6 /10 1 Votes
Cinematography Francesco Izzarelli | 5.9/10 IMDb Story by Gianfranco Parolini Initial release 1967 Film series 3 Supermen Film Series | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Screenplay by Marcello CosciaGianfranco Parolini Starring Luciano StellaBrad HarrisAldo Canti Music by Ruggero CiniJimmy Fontana Screenplay Gianfranco Parolini, Marcello Coscia, Theo Maria Werner Similar 3 Supermen a Tokio, Supermen Against the Orient, The Incredible Paris Inci, 3 Supermen Against G, Death Trip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Three Fantastic Supermen (Italian: I fantastici tre supermen) is a 1967 superhero film directed by Gianfranco Parolini. The film was the first in a series of Three Supermen films.
Contents
Cast
Production
The Three Fantastic Supermen was conceived during the period of a superhero film cycle during the mid-1960s in Italy. The director Gianfranco Parolini had worked in several genres including sword-and-sandal films where there are more than one heroes helping each other solve their goals. Gianfranco Parolini commented on the stunts in the film, noting that they were done on set with actor Aldo Canti having to jump out of 20 feet high window, jump into a trampoline and jump into a truck which was moving at full speed. The film was entirely shot in Yugoslavia.
Release
The Three Fantastic Supermen was released in Italy in 1967. In his book Diabolika: Supercriminals, Superheroes and the Comic Book Universe in Italian Cinema, Roberto Curti described the film as a "reasonable box office success in Italy". The film spawned several sequels where the trio of heroes showing up in Japan (3 Supermen a Tokyo, 1968), Africa (Three Supermen in the Jungle, 1970), Hong Kong (Supermen Against the Orient, 1973) and the American West (The 3 Supermen in the West, 1973).
Reception
In a contemporary review, the Monthly Film Bulletin noted that the stunt work of the title characters and their various stunt doubles "provide a welcome relief from the standard secret agent/judo syndrome" as well as that the "ingenuity of this comic strip adventure begins to pall after the first half hour, and the inevitable final holocaust in the master criminal's lair is brightened by the villain's diverting scheme to produce an army of robot villains who all look like the hero."
From retrospective reviews, Roberto Curti described the film as a "mixed bag" taking too much material from its sources such as The Phantom, Zorro and Goldfinger.
