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| Images courtesy of Blue Underground |
Canuxploitation producer-director Lindsay Shonteff’s 1967
super spy spoof The Million Eyes of Sumuru, an overtly campy James Bond
secret agent comedy involving cartoonish supervillains and sexy scantily clad
female assassins intent on waging war against the male sex, is a unique venture
for a myriad of reasons. Initially
disregarded as a bad movie picked on by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and
Rifftrax, the film also dubbed Sumuru in some territories is
spoken of the same breath as Barbarella, Black Tight Killers or Faster,
Pussycat! Kill! Kill! involving a cocktail of high camp, strong female
characters in black leather outfits beating up and/or outsmarting men. Already patently tongue-in-cheek from the get-go,
already intentionally funny and even goofy, it begs the question why lampoon a
lampoon?
Based on the Sumuru novels by Sax Rohmer about a Machiavellian
maniac femme fatale, produced by Harry Allan Towers and shot at the Shaw
Brothers film studio in Hong Kong, The Million Eyes of Sumuru finds the
titular female supervillain Sumuru (Shirley Eaton) leading a secret all-female
organization of assassins intent on murdering and replacing male political leaders
with female agents with her leanings.
After the Chief of Security for Sinonesian President Boong (Klaus
Kinski) is taken out, a couple vacationing Americans in Hong Kong named Nick
West (George Nader) and his pal Tommy Carter (singer Frankie Avalon) are tasked
by the British Intelligence agency with investigating the murder. Leading them to Sumuru’s secret base of all-female
assassins, the two escape being killed and/or framed for murder more than once
before an all out explosive battle ensues between the two plucky jokey male
heroes and Sumuru’s army of feminine acolytes.
Full of extravagantly campy set pieces thanks to Shaw
Brothers’ gracious use of their studio space, slick widescreen cinematography
by John Von Kotze and a campy funky mod-sixties score by Johnny Scott, The
Million Eyes of Sumuru is the very definition of carefree cinema. An almost relaxing B-movie romp filled with
beautiful female assassins frequently taking on our stand-up comedian heroes
that makes fun of if not outright goofs on time-honored spy movie cliches, it
has the unique distinction of being a kind of Canadian-Chinese pop art
hybrid. From the costumes, the gleefully
silly and over-the-top performances, it very much is a send-up of the James
Bond films with even more emphasis on silly action cliches, paving the way
for what would or wouldn’t evolve into The Naked Gun movies or Austin
Powers. For posterity in this two-disc set, the aforementioned Rifftrax
version has been included in the extras.
Those looking for great acting aren’t going to find it here,
but it does contain some wonderfully comic performances, namely Shirley Eaton
who reprised her role a couple years later in Jess Franco’s The Girl from
Rio. George Nader and Frankie Avalon
make a startingly entertaining comedy-action duo who play off of each other’s
snarky dialogue and off of the super evil Sumuru. Klaus Kinski reportedly had some wild ideas
for his character (ultimately redubbed by Robert Rietty) which only some of
survived the cutting room floor. Also
making an unexpected cameo appearance is legendary veteran British character
actor Wilfrid Hyde-White from The Third Man and My Fair Lady as
the head of British intelligence.
Yeah it is clunky, silly and not to be taken seriously. But for what it is worth, Blue Underground’s
4K UHD release of The Million Eyes of Sumuru looks and sounds splendid
and comes with a recently discovered extended cut running around 10 minutes
longer than previously. In addition to
the Rifftrax version, the boutique label also saw fit to include a feature-length
documentary on the life and career of Canadian director Lindsay Shonteff who
displayed a unique mixture of European international co-produced charm, high
camp and a snarky attitude towards the material in this. Though difficult to recommend earnestly to
those outside of genre fans keen on spoofing the spy film, Blue Underground’s
release of The Million Eyes of Sumuru was a fun and entertaining
endeavor that’s cheeseball but not nearly as dire as you’ve been led to
believe.
--Andrew Kotwicki
