Blue Underground
4K UHD Release: September 24, 2024
Video: 2.40:1/2160p (HDR10/Dolby Vision)/Color
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Run Time: 89:28
Director: Lindsay Shonteff
When a couple of wise-cracking, swingin' secret agents uncover supervillainess Sumuru’s (Shirley Eaton) scheme to eliminate male leaders and replace them with sexy undercover female operatives, they rush to Hong Kong and enlist the local police to stop her all-female army of assassins known as the Million Eyes of Sumuru. (From Blue Underground’s official synopsis)
Best remembered by historians as an accused Soviet agent and cult film fans as the British producer that hooked up with Jess Franco for eight movies between 1969 and 1970, Harry Alan Towers dipped his toe into the post-James Bond Eurospy craze at the beginning of his film career when he co-wrote and produced Robert Lynn’s poppy crime thrillers Code 7, Victim 5 (1964) and Mozambique (1965). He followed these up by co-writing and producing Peter Bezencenet’s 24 Hours to Kill (1965) and City of Fear (1965), then co-writing (under a pseudonym) and producing Don Sharp’s Our Man in Marrakesh (1966).
After the first two films in his Christopher Lee-fronted Fu Manchu series, The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) and The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), were hits, Towers got to work on two films starring Manchu’s female counterpart, Sumuru, also invented by author Sax Rohmer. Whereas the Fu Manchu films appealed to the pulp, crime, and horror crowds, the Sumuru films incorporated Eurospy antics, comedic irony, and were infused by the kind of campy comic book flash that typified television’s Batman (1966) and had begun creeping its way into the low-budget espionage subgenre.
The first Sumuru movie was Lindsay Shonteff’s The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967), which was released simultaneously with the third Fu Manchu movie, Jeremy Summers’ The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967). The title villainess is portrayed by former Bond Girl Shirley Eaton, who had played the ill-fated, gold-encased Jill Masterson in Guy Hamilton’s Goldfinger (1964). She had also appeared in the Towers-produced, George Pollock-directed Agatha Christie adaptation Ten Little Indians in 1965. Towers cashed-in on a second trend when hired wholesome teen heartthrob Frankie Avalon as his lead. Avalon had been the star of American International Pictures’ Beach Party series, along with Patti Chandler and Salli Sachse, who play Sumuru’s henchwomen. The Beach Party genre had itself almost accidentally morphed into its own Bond spoof in Norman Taurog’s Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), starring Vincent Price, Avalon, Chandler, and Sachse.
The film’s prospective appeal was broadened even further with the inclusion of scenery-devouring cult figure Klaus Kinski, a cheerfully dry Wilfrid Hyde-White, and a not very funny Bob Eubanks stand-in named George Nader, all for additional comedic fodder. For better or worse, depending on one’s exploitation movie tastes, The Million Eyes of Sumuru is overstuffed and unable to make any choices. It never works on the level of a focused pulp spoof, Eurospy flick, or standalone Frankie Avalon vehicle. Towers and co-writer Kevin Kavanagh’s attempts to divide their story between Avalon, Nader, and Eaton (not to even mention the scenes focused on Kinski or Towers’ own wife Maria Rohm) require wild tonal flips, unexplained story developments, and dead-end subplots. The narrative is so garbled that significant plot points can occur between scenes, probably because the script was in flux and there wasn’t enough time to shoot coverage. It’s often charming, but just as often exhausting.
As a character, Sumuru is certainly a less offensive Yellow Peril villain than Fu Manchu, in part because Shonteff, Towers, and Kavanagh are more interested in sexual boundaries than cultural stereotypes. It helps that Eaton isn’t donning yellow-face. Despite the specter of racism, the stylishly over-the-top scenes centering on the villainess’ Amazonian cabal are the best in the film by a wide margin. It’s no wonder that Eaton became the prospective franchise’s anchor over her unfunny male counterparts. She worked with Towers on two more Sumuru-adjacent projects, playing Black Widow in Jess Franco’s The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), then returning as Sumuru for Franco’s official sequel, The Girl from Rio (1969). That would be her last feature role, though, as of this writing, she is still among the living.
Shonteff had previously directed zero-budget horror films Devil Doll (which he self-produced, 1964) and Curse of the Voodoo (aka: Curse of Simba, 1965). He likely got the Sumuru gig off the back of his 007 spoof The 2nd Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World (aka: License to Kill, 1965). After Sumuru, he returned to horror for the somewhat influential proto-slasher, Night After Night After Night (1969). Despite the lack of budget, bloated script, jumbled editing, and lack of necessary coverage, The Million Eyes of Sumuru looks good enough to be confused for a studio production. Shonteff’s job is made a bit easier by shooting in and around (very recognizable) Shaw Bros. studio sets in Hong Kong. Shaw actors Paul Chang Chung and Essie Lin Chia were also employed, but, unfortunately, it seems that Towers overlooked the value of the studio’s stunt crew, because the action choreography is quite stilted.
Bibliography:
Obsession: The Films of Jess Franco edited by Lucas Balbo and Peter Blumenstock (Gruf Haufen & Frank Trebbin, 1993)
Bizarre Sinema: Jess Franco El Sexo del Horror by Carlos Aguilar (Glittering Images, no publishing date)
Video
The Million Eyes of Sumuru is best-known among North Americans for being featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (season 13, episode 9). Prior to Blue Underground getting their hands on it, it was only available on German language DVD. BU released the film on solo DVD and double-feature Blu-ray (with The Girl from Rio) in 2016. This 4K UHD, which follows a solo Girl From Rio 4K from 2023, was created using a brand-new 4K scan of the recently discovered original camera negative. It is presented in 2160p and 2.40:1 with Dolby Vision and HDR10 enhancements. Additionally, the rediscovered negative was of the longer cut of the film, technically entitled Sax Rohmer's Sumuru on the print, meaning that this disc runs about ten minutes longer than the previous release.
The images on this page are taken from the included Blu-ray copy, which features a 1080p version of the same new remaster. I found it too difficult to line up comparison caps from my older review, but it was still helpful to have those caps on hand. The new BD doesn’t have the extra resolution or HDR upgrade, but it illustrates the new scan’s grade and detail quality, which is tighter, brighter, and warmer than the somewhat faded, mushy, and noisy original. The UHD features additional boosts in fine detail and texture, including film grain, poppier acrylic colors (without the minor bleeding seen on BU’s older disc), and richer, though occasionally pooly blacks. Improvements all-around and a longer cut to boot.
Audio
The Million Eyes of Sumuru is presented in its original English mono and uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0. This track is similar to the one found on the Blu-ray, but the new source does lead to some improvements in clarity. The lack of compression helps minimize distortion during the louder moments and, though on the softer and more condensed side overall, the track has sharp element separation. Funnily enough, the clarity amplifies the difference between the set-captured dialogue and post-dubbed dialogue from Kinski and the Hong Kong actors. There were apparently two different scores written for The Million Eyes of Sumuru, one by Johnny Scott and the other by Daniel White. This disc, like the previous one, includes Scott’s mix of pseudo-007 themes, faux-Chinese motifs, and swinging ‘60s jazz – not White’s music, though White did return for the Jess Franco sequel.
Extras
Disc 1 (4K UHD)
Commentary with David Del Valle and Dan Marino – Journalist, historian, and screenwriter Del Valle and the impossible-to-Google Marino (he’s a film critic, not a retired football player) explore the production, Sax Rohmer’s books, the film’s anti-feminist message, and Towers’ wider filmography, but, in typical Del Valle fashion, they tend to focus on the life and careers of the cast & crew,
Commentary by Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth – Howarth, the author of Real Depravities: The Films of Klaus Kinski (CreateSpace, 2016) and Mondo Digital head Thompson are paired once again for a long look at a bit of Eurotrash. The subject matter is similar to the Del Valle & Marino track, but it’s a bit more full-bodied and, in true Thompson & Howarth fashion, it centers more on the wider late-‘60s exploitation landscape and connections to The Million Eyes of Sumuru.
Theatrical trailer
Disc 2 (Blu-ray)
Commentary with David Del Valle and Dan Marino
Commentary by Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
England's Unknown Exploitation Film Eccentric: The Schlock-Cinema Legacy of Lindsay Shonteff (100:41, HD) – A new and exclusive documentary by Naomi Holwill on the director and his work, including pieces of an audio interview with Shonteff, clips from his films, and additional interviews from critics, fans, and former collaborators.
RiffTrax version of the film (71:26, HD) – Blue Underground hasn’t included the original Mystery Science Theater episode, but they’ve got the next best thing with this RiffTrax alternative, featuring Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy. Do note that this is the shorter US cut of the film.
Poster & still gallery
Theatrical trailer
The images on this page are taken from the included Blu-ray – NOT the 4K UHD – and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.
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