Uc Dev Adam

Three Mighty Men
Three Giant Men / Captain America and Santo vs Spider-Man

Turkey 1973
produced by
Ridvan Tual for Renkli
directed by T.Fikret Ucak
starring Deniz Erkanat, Yavuz Selekman, Ayetin Akkaya, Teyfik Sen, Dogan Tamer, Mine Sun, Altan Günbay, Ersun Kazancel, Hasan Ceylan, Osman Han, Aysen Taskin, Mahmut Gülay, Ali Ekdal, Niyazi Vanli, Alev Bora, Cengiz Karabulut, Sönmez Yikilmaz, Nilgün Ceylan, Ihsan Baysal, Meziyet Nakkas, Mehmet Yagmur, Mustafa Özkaya
written by Dogan Tamer

Captain America, El Santo, Spider-Man

review by
Mike Haberfelner

The evil Spider-Man and his gang are stealing cultural artefacts all over Turkey, then sells them for cheap overseas, then buys them back at high prices - but with forged money. So the US- and the Mexigan gouvernment have decided to send their top heroes to Istanbul, Captain America (Deniz Erkanat) and Santo (Yavuz Selekman). The two heroes, along with Captain America's girlfriend Julia and local cop Orhan, now try to foil Spider-Man's plans at every step along the way, but it seems Spider-Man himself always eludes them ... and eventually, when our heroes have finally wrestled him down, he seems to have any number of doppelgangers, and whomever they defeat or even kill, it's never the real Spider-Man.

Eventually, Captain America, Santo and Julia all end up prisoners of the Spider-Man, but of course our heroes manage to break out and now take apart Spider-Man's headquarters from the inside, fighting off and/or killing everyone who comes in their way, be it Spider-Man's henchmen or even more of his doppelgangers. And in the end, they have the real Spider-Man run over by a freight wagon, right in his own warehouse ... and once more the world is saved.

Since in the 1970's, copyright laws in Turkey were notoriously lax, the producers had no problems using established superhero-characters Captain America, El Santo and Spider-Man for their film. The outcome is a typical Turkish superhero-movie: reminiscent in style of American serials of the 1930's and 40's (not at least because of the film's episodic structure), but filled with violence (one woman has her face destroyed by a ship's turbine, a man has a pipe attached to his head, then rats are put inside the pipe ...) - if not too graphic - and sex (it seems every time Spider-Man is breaking into a house, someone is having sex inside) - if not too explicite -, and definitely made on the cheap (it doesn't even seem that our heroes' costumes are fitting them too well).

The outcome is a welcome piece of good-natured but definitely mindless piece of cinematic trash. If you try to take this film any serious, you will hate it, but if you can accept and enjoy its sillyness and its cheapishness, you just might as well love it.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Three Mighty Men at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Three Mighty Men here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai

Thanks for watching !!!