Tweet
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: September 24th, 2024.
Director: Lindsay Shonteff
Cast: Shirley Eaton, Frankie Avalon, George Nader, Klaus Kinski
Year: 1967
Purchase From Amazon
The Million Eyes Of Sumuru – Movie Review:
If you’ve ever wanted to see Frankie Avalon through a hand grenade at some hot chicks with machine guns – and really, who hasn’t? - this is the movie for you!
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff, 1967’s The Million Eyes Of Sumuru introduces us to a fetching killer for hire named Erna (Ursula Rank). Her mission? On behalf of her employer, the sadistic woman known only as Sumuru (Shirley Eaton), she's to launch an assault on the young men currently carrying the coffin of their father, the recently deceased wealthiest man in the world! Why? Because Sumuru is hell-bent on world domination! Her intentions are to take out the men in charge and to let women rule the planet. This would, according to her theory, bring about world peace, but in order to get there the plan will involve plenty of violence!
When one of her undercover agents falls in love with a man, Sumuru has her assassinated as well but what she didn't count on was Colonel Sir Arthur Baisbrook (Wilfrid Hyde-White), the man in charge of the organization the agent had infiltrated. After the hit, Arthur begins to work to uncover Sumuru's covert organization and figures that her next target is President Boong (Klaus Kinski), the president of Sinonesia. Thankfully, for the safety of the world, an American C.I.A. agent named Nick West (George Nader) just so happens to be on vacation in the area. Sir Arthur enlists the aid of Nick as well as jetsetter Tommy Carter (Frankie Avalon) and before you know it they're off to Hong Kong where Nick falls for foxy female agent Helga (Maria Rohm) - will anyone be able to stop Sumuru before it's too late?
Created by Sax Rohmer to follow up on the success of his infamous Fu Manchu stories, Sumuru makes for a pretty fantastic supervillain, sort of a female Diabolik if you will. She's smart, sexy and she knows what she wants and how to get it - no man will stand in her way! If the film cashes in on various cinematic trends of the day (the James Bond influence is hard to miss), so be it, as long as it's as entertaining and delivers pulp trash thrills as efficiently as this feature does, most won't mind a bit. Lindsay Shonteff’s direction exploits all of this pretty effectively, keeping the pace fairly tight and offering up solid production values, highlighted by some really nice, and remarkably colorful, set design. This is captured well by some top notch cinematography and a pretty fun, and at times ridiculously bombastic, score.
The movie delivers pretty much exactly what you'd want from it. The girls are all gorgeous (particularly Eaton and Rohm), the guys are brave but occasionally used as playthings, the sets are colorful and exotic and the movie offers up plenty of action and suspense. It's not particularly original but it is enjoyable and Eaton makes for a pretty great central character. She's got plenty of screen presence even if she is clearly underused in the part. And hey, when she's cast alongside Maria Rohm, Frankie Avalon and the great Klaus Kinski it's hard not to have a good time with this stuff. George Nadar is a lot of fun to watch here too, he actually shows a good knack for the comedy that the script intertwines throughout its running time.
Note that the version of the film included on this new edition from Blue Underground is the extended version of the film, which includes roughly ten minutes of footage not included on their previous Blu-ray release.
The Million Eyes Of Sumuru – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
The HEVC encoded 2160p transfer, framed at 2.40.1 widescreen and featuring HDR10 and Dolby Vision enhancement, looks excellent. Taken from the newly discovered 35mm camera negative, colors really pop here but stop short of looking too hot or oversaturated. Skin tones look lifelike and realistic throughout and we get nice, deep black levels that avoid crush. There are no problems with any obvious compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction issues while detail is noticeably stronger than past Blu-ray editions as is depth and texture. There’s virtually no print damage here at all, the image is pretty much spotless, while the film’s natural grain is retained. This looks fantastic.
The English language 24-bit DTS-HD Mono audio, which comes with subtitles in English SDH, French and Spanish, sounds very good. Audio is clean, clear and nicely balanced and there’s good depth as far as the soundtrack is concerned.
A new audio commentary with David Del Valle and Dan Marino starts off the extra features on the disc. They go over the significance of the film's title, details on the cast and crew that worked on the picture with lots of info about Eaton, Sax Rohmer's source material, Harry Alan Towers' work on the film as well as his relationship with Maria Rohm, thoughts on some of the film's stranger moments, the schlock elements to the movie, the costume work in the film, some of the stand out lines in the film, the Towers formula and how it's on display in the movie, some of the filmmakers that Towers worked with over the span of his career, producing films intended for the international market, some of the more obvious plot holes on display in the movie, the film's western filmmakers depict the east and how this ties into Sax Rohmer's work, where the movie captures the 'flavor' of Rohmer's work, the possible influence of the Adam West Batman series and other details related to the production and the people that made it.
A second new audio commentary features Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth that covers where Towers' career was during this period in his life, his tendency to travel around the world in his work, where the movie ventures into roughie territory, how parts of the film were shot at the Shaw Brothers studio, where scenes and editing decisions work and where they don't, how the Sumuru character is introduced in the film for the first time, cast and crew details, how the movie connects to other films including the films Towers made with Jess Franco and with Klaus Kinski, thoughts on the production values on display in the movie, the dubbing employed in the film, the quality of the sixties Hong Kong location footage, thoughts on the score and plenty more.
The included Blu-ray disc contains those same two commentary tracks but also contains England’s Unknown Exploitation Film Eccentric: The Schlock-Cinema Legacy Of Lindsay Shonteff, which is a new one hundred and one minute feature-length documentary directed by Naomi Holwill. This featurette opens with some recordings from Shonteff himself and thoughts on him from those who worked with him and various critics and film experts familiar with his work, before then going on to cover his biographical details (he was actually born in Ontario, Canada and not in the United Kingdom) and his career. Highlights from his filmography are discussed as well as the quality of the movies that he made (they do vary quite wildly), what made his movies interesting, how he financed his pictures and did things quite independently, how he learned by doing, how he wound up in England from Canada, the fast and cheap nature of his productions, his ability to cash in on successful cinematic trends, what he was like to work with, stories from some of the shoots he worked on, how he came to work with Towers on The Million Eyes Of Sumuru, how he retained the rights to most of his films, some of the actors that he worked with, his move to making films for the direct to video market, the legacy that he's left behind and the cult following that has developed surrounding some of his work.
Blue Underground has also included on the Blu-ray disc the seventy-one minute RiffTrax Edition of the feature, wherein Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy skewer the film in some pretty amusing ways while it plays out on screen in front of them. Fans of MST3K will appreciate this, and some of the quips are pretty funny.
Finishing up the extras on the disc are an original theatrical trailer for the feature, a poster and still gallery, menus and chapter selection options. This release comes packaged with some reversible cover sleeve art and an embossed slipcover.
The Million Eyes Of Sumuru - The Final Word:
The Million Eyes Of Sumuru is fun, kitschy, pulp-flavored entertainment made all the better by a great cast and some stylish cinematography. The new special edition UHD/Blu-ray release from Blue Underground looks and sounds excellent and contains some genuinely solid extra features. Recommended.