Sax Rohmer's adventure novels often had a rambling quality to them, but this adaptation wanders so far afield at times that trying to keep track of who is manipulating whom and for what reason is likely to leave you with a headache. Canadian-born director Lindsay Shonteff was best known as the creator of The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World (1965), which launched him into a career mostly spent helming spy spoofs. This a great-looking example of the form, exotically set and played dead straight by its cast as they toss off action movie quips that would make Ahnold blush. To call the resulting comedy throw away would be almost too kind, but the movie's mix of cringy lines and bat bleep craziness has undisputable power as entertainment and deserves to be seen at least once by collectors of so weird it's fun cinema. It holds up surprisingly well to repeated viewing, mostly since after one screening the viewer no longer feels a necessity to make rational sense of it all and gives up to just enjoy the whole crazy ride.
Honestly, you could give this thing the What's Up Tiger Lily treatment - overdubbing random dialogue for a nonsense plot - with no wackier result than this movie achieved on its own.
Review of The Million Eyes of Sumuru
The Million Eyes of Sumuru
(1967)
Entertaining if you don't try to make sense of it
13 September 2020