I believe I only saw this George Pal production only once on TV as a kid, but it's one that I remember kind of making my head explode at the time and for whatever reason has always stuck with me. I'm not familiar with the young adult book series about the barrel-chested, super-genius, adventure and his team, The Fabulous Five (one of whom is played by a young Paul Gleason, best known as the jerk principal in "The Breakfast Club"), who are all experts in their fields. Watching the film now as an adult it's super corny, but still a whole lot of fun. The film is going for a Saturday matinée serial type of feel (i.e. Flash Gordon or The Perils of Pauline), which I'd say the underrated Disney film "The Rocketeer" got pitch perfect, though this film doesn't nail it quite as well. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" mined similar source material, but abandoned the knowing light hearted camp and took the film to a new level of high adventure, but "Doc Savage" wanted to be that family friendly film that was knowingly comic book-like. "Doc Savage" crosses the fine line between light camp and just plain silly too often (the grown man in the crib was just dumb). Still, I was really entertained by the movie and loved the vivid photography, the fun George Pal special effects, and was also tickled at seeing how similar Doc and his team were to Buckaroo Banzai and his team (which made me like "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" even more). You also get a weirdly young Michael Berryman as a prim and proper top hat wearing coroner with a British accent. Filled with tommy guns, vintage yachts, period cars, iconic skyscrapers, and lot of fun action, I quite enjoyed re- watching this childhood favorite.

I saw this film in its premier week in 1975. I was 13 years old and at that time I found it adequate and somewhat fun. I then came to discover the WORLD of Doc Savage through the Bantam novels of the old pulp magazine stories. I had no idea before any of this of the realm of Doc, but I fast became one of the most avid Doc Savage fans you could ever meet. I read (and still own) all of the Bantam books, I started going to comic book cons (along with Star Trek and Doctor Who and all manner of geeky fat kid events) and had a wonderful time with each adventure I took with Doc and the ORIGINAL Fab 5. Philip Jose Farmer's Book - The Apocalyptic Life of Doc Savage became a bit of a bible for me and to this day I have very fond feelings regarding my Doc phase. In so saying I have to admit now years later that this film really missed the boat. It is a film that did not know what it wanted to be when it grew up. The screenplay was infantile and bore little resemblance to the pulp story. These stories from the 30's were short and if one looked at Lester Dent's (AKA Kenneth Robeson) outline for writing them, they broke down into PERFECT 3 act dramas that screamed for screen treatment. One would have thought that with George Pal and Michael Anderson at the helm, it would have turned out better. The spoof elements miss the target and the more serious moments almost get there, but then fall short. It is interesting to watch though in that they hired second-string character actors (guys that had really been only bit players and extras before this film) who all acquit themselves very well. Paul Gleason of course has gone on to be a fine utility player in all facets of entertainment and Bill Lucking is a television perennial. All the rest have fallen off the map sadly. I do wish to own a copy of this film as it is the only movie version of my hero, but I fear I will not watch it much as it is too painful. I would say 0 but I give it 2 out of 10 instead for some of the period art direction (Doc's answering machine at the end was a nice touch) and the cast of 3rd stingers getting a moment in the sun.

When I watched this I had to admit to myself that this was truly the worse film I had ever seen. It even bet the one I had watched once about a boxing milkman named Ernie. My friend was adamant it was a spoof but it isn't. It's truly hilarious though as it's so bad it's funny. I just couldn't stop laughing when the evil genius and his evil friend laughed in a wicked fashion for about 30 seconds! It's camp with every stereotype available. Like the lawyer, geeky archaeologist and fat chemist with a pig. Oh yes the ginger fat chemist with a pig. Just so so wrong. If this film was a spoof I'm sure it would be a comedy classic it's just grin-inducing comedy. Surely someone was trying to be funny with this? Or were the 70s that bad?

This movie is so cheesy and uninteresting, it must've been made for the kiddies. I gave up on the plot early on, but I can tell you it has to do with green animated snakes that can be blown away by using a common electrical fan. I think indians play a role too, but... This 1975 cheeseball doesn't even provide good cheese, its just lame-o from the get go. There is a scene where Doc Savage fights the big villain and they stop at certain points in the fight and text on screen tells you what style of fighting they're using (i.e. sumo, karate, etc.). I sort of laughed at this. I started reading during the movie so I might've missed a few funny parts. Another thing is Doc Savage (played by Ron Ely - Tarzan from the 60s) is supposed to be a big hero and he really isn't that impressive. Why would he need the "fabulous five": a group of characters from different walks of life who are the "top of their fields"? Doc Savage doesn't fight very well either. Also there is one scene where he reaches into a plaster wall to retrieve a bullet. He rips his shirt sleeve because he had to use that much muscle to get it. What kind of hero is that? This is still available on VHS and there was supposed to be a sequel but I don't think it happened. Wonder why. Its going for Batman 1966 humor but doesn't make it - it gets close on occasion. Doc Savage is pretty lame and highly cheesy, but the jokes don't work most of the time and the guy with the pig named Habius Corpus is just weird. I rented it, I suggest you do too, if you have to see it.