THE THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN (1967)

Two things right off the bat about this Italian film: this is not a superhero movie (despite how it is sometimes described in blurbs) and it is great fun. Two men dressed in superhero tights and capes have pulled off a number of daring headline-making heists, and we see them in what looks to be another such heist, stealing jewels while fighting a bunch of armed men, though the guns are no good against the mens' bulletproof outfits. But then we discover that the brawl was actually a test set up by FBI man Brad Harris who wants to recruit the two men to help to rob a safe at the embassy of a newly established Mideast country which the FBI suspects of dealing in money laundering. One of the two, Tony Kendall is a handsome playboy (who someone refers to as Sir Anthony at one point); the other, Aldo Canti, is a deaf acrobat who communicates in grunts and giggles. Brad is given his own costume and the three pull off the embassy job for real. When Tony and Aldo decide they want more of the money than the FBI promised them, they steal some from under Brad's nose, but later Brad drops the bad news that all the money is counterfeit. When Brad is taken to meet Carlo Tamberlani, the professor who invented the bulletproof outfits, they all learn that another invention of the professor’s, a "universal reproducer," was stolen and is responsible for all the fake money. The machine can create duplicates of cash, gold, and even people, and the trio go after the master criminal who calls himself Golem, though in public, he's a philanthropist who runs the Golem Beneficent Foundation, a home for orphans. Golem is out to take over the world with his cloned materials, but when he duplicates a big batch of orphans and they are imperfect (reproduced as mirror images), their lives as well as the safety of the planet, depend on our Three Fantastic Supermen.

I'd hate to oversell this movie, which is kin to the Eurospy action flicks of the 1960s, but I did find it lots of fun. Harris and Kendall appeared together in the lightweight Kommissar X spy series and they basically reproduce their personae here—Kendall as the suave, cocky one, Harris (pictured at left) as the hunky, serious one. Aldo Canti, primarily a stunt man, adds a fun dimension to their chemistry; his athletic prowess causes Harris to nickname him Jumping Bean (and Kendall calls Harris “FBI”). At first, I thought his yips and laughs would get annoying, but I got used to them. His stunt work is great fun. Apparently in real life, Canti was involved to some degree in organized crime and he was found dead years later in what may have been an underworld killing. There is a rampant rumor that he was let out of jail to be in this film, but I doubt that. The charisma of the three leads sort of makes all the other performances somewhat forgettable, especially that of Jochen Brockmann as the not terribly threatening Golem—his primary asset is a goofy "heh, heh" laugh. There are also sexy ladies of varying loyalties, nice sets, and good fight scenes, including when two evil clones of Brad Harris come after his buddies, followed by the real Harris. 

There is excellent use of a trap door, and equally excellent use of a yo-yo type weapon that is deployed frequently against people and objects. When the clones are injured, they fall to the ground and break like glass (a cheap but fun effect). One scene of Kendall getting dressed turns into a short musical number. Golem's climactic act of villainy is to attempt to kill the orphans by locking them in a freezer. This conjures up an uncomfortable Holocaust-related sight when we look through a window in the small chamber at the frightened children corralled together, but that's a rare misstep in the movie—generally, it’s outlandish fun, and a kicky 60s score is the sprinkle on the donut. There were sequels, but none featuring the original three, though Brad Harris did return for one. This wasn’t released in the States until 1973, and was often presented as a kiddie matinee. The YouTube print is widescreen but a big smudgy; I’d love to see a pristine print of this. [YouTube]