Dr Satan tries to rule the world with killer robots, but is stopped by a masked hero in this nutty Turkish film. Mondo Macabro USA R0 DVD.
The Film
Turkish
exploitation cinema kicked off in the 1960s and peaked in around 1970.
While Italian cinema had made a business of following American
cinematic sucess with dozens of similar films, the Turkish went one
better and outright copied the American films - so audiences were
treated to shameless Superman, Star Trek and Rambo
rip-offs. The Deathless Devil was a rip-off/remake of an American serial The Mysterious Dr. Satan (1940).
The
Professor is a great inventor who has developed a powerful new mine,
and remote control device, that could revolutionise warfare. An
American scientist coming to speak with him is murdered, and the
Professor's friend and backer, Mr. Yilmaz realises that their lives are
in danger. He tells his son Tekin, that his real father was a man who
went around as a masked hero, known as Copperhead. Mr. Yilmaz is
murdered, and when Tekin catches the killer, they discover that he has
a remote explosive device attached to his waist - as the killer tries
to talk, it is detonated. Meanwhile, the Professor is on a train to
Ankara - Tekin rushes to save him, and his vital papers, from the
threat. On the train, we discover that Dr. Satan is after both the
professor and his papers and it is up to Tekin/Copperhead to save the
day...
Simply put, The Deathless Devil
is one of the nuttiest films ever made. The absurd pacing of trying to
combine the action of a 4 hour serial into an 80 minute film is clear
from the start when, within 5 minutes the Professor and Mr. Yilmaz have
discussed their weapon, met some more characters, a visiting scientist
has been killed, Yilmaz has told Tekin that he is not his real father,
that his real father was a masked hero and that he must now become that
hero, Yilmaz gets killed and Tekin has fought the killer. The pace
hardly lets up either, with dozens of action scenes including a fight
on a train and several car chases. The low budget never stops the
film-makers, shots of a plane chase seen on the Professor's monitors is
simply footage from the original serial, while Dr. Satan's robot is
probably the daftest creation to ever hit the screens. The characters
are a similarly oddball mix, especially Bitix who refers to himself as
Sherlock Holmes throughout the whole film, even dressing like him and
smoking a pipe on occasion, and seems to serve utterly no purpose
whatsoever to the story.
To
further emphasise the rushed plot, the film seems to have been edited
by someone being charged per frame - scenes cut away within seconds of
dialogue or action ending, if not before, making it often hard to
follow. The mixing of footage was obviously done very quickly,
without any
explaination for why Dr. Satan, controlling the robot via a TV screen,
gets a 3rd person view of the creation, rather than shots from its
inbuilt camera. The soundtrack has a nice theme, but blatantly steals Pink Panther and James Bond music as well.
The
acting is certainly nothing to write home about - in the opening scene,
the actors seem to be desperately trying to avoid looking at the
camera, and has the atmosphere of a bizarre Turkish sit-com. The actor
who plays Dr. Satan does look the part with a perfectly evil eyebrow
and mustache combo, while Copperhead does some nice action/stunt work.
The Deathless Devilis
simply an absurd film, with an incredibly fast moving plot and loads of
action scenes - plus a killer robot!
Not as good as Tarkan versus the Vikings (1971) but don't go in expecting quality
film-making, and you should enjoy this daft piece of obscure cinema. Partly recommended.
In Brief
Anyone famous in it?
No-one well known.
Directed by anyone interesting?
Yilmaz Atadeniz - who also directed the comic-villian film Kilink in Istanbul (1967), considered to be the breakthough film of Turkish cinema.
Any violence/gore?
Several killings although nothing very gory.
Any sex?
A short topless/sex scene.
Who is it for?
Partly recommended to fans of obscure cinema and anyone wanting to experience Turkish filmmaking.
The DVD
Mondo Macabro have released The Deathless Devil in a Turkish Pop Cinema double-bill, along with Tarkan versus the Vikings
(1971) and an impressive 30 minute documentary about Turkish cinema -
complete with interviews and film clips. The films look surprisingly
good, far better than most public domain discs, and the original
Turkish soundtracks are used, with optional English subtitles. This set
is a perfect place to start exploring this often forgotten niche of
cinema, and it comes highly recommended.
Visuals
1.33:1 fullscreen (there is no notable cropping on the sides, so this might be the OAR). Colour The
print is generally of VHS quality, notably soft and with some
artifacting but with decent colours, and little actual print damage.
Audio
Turkish language mono. Sounds rather muffled and has some drop-outs, but the music and effects come though well.
Subtitles
English - translation of the Turkish track. (some minor errors mean that timecodes appear on the tracks in a couple of places)
Run-time
Feature: 1hr 24m 11s
Extras
The disc includes:
Tarkan versus the Vikings (1971) - another Turkish pop-cinema film. (1hr 26m 28s)
Documentary
on Turkish pop cinema, including interviews with several actors and
some very interesting looking film clips. (24m 11s)
On-screen text notes about both films.
Mondo Macabro Promotional reel. (4m 11s)
Region
Region 0 (ALL) - NTSC
Other regions?
None known.
Cuts?
None known - this print is the original Turkish cinema version.
Summary
A completely nutty film, with a rushed plot and some ridiculous characters. Partly recommended.
A decent DVD release - the film is of VHS quality with muffled sound, but much better than most PD prints. Great documentary.
