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The Million Eyes of Sumuru
[Blu-ray 4K]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Blue Underground Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (23rd September 2024). |
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The Film
 On vacation in Rome, American CIA agent Nick West (Robot Monster's George Nader) is approached by droll British intelligence agent Colonel Baisbrook (The Cat and the Canary's Wilfred Hyde-White) to do him a favor on behalf of Sinonesian Chief of Security Colonel Medike (Donovan's Reef's Jon Fong) who believes the unsolved murder of his secretary is part of a plot to assassinate President Boong (Aguirre: Wrath of God's Klaus Kinski) while he is on a diplomatic tour. Carter witnesses Medike's abduction and follows him to a hospital where he drugged before he can prevent the man's death. Waking up in the hospital, Nick is pressed by Baisbrook to continue investigating, leading himself and tag-along playboy buddy Tommy Carter (The Haunted House of Horror's Frankie Avalon) to a villa where they eavesdrop on a meeting of a criminal organization consisting solely of women. After reporting to Baisbrook, Nick refuses to get any further involved until he discovers a murdered woman in his bed and he and Tommy are forced to accept Baisbrook's diplomatic passports to Hong Kong where Baisbrook hopes Nick can take Medike's places as Boong's chief of security. Upon arrival in Hong Kong, however, Nick is abducted by the female gang and meets their leader Sumuru (The Girl Hunters' Shirley Eaton) whose members have seduced and married eleven of the most powerful men in the world to fund her plans of world domination; however, Boong's compulsive womanizing has meant that the only solution for him is to get a woman close enough to seduce and kill him. After demonstrating her powerful weapon the "cube amortis" which petrifies victims into literal statues on Boong's intended chief of security replacement, Sumuru then orders Nick under pain of death to take the man's identity and arrange for Boong to meet new operative Helga (The Blood of Fu Manchu's Maria Rohm). Meanwhile, Tommy encounters obstacles and dangers of his own when trying to infiltrate Sumuru's impenetrable island fortress. One of a trio of Harry Alan Towers co-productions with Shaw Brothers – along with The Vengeance of Fu Manchu and Five Golden Dragons – The Million Eyes of Sumuru showcases another Sax Rohmer super villain bent on world domination; however, she envisions a female utopia while exercising violence to achieve it. Although Towers and atypical directorial choice Lindsay Shonteff (Devil Doll) were more obviously influenced by the Bond films than Towers' Fu Manchu series with the casting of forcibly-outed Hollywood actor Nader who found work in Germany playing pulp hero Jerry Cotten, along with the casting of Goldfinger's Eaton, the financial involvement of American International imposed the casting of Avalon and comedy that is more facetious than dry leaving the film's tone somewhat more akin to Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (also featuring Avalon) with a less camp villain. Indeed, while the plot has potential for comedy what with the "seduce and kill" females, the action is largely played straight and the humor seems shoehorned in through dialogue which comes naturally to Avalon but not to the usually-good Nader (and audience members are likely to remain as stone-faced to their quips as Sumuru). Eaton and German co-production actress Ursula Rank as her chief assassin are steely enough to give a bit of an edge to the film's examples of sadism – including shirtless Nader being whipped and "Beach Party" regular Patti Chandler (The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini) snapping a man's neck with her thighs as the other women casually watch – but Kinski's ridiculous character seems like more like he should be a Bondian villain but his character is built up and just disappears from the remainder of the film. The ending is of "the world will hear from me again" variety of the Fu Manchu films, and Jess Franco would helm the loose sequel The Girl from Rio – in which Eaton's character was rechristened Sunanda for some reason – while Towers would revisit the character one more time in 2003 with the sci-fi Sumuru pitting Stargate: SG-1's Michael Shanks against German model/actress Alexandra Kamp (Dracula 3000). The Hong Kong casting includes Paul Chang (Police Story) as Inspector Koo and Return of the One-Armed Swordsman's Essie Huang as a wolf in sheep's clothing, while the German co-production casting includes Krista Nell (The Slasher ...is the Sex Maniac!). 
Video
Released theatrically in the United States by American International, The Million Eyes of Sumuru had been shortened to 79 minutes while the British theatrical release from Anglo-Amalgamated suffered some censorship cuts but ran 87 minutes. Blue Underground's 2015 DVD and their later 2016 Blu-ray (a double feature with The Girl from Rio) claimed to come from the original camera negative but featured the American cut of the film. The claim is dubious since their new 4K UltraHD/Blu-ray combo claims to come from the "long-lost (and recently found) original camera negative" which seems more likely since the 2160p24 HEVC 2.35:1 widescreen Dolby Vision and 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen transfers are the longest version of the film at 89:28 and feature the original title card "Sax Rohmer's Sumuru" while the earlier transfer featured the "Million Eyes" title (the original title sequence also uses a more stereotypically "oriental" theme by John Scott rather than the superior cue which was apparently actually written for the next scene as it is repeated there in both cuts). It might be that at least some of the bits survived as trims as the title sequence here looks in poorer condition than the "Million Eyes" version. Apart from that, the transfer sports richly saturated reds and more naturalistic and varied skintones rather than the jaundiced look of the earlier transfer while also exposing just how awful Kinski's "oriental" pancake make-up really is from shot to shot. Other defects are organic to the original photography including a number of wide angle shots where there should be sufficient depth of field – especially since the film was shot in Techniscope with sharper and faster spherical lenses – but there just is not, including what was supposed to be a deep focus setup of Medika in the background noticing an unconscious man lying in the foreground of a Rome (actually Hong Kong) street and the camera following Nick around Sumuru's lair only to pan back and reveal her suddenly in the background (and out of focus unfortunately). With its picturesque locations and relatively lavish production values, it probably could have competed with the Bond series if it had been more exacting technically when it comes to the photography.  While the film played well enough in its sub-eighty minute cut, comparison to the longer version reveals just how abrupt some of the edits were simply to shorten the tops and tails of scenes, dropping some lame comedy including a gay joke, with the most noticeable deletion being the introduction of Inspector Koo with Tommy asking "You speaky English?" A number of mostly unfunny comic lines have also been dropped as well as the more ambiguous ending involving a glance between two supposedly reformed characters.
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono track features a mix of production audio and post-dubbing with the differences quite obvious. There are no real issues with the track. Dialogue is always clear, hiss in the silences is faint, the scoring has a sleek presence, while the effects including gunfire and explosions do not really test your sound system. Optional English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are included. 
Extras
Beside the theatrical trailer (2:34), the 4K disc includes an audio commentary by film historians David Del Valle and Dan Marino. Del Valle who discuss Towers' formula with literary properties and casting, the resources of Shaw Brothers and American International, and the cast including Nader's outing by the studio to protect Rock Hudson around whom rumors were swirling and his later career as a novelist – as well as noting that The Girl from Rio also pitted Eaton against an openly gay co-star – along with Hyde-White who also appeared with Eaton in the first of three Towers' adaptations of Ten Little Indians. Marino discusses Rohmer's Sumuru which began as a radio series followed by a series of novels and also points out the story elements from the source carried over to the film. They also discuss the atypical pick in a director in independent filmmaker Shonteff compared to the likes of jobbing directors like Franco, Don Sharp, and Jeremy Summers. Also included is an audio commentary by film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth who also compare Shonteff to Towers' usual pool of directors, Towers' radio and film career, and how the international co-production quota effected the billing in different territories. They are also frank about Nader's performance, how the addition of Avalon's character takes material away from the hero, and how the film "drops the ball" with regard to deploying Kinski. They also reveal that "Beach Party" regular Salli Sachse (Bikini Beach) was supposed to have a larger role but had to leave the production early when her actor husband was killed in the crash of a private plane in which he was a passenger.  The Blu-ray side of the combo includes the film, trailer, and commentaries along with the feature-length documentary "England's Unknown Exploitation Film Eccentric: The Schlock-Cinema Legacy of Lindsay Shonteff" (100:41) featuring a 2001 interview with the late director and contributions from British exploitation experts Allan Bryce, Kevin Lyons, Miles Flanagan, Kim Newman, and Johnny Walker as well as Shonteff's son Caleb Lindsay, and actresses Linda Marlowe (The Green Man) and Aimi MacDonald (Man About the House). Discussion includes his childhood and love of movies, working in Canadian television where he met director Sidney J. Furie (The Ipcress File) who inspired him to go out and just make a film on his own, resulting in the western The Hired Gun which was shot cheaply but was picked up by Joseph Brenner Associates for U.S. release. When Furie went to England to work on features starting out in horror with the back-to-back Cornwall features Dr. Blood's Coffin and The Snake Woman, it was he who recommended Shonteff in his place to direct the Devil Doll leading to Curse of the Voodoo (both starring Janus Films co-founder Bryant Haliday). His next film was the spy comedy The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World which lead to threats from Bond company EON that would later result in Rank shelving the U.K. release of his No. 1 of the Secret Service in 1977. Shonteff did not learn until after he had gone to Hong Kong – where his son reveals that he had a second family they did not learn of until after his death – that his agent recommended the Towers production and did not tell him of a three picture deal offer from Columbia Pictures. The discussion then moves to Shonteff trying to find his footing as an independent director, trying out sexploitation and horror but repeatedly coming back to action comedies like the aforementioned Bond spoof and the Harriet Zapper duo Big Zapper and The Swordsman and even Number One Gun in 1990 when even the Bond franchise had wound down. There is also some discussion of his attempts to get into the video market as well as his final films at the turn of the millennium. The included RiffTrax Version of the film with Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy (71:26) is included for those who like that sort of thing and it allows the viewer to see the American title card but it runs shorter than even the official shortest cut of the film. A poster & still gallery (0:56) is also included. 
Packaging
The discs are housed with a reversible cover while first pressing includes a slipcover.
Overall
While obviously inspired by the Bond films of the early sixties as much as producer Harry Alan Towers' other Sax Rohmer Fu Manchu franchise, The Million Eyes of Sumuru is a case of too many cooks that is neither exciting nor particularly funny.
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