Die drei Supermänner räumen auf

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of The Fantastic Three Supermen; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.25 Direction: 1.50 Pace: 1.50 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.25

TOTAL: 6.75 out of 10.00

So The Fantastic Three Supermen is the first of the Italian "Supermen" movies I have watched. And it was good harmless entertaining fun.

The writers have taken the concept of Robin Hood, dropped the lincoln greens, the merry men and the bows and arrows to replace them with bulletproof red shirts and tights, with blue capes and the obligatory blue undercrackers on the outside. This dynamic duo don't require any extra help as they are skilled and trained gymnasts - okay, so they read more like Batman and Robin, so why the Robin Hood comparison? Well, this frenetic twosome like to steal from the rich and criminal, except instead of sharing their ill-gotten gains with the poor and needy, they like to keep the spoils. In this case, the "Heroes" get tricked by an FBI agent on the trail of a major criminal. He is pursuing a villainess mastermind who is running a counterfeiting ring. As we progress through the story, we learn that counterfeiting doesn't stop at money. The nefarious genius has developed a Universal Duplicating Machine, and the only thing it cannot duplicate perfectly are humans. Just imagine what could happen if the machine got into the wrong hands - A million President Trumps. With stories such as these, I usually find the narrative is pretty basic without much interest, apart from the action. And in the beginning, I had that impression. Thankfully, the writer adds extra twists into the tale, like the FBI agent taking off with the loot, leaving the two Supermen behind. This doublecross adds an extra depth to the story. The men in red have to clash with the FBI to get their hard-earned haul back. And by doing so, they learn of the agency's genuine interest in the felonious egghead. In all truth, the story is a cut above your usual bandwagon jumpers, which this appears to be - Batman the Movie - but it's not too ludicrous or unintentionally funny. The comedic element is interwoven throughout and helps lift the audience's spirits and give them a heartwarming feeling, as well as, put a smile on their face.

Gianfranco Parolini, who wrote the story, also directs the movie. Happily, for the viewers, he does a great job. He keeps all the scenes light and entertaining and is brilliant at getting the correct camera angles to hide the trampolines from sight. Everything is shot in perfect clarity and light, ideal for showing off the Supermen's ostentatious outfits and the terrific sets and scenery. He cuts quickly to amp up the excitement, though the movie already possesses a galloping pace.

You can guess that with a film like The Fantastic Three Supermen, no Shakesperian actors grace the screen. But they are all above average and do a decent job with their characters, especially Tony Kendall as Tony and Brad Harris as...Hhhmmm Brad! At least they couldn't miss their queues when their names were called. The only letdown was Aldo Canti as - you guessed it - Nick! Whereas Burt Ward had silly and awful dialogue to portray his feverish overeagerness, Canti's Nick is mute. So all his unrestrained fanaticism has to be visually shown while he lets out one of the most annoying whines ever recorded on a soundtrack. His movements and noise make Nick truly beyond belief.

But, even with Nick's absurd characteristics, The Fantastic Three Supermen is an enjoyable if slightly annoying watch. I happily recommend it to movie viewers worldwide who like this type of picture. It entertained me and made me smile. It even made me laugh a couple of times, so there's another factor in its favour. It's the kinda film you sit down to watch on a lazy afternoon when the sun is beating down too warmly, and the whole country takes a more leisurely approach to life.

Oh, darn it! Those damned temps have been using the Universal Duplicating Machine to replicate their... ...Oh well, forget that, it's time for you to check out my The Final Frontier and Holding Out For A Hero lists to see where I ranked The Fantastic Three Supermen.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Bright red superhero fun with Brad Harris and Tony Kendall

Between two adventures of the KOMMISSAR X Franchise, successful producer Theo Maria Werner had his two stars Harris and Kendall travel to beautiful Yugoslavia to shoot a quick superhero fun. With Aldo Canti (1941-1990), the third member of the group, equipped with superpowers and in a bright red costume, he goes against a money counterfeiting ring that has a lot more in store. So the three Sonnyboys have to deal with a professor (Carlo Tamberlani) and his lovely daughter Zizi (Bettina Busch), who have made a great invention. The professor's device can duplicate people and objects. It's just a shame that the criminal gang around the crazy golem (Jochen Brockmann) also got wind of it. But luckily our three supermen aren't far away...

What fun! Action and funny sayings alternate every ten seconds. Everything is there, especially Aldo Canti's many trampoline jumps are really fun. Otherwise, the three smart buddies are well coordinated with each other. The busy Tony Kendall is once again able to bring all the ladies (Rossella Bergamonti, Gloria Paul, Sabine Sun) into the horizontal position. The giant Brad Harris flexes his muscles as usual and is the most sensible of the three as an FBI agent. And the good Aldo Canti comes across as a bit obtuse, but he fights and jumps so that it's a real joy. The brave three receive support in the action scenes from Jeff Cameron and Sal Borgese.

The film by genre veteran Gianfranco Parolini (THIS TIME I WILL MAKE YOU RICH), shot entirely in Yugoslavia, was successful enough that several sequels with the three supermen were to follow.

The 3 mains are rather fun and there is a lot of stuff turnabouting all around in this but it is done with farce-like tone, take that as you will.

I love 1960s-style martial arts action, and the only thing THE THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN lacks is the obligatory "hi-yah!" This amusing comedy combines elements of BATMAN, THE GREEN HORNET, Mexican wrestling movies and spy-capers. Much of the humor might have been funny back in Europe in the 1960s, but it came off as stupid or just plain odd when I watched the movie in America during the 1990s. Maybe they didn't have a budget to really develop the slapstick and satire into something honestly funny, or maybe the English dubbed version simply lost something in the translation.

Nick Jordan is particularly annoying as the mute superhero, a role given to Salvadore Borgese in follow-ups (ironically, Borgese only cameos at the beginning of THE THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN, as a bazooka-toting henchman). Jordan's superb acrobatic flips and mini-trampoline stunts really highlight the karate fights and help to elevate them above other martial arts of the period (i.e. THE AVENGERS & WILD WILD WEST). I dare say that as far as 1960s martial arts go, THE THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN's spats are second only to THE GREEN HORNET!

I won't go too much into the script; you'll just have to find this rare gem and see it yourself. For now, let's just say that FBI agents get their hands on these bullet-proof 'Superman' (why Marvel never sue'd them is beyond me!) outfits which turn common jewel thieves into acrobatic heroes! Some times our zany heroes are evading cops, some times they're thwarting a mad scientist and his 'human duplicating' machine, and sometimes they're just being silly. They're never boring though (that doesn't happen until the movie's many sequels came along)!

"I fantastici 3 $upermen" has the topic "The Universal reproduction". My guess is that Mr. Gianfranco Parolini (aka Frank Kramer), with the duo Tony Kendall and Brad Harris, after filming "Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill"(1966), in the absence of a serious scenario, just to have fun, they decided to reproduce "Batman: The Movie"(1966). The costumes and the car are "inspired" from there. They used even the tunnel from "Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill". Maybe back in the '60s they had some fun, but today this attempt is not fun not even to the preschool age children. All the actors are pathetic. The whole thing is just a waste of time. Embarrassing!