, blogs, etc. You are able to get your product out to people better. You can now have one-man publishers (like Matt Mornig at Altus) putting out great pulp reprints, studies, and new stuff with a quality that’s as good as any major publisher. And he’s not alone.
So we have publishers like Altus and Black Coat and others putting out reprints of classic stuff, you have publishers like Airship 27, Wildcat, Wildside, Black Coat and other putting out new stuff. (am probably leaving some out, but check out the “Coming Attractions” site for a weekly update of great stuff. Isn’t the internet great?)
If there is one thing I’d like to see is more coordination between some of the publishers. If Altus Press puts out a complete reprint of Doctor Death, do we really need Pulpville Press to later do the same (which they did)?? That seems a waste. Pulpville should have put their energy into a different work that no one else has done. If Airship 27 is putting out a book of NEW Jim Anthony stories, why are they not cross advertising with Altus Press who is putting out a reprint of the original Jim Anthony. As a pulp fan I want to read the originals before I embark on the new stuff. Thus I don’t plan on delving into Airship 27’s “Black Bat” collection until I get Altus Press’s collection of original Black Bat stories and can read some first.
And I guess one thing I’d like to see less of is crap like DC’s First Wave and people like Azzarello involved in the neo-pulp world.
REVIEWS FROM THE 86TH FLOOR – Book Reviews by Barry Reese
THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE Written by Philip Jose Farmer & Win Scott Eckert
2009 ISBN 978-1596062498
First, let me quite honest about something: while I enjoy a little bit of the Wold Newton stuff, there are times that I think it goes overboard and ruins my enjoyment of certain stories. It’s neat to see crossovers but exhaustive attempts to fit every fictional character into the Wold Newton framework makes my eyes glaze over in the same way that listening to someone tell me all about their family tree does.
So, having said that, let me also point out that I have enjoyed a number of works by Philip Farmer over the years, including A Feast Unknown, his over the top erotic interpretation of Doc Savage and Tarzan. I mention Feast here because The Evil in Pemberley House exists in that same sort of world: a world where everyone has deep-seated sexual neuroses and the authors aren’t afraid to continually point out the size of the bulges in every man’s pants.
The Evil in Pemberley House is an homage to the Gothic horror tradition. Patricia Wildman, daughter of the world-renowned adventurer Dr. James Clarke “Doc” Wildman, is all alone in the world when she inherits the family estate in Derbyshire, England. The estate is old, dark, and supposedly haunted. Along the way, Patricia engages in much worry over her incestuous desires for her father (who is missing when the story begins and believed dead). She’s sexually victimized by another woman early on but recovers enough to go forward on a journey that’s as much about her sexual exploration as it is the hauntings that have made Pemberley House infamous. There are direct ties to a classic Sherlock Holmes tale and the setting is straight out of Pride and Prejudice. The Wold Newton elements weren’t particularly intrusive early in the book but towards the end, there were parts where I wondered how much stronger this story would have been if the focus had been a little tighter on the story at hand.
The writing is quite fluid and feels very Farmer-esque. I’m not sure how much rewriting or original writing that Eckert had to do but the fact that I can’t pick out which parts are his is a credit to his work.
I liked Patricia’s character quite a bit and the overall Gothic trappings really worked when she first arrived at Pemberley and the mystery was first unveiled. I wasn’t completely pleased with the way things played out but it was still fun seeing Pat Savage — er, I mean Pat Wildman — adventuring on her own in Pemberley. The ending screams sequel and I hope that Win Eckert picks up the pieces and takes us further with Pat. This was a lot of fun, though as I’ve said, I always think Wold Newton pieces would be stronger stories with more focus and less attention to tying things together.
The Evil in Pemberley House gets 4 out of 5 stars from me.
DOC SAVAGE #9 Written by IVAN BRANDON & BRIAN AZZARELLO Co-feature written by JASON STARR Art by NIC KLEIN Co-feature art by SCOTT HAMPTON Cover by J.G. JONES Doc’s adventure in the war-torn Middle East takes a nasty turn when he realizes that the people who sent him into the Zone don’t necessarily want him coming back out. Meanwhile, the threat he came to neutralize is not what it seems!
And in the JUSTICE, INC. co-feature, there’s nothing standing between Smitty and his quarry, the murdering scum he plans to pay back in kind – but what will become of him if he breaks Benson’s cardinal rule? “Murder and Vengeance” concludes here! On sale DECEMBER 8 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US
THE SPIRIT #9 Written by DAVID HINE Co-feature written by PAUL DINI Art by MORITAT Co-feature art by MIKE PLOOG Cover by LADR÷NN The Spirit knew there was something suspicious about the relationship of mafia heir Ophelia Ottoman and no-good loser Jimmy Bauhaus, but he didn’t know that the secret they kept could pit Central City’s crime families against each other! But that doesn’t mean he’s going to let Ottoman get away with murder. . . does it? Say it ain’t so, Spirit!
And in the co-feature, THE SPIRIT: BLACK & WHITE, Paul Dini and Mike Ploog have a holiday gift for you: the tale of an extremely bad Santa – a crook haunted by the Spirit of Christmas everywhere he turns! On sale DECEMBER 15 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US
Roy Thomas (W), Mike Hawthorne (P), John Lucas (I), Dave Stewart (C), Doug Wheatley (Cover), and Dale Keown (Cover)
On sale Dec 15 FC, 32 pages $3.50 Miniseries
The pirate world is about to get 100 percent more savage as Conan and his crew of brigands ravage the seas in search of treasure and glory. But when the beautiful Olivia appears aboard one of the captured ships and starts speaking of prophetic dreams and king’s fortunes, Conan and his crew head in another direction—one that leads straight to the ROAD OF KINGS!
• Joined by artists Mike Hawthorne and John Lucas, and master scribe Roy Thomas returns to the pages of Conan in this first issue of a new era in the adventures of Conan!
20th Century Fox Produced by Trevor Albert and Don Murphy Directed by Stephen Norrington Screenplay by James Robinson Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
The concept of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is so simple that I’m honestly surprised nobody before Alan Moore thought of it. Here it is in a nutshell: From time to time many of the great fictional heroes (and sometimes villains) of the past and present have found it necessary to come together to form an alliance against evil so overwhelming that it threatens to conquer or destroy the world. They do so under the authority of a special Branch of The British Secret Service, under the direction of a mysterious figure known only as M. This alliance is known as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It is rumored that members of Leagues past and present have included Dr. Syn, Sherlock Holmes, Captain Blood, Lemuel Gulliver, Robin Hood, Tarzan, Doc Savage, The Shadow, James Bond, and many, many others. But for the purposes of this review we’re going to look at a particularly unique grouping of The League, one led by the world famous adventurer Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery)
Allan Quatermain is an old man, living in Africa, drinking his days away and only wanting to be left alone. However, events in the rest of the world bring him back into action. A mysterious man known only as The Phantom is threatening the governments of the world into a global confrontation and there is seemingly no way to stop him since he has advanced weapons such as automatic weapons, body armor and tanks. Quatermain is brought to London where he is introduced to M (Richard Roxburg), The current head of the British Secret Service who informs Quatermain that he has been chosen to lead the newest incarnation of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen whose membership includes Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), The Invisible Man (Tony Curran) and Mina Harker (Peta Wilson) who has the benefit of vampiric powers due to he relationship with an infamous Transylvanian count. Quatermain and his team quickly acquire the grown up Tom Sawyer (Shane West) who is now an agent of The United States Secret Service. Dr. Henry Jekyll (Jason Flemyng) and his monstrous alter ego Mr. Hyde as well as the immortal Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend) also join up and they’re all off an adventure that takes them all over the world from London to Paris to Venice to a final confrontation at the top of the world in the frozen Artic where the secrets of The Phantom are revealed and the destiny of a new century will be decided as The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen make their final stand.
You’re going to have a lot of comic book fans that will tell you not to see THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN as they feel that the movie bastardized Alan Moore’s concept. I’ve given the trade paperback of the comic to several people whose opinions I trust and they have told me that while they like the comic and appreciate it for what it is they wouldn’t have gone to see a movie that was strictly based on the comic book. However, those people have also said that the greatly enjoyed the movie version and I think that’s because the movie version does exactly what it’s supposed to do: provide us with two hours of thrills, adventure and excitement. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s not the comic books but it is a great piece of outsized, overblown, pulp action/adventure taken to the extreme and part of the reason I had so much fun watching the movie was that I could see the directors, actors and special effects guys just saying “the hell with it” and allowing themselves the room to have fun with the concept and just working with the material they were given and making sure they delivered.
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is a movie I loan out to friends and family often when they ask me what’s a good Saturday night movie. First off, you’ve got Sean Connery who’s simply great. When he made this movie he was 75 years old and he’s the only 75-year-old actor in the world who can get away with beating the snot out of actors half his age and look totally convincing doing it. Other actors look embarrassingly silly in their older years trying to do action scenes but somehow Connery can still pull it off and look convincing. There’s a bunch of great scenes he has with Shane West’s Tom Sawyer where the characters obviously build a father/son type of relationship, especially in the scenes where Allan Quatermain and Tom Sawyer are chasing down Mr. Hyde across the rooftops of Paris and a later scene aboard Captain Nemo’s Nautilus where Quatermain teaches Tom how to shoot. Peta Wilson is terrific as Mina Harker who shows a delightfully dark side to her character and I really liked how Naseeruddin Shah played Captain Nemo. As far as I know this the first time the character of Captain Nemo has been played racially correct in a movie and he supplies the team with their technological/transport support. And his fight scenes are among the best in the movie as he gives Captain Nemo a distinctive martial arts style. He plays Captain Nemo in a way unlike any other actor that’s ever played before and I think he’s probably the only actor who might have read the graphic novel the movie was based on. There’s a certain way he carries himself and the way he says his lines that make you sit up straighter and pay attention and his fight scenes are among the best in the movie. Listen to how he says: “Behold Nautilus…The Sword of The Ocean” and tell me that ain’t downright cool.
That’s not to say that the movie is without its flaws. I really didn’t like how the CGI guys went nuts on the effects. Especially when it came to Mr. Hyde and The Nautilus. In this movie, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are more like the Marvel Comics version of Dr. Bruce Banner and The Hulk than the Robert Louis Stevenson original. And Captain Nemo’s Nautilus is huger, bigger and more technologically advanced than any modern day aircraft carrier. And the scenes in Venice make absolutely no sense whatsoever. There’s a whole lot of yelling and chasing around and fighting and shooting but when it’s all over you’re wondering: “What was that all about?” Not to mention that there’s absolutely no mollyfoggin’ way something as big as The Nautilus could navigate the canals.
But there are a lot of little nice touches. The obvious one is where Quatermain is receiving his assignment to assemble The League from M. And if you don’t appreciate the humor of Sean Connery once again getting orders from M then you really need to go back to Basic Film School. And pay attention to the scene between M and Quatermain because in the background are huge portraits of former Leagues. I also liked how Captain Nemo’s First Mate has a running joke in the movie where he has to keep introducing himself: “Call me Ishmael”
There’s some incredible fight sequences and plot twists that I honestly didn’t see coming and even though I felt the final fight between Mr. Hyde and The Phantom’s main big bad who has ingested a near lethal dose of the Hyde formula was yet another reason for the CGI boys to go wild I liked the relationship between Mr. Hyde and Captain Nemo as they struggled to find a way to defeat their foe as well as the ending scenes between Allan Quatermain and Tom Sawyer.
So should you see THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN? I see no reason why you shouldn’t. Don’t listen to your comic book reading friends who’ll tell you that it’s nothing like the comic book. Of course it isn’t like the comic book. It’s a movie and a pretty damn good entertaining one. Go ahead and watch it and have fun for what it is: it’s purely pulp action/adventure designed to get you interested in reading the source materials and characters it’s based on. No more and no less. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time watching THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN before you read the material it’s based on.
Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
The concept of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is so simple that I’m honestly surprised nobody before Alan Moore thought of it.Here it is in a nutshell: From time to time many of the great fictional heroes (and sometimes villains) of the past and present have found it necessary to come together to form an alliance against evil so overwhelming that it threatens to conquer or destroy the world.They do so under the authority of a special Branch of The British Secret Service, under the direction of a mysterious figure known only as M.This alliance is known as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.It is rumored that members of Leagues past and present have included Dr. Syn, Sherlock Holmes, Captain Blood, Lemuel Gulliver, Robin Hood, Tarzan, Doc Savage, The Shadow, James Bond, and many, many others.But for the purposes of this review we’re going to look at a particularly unique grouping of The League, one led by the world famous adventurer Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery)
Allan Quatermain is an old man, living in Africa, drinking his days away and only wanting to be left alone.However, events in the rest of the world bring him back into action.A mysterious man known only as The Phantom is threatening the governments of the world into a global confrontation and there is seemingly no way to stop him since he has advanced weapons such as automatic weapons, body armor and tanks.Quatermain is brought to London where he is introduced to M (Richard Roxburg), The current head of the British Secret Service who informs Quatermain that he has been chosen to lead the newest incarnation of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen whose membership includes Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), The Invisible Man (Tony Curran) and Mina Harker (Peta Wilson) who has the benefit of vampiric powers due to he relationship with an infamous Transylvanian count.Quatermain and his team quickly acquire the grown up Tom Sawyer (Shane West) who is now an agent of The United States Secret Service. Dr. Henry Jekyll (Jason Flemyng) and his monstrous alter ego Mr. Hyde as well as the immortal Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend) also join up and they’re all off an adventure that takes them all over the world from London to Paris to Venice to a final confrontation at the top of the world in the frozen Artic where the secrets of The Phantom are revealed and the destiny of a new century will be decided as The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen make their final stand.
You’re going to have a lot of comic book fans that will tell you not to see THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN as they feel that the movie bastardized Alan Moore’s concept.I’ve given the trade paperback of the comic to several people whose opinions I trust and they have told me that while they like the comic and appreciate it for what it is they wouldn’t have gone to see a movie that was strictly based on the comic book.However, those people have also said that the greatly enjoyed the movie version and I think that’s because the movie version does exactly what it’s supposed to do: provide us with two hours of thrills, adventure and excitement.Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s not the comic books but it is a great piece of outsized, overblown, pulp action/adventure taken to the extreme and part of the reason I had so much fun watching the movie was that I could see the directors, actors and special effects guys just saying “the hell with it” and allowing themselves the room to have fun with the concept and just working with the material they were given and making sure they delivered.THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is a movie I loan out to friends and family often when they ask me what’s a good Saturday night movie.
First off, you’ve got Sean Connery who’s simply great.When he made this movie he was 75 years old and he’s the only 75-year-old actor in the world who can get away with beating the snot out of actors half his age and look totally convincing doing it.Other actors look embarrassingly silly in their older years trying to do action scenes but somehow Connery can still pull it off and look convincing.There’s a bunch of great scenes he has with Shane West’s Tom Sawyer where the characters obviously build a father/son type of relationship, especially in the scenes where Allan Quatermain and Tom Sawyer are chasing down Mr. Hyde across the rooftops of Paris and a later scene aboard Captain Nemo’s Nautilus where Quatermain teaches Tom how to shoot.
Peta Wilson is terrific as Mina Harker who shows a delightfully dark side to her character and I really liked how Naseeruddin Shah played Captain Nemo.As far as I know this the first time the character of Captain Nemo has been played racially correct in a movie and he supplies the team with their technological/transport support.And his fight scenes are among the best in the movie as he gives Captain Nemo a distinctive martial arts style. He plays Captain Nemo in a way unlike any other actor that’s ever played before and I think he’s probably the only actor who might have read the graphic novel the movie was based on.There’s a certain way he carries himself and the way he says his lines that make you sit up straighter and pay attention and his fight scenes are among the best in the movie.Listen to how he says: “Behold Nautilus…The Sword of The Ocean” and tell me that ain’t downright cool.
That’s not to say that the movie is without its flaws.I really didn’t like how the CGI guys went nuts on the effects.Especially when it came to Mr. Hyde and The Nautilus.In this movie, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are more like the Marvel Comics version of Dr. Bruce Banner and The Hulk than the Robert Louis Stevenson original.And Captain Nemo’s Nautilus is huger, bigger and more technologically advanced than any modern day aircraft carrier.And the scenes in Venice make absolutely no sense whatsoever.There’s a whole lot of yelling and chasing around and fighting and shooting but when it’s all over you’re wondering: “What was that all about?”Not to mention that there’s absolutely no mollyfoggin’ way something as big as The Nautilus could navigate the canals.
But there are a lot of little nice touches.The obvious one is where Quatermain is receiving his assignment to assemble The League from M.And if you don’t appreciate the humor of Sean Connery once again getting orders from M then you really need to go back to Basic Film School.And pay attention to the scene between M and Quatermain because in the background are huge portraits of former Leagues.I also liked how Captain Nemo’s First Mate has a running joke in the movie where he has to keep introducing himself: “Call me Ishmael”
There’s some incredible fight sequences and plot twists that I honestly didn’t see coming and even though I felt the final fight between Mr. Hyde and The Phantom’s main big bad who has ingested a near lethal dose of the Hyde formula was yet another reason for the CGI boys to go wild I liked the relationship between Mr. Hyde and Captain Nemo as they struggled to find a way to defeat their foe as well as the ending scenes between Allan Quatermain and Tom Sawyer.
So should you see THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN?I see no reason why you shouldn’t.Don’t listen to your comic book reading friends who’ll tell you that it’s nothing like the comic book.Of course it isn’t like the comic book.It’s a movie and a pretty damn good entertaining one.Go ahead and watch it and have fun for what it is: it’s purely pulp action/adventure designed to get you interested in reading the source materials and characters it’s based on.No more and no less.But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time watching THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN before you read the material it’s based on.
Produced by Jan Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson
Directed by Peter Jackson
Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson
Based on a story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace
Friends of mine will often ask me how I feel about remakes of movies.They’re actually surprised when I say that I honestly don’t mind when movies are remade.Broadway does remakes all the time.Except they call them revivals and they’re usually greeted with open arms and much love. They expose a whole new generation of theatergoers to the experience of seeing classic musicals performed live on stage.So why not do new versions of classic movies?Either people will go see it or they won’t.And if the writers, producers, actors and crew treat the source material with respect and stay true to the spirit of the original, that will be apparent to those fans of the original and even though they love the original to death, they will embrace the remake for what it is.
What I do object to however are lousy remakes that do a disservice to the original film or remakes of movies that actually don’t need to be remade.The classic 1933 “King Kong” is a perfect example of a movie that was done a disservice when it was remade in 1976.It took Jessica Lange’s career five years to recover from that bomb (she wouldn’t get a decent break until she co-starred with Jack Nicholson in “The Postman Always Rings Twice”) and poor Jeff Bridges fared even worse.The next five movies in a row he did flopped miserably (including Michael Cimino’s horribly underrated“Heaven’s Gate”) and he really didn’t bounce back until 1982’s “Tron” As for the director of 1976’s “King Kong”…well, you tell me…when was the last time you went to a movie that was directed by John Guillermin?
However, when it was announced that Peter Jackson was going to direct a new version of “King Kong” just about everybody who is a fan of the original sat back and sighed in relief.Like Ray Harryhausen, George Lucas, George Romero, and Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson had proven he was able to employ the medium of film in such a way that he created an entire universe on screen and for the running time of his films, he transported us to a completely other reality and made us believe it existed.
Peter Jackson’s KING KONG is one of the most amazing movies I’ve ever seen in my life and if you can possibly see it on HD DVD on a big screen television as I did (I watched it at my brother-in-law’s house on his 60-inch HDTV) trust me…you’re going to see a picture quality that actually is better than the quality of the movie you saw in theatres.At least I think so.We watched “Van Helsing” before we watched KING KONG and even though I think “Van Helsing” is a pretty lousy movie, in HD it looks so damn good I found that I didn’t even mind watching a lousy movie.But I digress.
It’s 1933 and the country is in the grip of The Great Depression.But even though breadlines are plentiful and work is scarce, people still crave their entertainment.Either through vaudeville or the movies.Which is what brings together struggling actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and maverick director Carl Denham (Jack Black) Denham needs an actress quick for his new movie which he’s shooting on location.Ann’s not too sure as Denham is sorta reluctant to specify where they’re going but he promises riches, adventures and a chance for Ann to work with the writer Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody) who she idolizes.
It isn’t until Ann and Jack are aboard the tramp steamer Venture, captained by Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschemann) and crewed by a rag-tag gang of sailor/mercenaries that everybody realizes they’ve been conned by Denham into this expedition to an island that may not exist.Denham insists he has a map.And the map does lead them to an island.And what an island it is.A time-lost island on which a towering stone wall is decorated by skeletons and guarded by a vicious, savage tribe that worships a god they call…Kong.Ann is kidnapped by these savages and offered up as a sacrifice to Kong who is a 25-foot gorilla.He takes Ann into the jungle where he is pursued by Jack, a camera-toting Denham, square –jawed leading man and movie idol Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) and the sailors of the Venture, determined to save her from her fate worse than death.I give them guys credit.What they go through on Skull Island would have had Indiana Jones pissing in his pants.Not only do they have to deal with Kong but also Skull Island which is a Lost World That Time Forgot of prehistoric creatures that shouldn’t exist.There are Tyrannosaurus Rexes, Brontosaurus, insects that can eat a case of Raid for dinner and have your head for dessert.Leeches the size of Buicks.Vampire bats big enough to bring down fighter jets.And that’s just the beginning.
Our hardy band of adventurers manages to survive the island’s many dangers, rescue Ann and is barely able to subdue and capture Kong.They take him back to New York where Carl Denham puts him on exhibition in a Times Square theatre.You know the rest of the story.
KING KONG is really a superior example of what can be done with such fantastic material when it’s treated with respect for its own reality.Peter Jackson had the good sense to set the movie in period (1933 was the actual year the original “King Kong” was made) since it’s a lot easier to believe that there could be a Skull Island in 1933 rather than in 1976.The 1930’s was such a rich period of high adventure that when you see hard-bitten guys stalking through a dinosaur infested jungle with cigars in their clenched teeth, flasks of whiskey in the hip pockets and toting Chicago Typewriters, you just buy it with no reservation.
The performances are stellar.I’ve never been much of a Jack Black fan (I still don’t see what the fuss over “School Of Rock” was all about) but I really enjoyed him in this movie.He has nowhere near the energy of the original Carl Denham, (the late great Robert Armstrong) but he has a strange look in his eye that I think develops into full-blown madness during the movie’s most frightening scene where Denham, Jack Driscoll and several crewmen are at the bottom of a deep crevice and have to desperately battle for their lives against giant insects.The choice of Jack Black and Adrian Brody as the movie’s leading men is a good one since both of them look like….well, like regular guys.They’re not impossibly handsome or pretty (I’m looking at you, Orlando Bloom) and that goes a long way with me to lending realism to their characters.As Ann Darrow, Naomi Watts has to carry a lot of the movie on her shoulders since she interacts with Kong more than any other character in the movie and she pulls it off superbly.There’s a terrific scene where she goes into her vaudeville act to amuse Kong and amazingly, the big ape enjoys the show.And for me the most spectacular action sequence in the movie is the ultimate giant monster smack down where Kong proves exactly why he’s King when he takes on not one, not two, but three Tyrannosaurus Rexes in a truly epic showdown of colossal proportions.
Chances are most of you reading this have already seen KING KONG so I don’t have to sell you on it.But if by chance you haven’t yet seen it, by all means put this one on your Netflix list.KING KONG is a rare animal: a remake that is more than worthy to stand shoulder to shoulder with the original.It’s totally everything that I love about the movies.Enjoy.
