In Mexico and some parts of Latin America, From the middle off the 60,s to the end of the 80,s one comic Hero was the king. Kaliman, "El hombre increible".
Kaliman is a semi legendary character. Dark skin and blue eyes, he is a mestizo. He was raised as a prince somewhere near Pakistan, but learned the secrets of the Tibetan monks. He has wealth, psychic powers, knowledge, and high moral values. He travels with an Egyptian child, "Solin"
Kaliman born as a radio series and soon have his own comic book. Starting with sales of 150,000 a week. It reached sales of 3,500,000 a week.
Even more, some market studies showed that each comic book was read by 4 people... (it was read by the working classes, and they lend it to friends)
So eventually it was decided to make a film. But it had to be different for the most popular action files of the time by "el santo", the popular wrestler (it was translated as Samson in USA).
This is the resulting film. It was a super production by Mexican standards, I costs four times more than an standard movie. It was filmed in Egipt, with actors form Canada, Spain, Italy and Egypt. The film was processed in Italy, so it has a better color quality than most American films from that time.
Originally it runs for a bit more than two hours, but it was cut down for television time.
It corresponds with the first adventure of Kaliman, in radio and comic book, when it meets Solin for the first time.
Kaliman is searching in Egypt for evidence of extraterrestial visits since some studies showed him that an event is going to happen, when he meets some archaeologist looking for a lost tomb, held in custody by an Egyptian family. There is also a tomb robber who wants the treasure of the Pharaoh, who does not hesitates to kill.
The unexpected, is a orphan, the last descendant of the Pharaohs, who, unknown to him, has the key to the treasure.
And suddenly the unexpected... a strange being which recognizes Kaliman as a special being.. like him.
The movie has some problems with pace, since the "first cut" was of almost three ours, as the authors tried to put too many elements, and they had to cut it down,
Anyway, its a classic.
Kaliman is a semi legendary character. Dark skin and blue eyes, he is a mestizo. He was raised as a prince somewhere near Pakistan, but learned the secrets of the Tibetan monks. He has wealth, psychic powers, knowledge, and high moral values. He travels with an Egyptian child, "Solin"
Kaliman born as a radio series and soon have his own comic book. Starting with sales of 150,000 a week. It reached sales of 3,500,000 a week.
Even more, some market studies showed that each comic book was read by 4 people... (it was read by the working classes, and they lend it to friends)
So eventually it was decided to make a film. But it had to be different for the most popular action files of the time by "el santo", the popular wrestler (it was translated as Samson in USA).
This is the resulting film. It was a super production by Mexican standards, I costs four times more than an standard movie. It was filmed in Egipt, with actors form Canada, Spain, Italy and Egypt. The film was processed in Italy, so it has a better color quality than most American films from that time.
Originally it runs for a bit more than two hours, but it was cut down for television time.
It corresponds with the first adventure of Kaliman, in radio and comic book, when it meets Solin for the first time.
Kaliman is searching in Egypt for evidence of extraterrestial visits since some studies showed him that an event is going to happen, when he meets some archaeologist looking for a lost tomb, held in custody by an Egyptian family. There is also a tomb robber who wants the treasure of the Pharaoh, who does not hesitates to kill.
The unexpected, is a orphan, the last descendant of the Pharaohs, who, unknown to him, has the key to the treasure.
And suddenly the unexpected... a strange being which recognizes Kaliman as a special being.. like him.
The movie has some problems with pace, since the "first cut" was of almost three ours, as the authors tried to put too many elements, and they had to cut it down,
Anyway, its a classic.