Fearless Frank

Philip Kaufman is best known now for making art films for the masses but this early slice of madness is unlike any of his other films I've seen. Although looking very low-budget with shaky camerawork and bad on-location sound recording, this is a frenetic satire of comic book heroes with Voight as Fearless Frank and the bad False Frank. The bad guys look like they stepped out of a Dick Tracy comic with names like Screwnose and The Rat with cheap-looking makeup jobs to match. The anything-goes approach to the story seems like it was shot in an improvisational style which makes for a very disjointed film. I think Kaufman was trying to make an American pop culture satire in the style of self-indulgent European art movie directors like Jean-Luc Godard. This does not make it a good film, only an interesting one.

Starring Jon Voight and chubby comic actor Severin Darden, FEARLESS FRANK is an obscure pop morality play gone wrong. Receiving somewhat limited release, it quickly gravitated to infrequent television showings, via American-International Television.

The story concerns Darden's Doctor, who creates a perfect crimefighter, Frank. Played as immaculately cool, in a slick suit, narrow tie and shades, Frank easily bashes baddies until his ego gains the upper hand and proves his destruction.

In the end, battered and scarred, he's rowed off to quieter climes, no longer able to function as a crimefighter or -- in many ways -- a complete human being.

An interesting watch, though overall it shows largely cut-rate production values and a somewhat depressing atmosphere as Frank begins developing chinks in his armor which first pit him against the Doctor in small ways, and later lead to his falling from grace and into the hands of is enemies. The films seems to have vanished from sight, last showing on regional television in the early 1970s, slightly prior to Filmways' buy-out of AIP and their subsequent selling off of the studio's film library.

Wow. You actually have to wonder how Jon Voight got the Midnight Cowboy gig after being in this one.

I only watched it to see Monique Van Vooren who got top billing and she was in it much. David Steinberg, of all people showed up playing The Rat.

This tells you what a weird movie it is. The effects suck.

I just finished watching this odd movie which I had taped last year but forgotten until now. (I think it ran on Showtime.)

I think if Troma Studios had existed in the '60s they would have come up with this; it seems too strange for American International, no slackers when it comes to weird movies. Oddly disjointed story, cheesy production values, but the whole film is enhanced by narrator Ken Nordine (Word Jazz) and the appropriately chaotic jazz soundtrack.

This is a movie you should acquire and save for a late-night party with friends. It needs to be watched, not ignored as background, or you lose track of the surreal plot line. I wondered if it had been cut mercilessly because it seems too choppy. But seeing it without commercials helped immeasurably.

Somehow I doubt you will watch it more than once.

I was on board with Fearless Frank for the first 30 minutes or so. It made me laugh a few times and had the sort of anarchic and silly energy that makes The Beatles' Help a lot of fun (it's easier to compare this film to that one, rather than anything else Jon Voight or Philip Kaufman went on to make; both went on to bigger and much better things).

But unfortunately, Fearless Frank is longer than half an hour, and I grew tired of it as it went along. For the sheer weirdness of its existence, I feel like it might be worth a curiosity watch. There were entertaining moments too (the first gag involving Frank's super punching ability made me laugh more than I'd probably be willing to admit), but not quite enough for this to feel like a "good" movie.

But hey, for what it's worth, I've definitely seen inferior superhero movies.