|
Coming from an island of women, Diana Prince (Cathy Lee Crosby) these
days spends her time as a secretary of Secret Service boss Steve Trevor
(Kaz Garas) - but of course, that's just a pretense, actually she's the
agency's top operative ... One day, the secret codebooks that would
unmask all of the agency's secret agents are stolen, and if they would get
into the wrong hands, that would pretty much end the agency's operations
as such. It's fortunate then that the baddie behind it all offers to sell
them back to the agency first. Nobody of course knows who the baddie is,
but Diana is quick to guess it's one Abner Smith (Ricardo Montalban), and
she tracks him down to Paris - where she meets Smith's second-in-command
George (Andrew Prine), who alternatively tries to charm her and kill her.
No matter how hard Diana tries though, she is not able to get her hands on
Smith, and eventually, the agency sees itself forced to pay up - and the
money is to be delivered via muleto the Grand Canyon. Diana, who now
rather inexplicably wears a stars-and-stripes costume and is called Wonder
Woman, is on the scene of course, and walks from deathtrap to deathtrap,
has to fight a sister from her island (Anitra Ford), and ultimately
manages to trail the mule to Smith's secret hideout, where the two of them
have a drink (really) before she blows the place up and puts George out of
commission (finally). Smith manages to escape in a dinghy (!) though, and
almost makes it to safety - but only almost, because Wonder Woman is a
resourceful little girl, and she sees to it that justice is served after
all. Granted, Wonder Woman has undergone many
changes, but this is not the Wonder Woman we know: She's a
wholesome blonde with no superpowers whatsoever who is a secret service
operative much like James
Bond, prefers to engage her adversaries in long dialogues
rather than action, and her stars-and-stripes costume looks rather
ridiculous and doesn't seem to serve much purpose. This though only
tells us that Wonder Woman is not the comicbook adaptation fans
have hoped for, but gives little information about the film on hand. The
good things first: Ricardo Montalban is a great villain, that's a given,
and Andrew Prine is at least fun as his a bit dim-witted
second-in-command. Cathy Lee Crosby - she's she's not great but ok playing
the role she was given, and it was not her fault how it was written. And
now we have arrived at the film's core problem: Its script - basically the
whole thing lacks excitement, never allows its pace to pick up, and is way
too much in love with its dialogues, which just aren't all that good or
witty or whatever. If you add to that television veteran Vincent
McEveety's featureless direction, you get pretty much routine television
fare, mid-70's style. Nothing to get excited about, and it's no wonder
this did not get picked up and made into a series - though it's a wonder
some other equally dull pilots did ...
|
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Wonder Woman at adultvideouniverse.com
