THE MILLION EYES OF SUMURU (1967)
2-Disc 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Extended Version
Label: Blue Underground
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 89 Minutes 28 Seconds
Region Code: Region-Free
Video: Dolby Vision HDR 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Lindsay Shonteff
Cast: Shirley Eaton, Frankie Avalon, George Nader, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Maria Rohm, Klaus Kinski
Made two year prior to Jess Franco's The Girl from Rio (1969) the Lindsay Shonteff (Devil Doll) directed and Harry Allan Towers produced spy-thriller The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) is also based on characters created by Sax Rohmer, with a script written by producer Towers under the moniker Peter Welbeck. Like the later flick has a tasty comic book-esque spy-thriller vibe about it that brought to mind swinging '60s flicks like Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik, and 007 'natch, with a femme fatale super-villain named Sumuru (Shirley Eaton, Goldfinger) who is hell bent on world domination. Her current maniacal plan involves having her army of sexy undercover female operatives infiltrate the lives of eleven of the wealthiest men in the world and to eliminate them and usurp there power and wealth! The flick wastes little time getting right into the swing of things, opening with Sumuru cold-bloodily bombing the funeral procession of one of the world's wealthiest men, with the effect of killing all 17 of his heirs in process! We also see one of her operatives break the neck of a man by scissoring him with her legs, in front of a group of other assassins who are clearly enjoying the live execution happening right in front of them. From here she orders her female-minions to eliminate one of her own operatives who committed the ultimate treasonous act of falling in love with one of the men she was assigned to kill.
We then meet dapper HMG (Har Majesty's Government) operative Colonel Anthony Baisbrook (Wilfrid Hyde-White, Carry On Nurse) who assigns secret agents Nick West (George Nader, Robot Monster) and Tommy Carter (Frankie Avalon, Bikini Beach) to go to Hong Kong to stop Sumuru's from killing her next intended target, the flamboyant Boong (Klaus Kinski, Aguirre, the Wrath of God), the president of Sinonesia.
No sooner do West and Tommy arrive in HK than Sumuru's lovely female-assassins kidnap West and take him to her island compound. There Sumuru coerces West into becoming one of her operatives under the pain of death or worse, threatened with a serum that transforms men into stone statues. He infiltrates Boong's inner circle under the guise of a newly arrived new security advisor Sidney Andrew,. Sumuru's sexy female agent Helga (Maria Rohm, The Bloody Judge) joins West on his mission as well, her job is to eliminate Boong as soon as possible. The film ends with British forces storming the island, there's an huge explosion, and we all go home happy, 'natch. I can only just barely remember watching this when the double-feature Blu-ray came out, but I don't remember liking it all that much. I must have been in a better frame of mind to watch it this time around, it's funny how that happens, and with this new 4K rewatch I must say that I quite liked it. There's a lot of loose ends, and the plot is absolutely ridiculous, but I had a great time with the comically absurd spycraft of it all. Like a lot of the flicks that Tower produced it feels much bigger than what the budget should have allowed; some of Sumuru's secret HD set pieces look quite impressive. The exotic Hong Kong locations look great as well, the women are gorgeous, the men are goofy, and it's well-shot and has a fantastic score by composer John Scott ( A Study in Terror) that hits all the right notes for this sort of spy-thriller fare.
I will say that this is not quite as stylish as the Franco-directed sequel, but is still plenty colorful and chock full of exotic Hong Kong locales supplied by Shaw Bros. Studios, and some sexy and vibrant costuming. The comedic bent of it that might throw some people off, Nader and Avalon's secret agents have a wisecracking rapport, both cracking corny jokes and one-liners throughout, and while the humor doesn't always land I thought it made their characters quite likable. Shirley Eaton of course is wonderful as the villainous femme fatale Sumuru, sexy as hell, always in a stunning outfit and is just a gorgeous sight to behold, as are her yellow and purple clad army of female assassins. It's also fun to see Kinski here as the foreign president, a very odd character, Kinski wearing brown-face at one point, and just coming across as a really weird dude, which actually is not all that weird considering were talking about the notorious madman Klaus Kinski I guess.
Audio/Video: The Million Eyes of Sumuru is presented in a brand-new 4K restoration from its long thought lost, and only recently found, uncut original camera negative which includes 10 minutes of additional footage that was missing from the previous Blu-ray release! The film is presented here in 2160p UHD with Dolby Vision (HDR10) color-grading in the original 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio. Th film was previously issued as the aformentioned double-feature Blu-ray with The Girl from Rio back in 2016, and that release left plenty of room for future improvements. With this new 2024 UHD release improvements are pleasing and evident from start. The new 4K upgrade offers a more filmic and refined viewing experience, there's wonderful fine detail and texturing, and the OCN source looks flawless. On top of that we have the Dolby Vision (HDR10) color-grading which bolsters the image with richer, deeper colors, allowing the vibrant primaries really shine with vivid blues, reds, greens and yellows. Depth and clarity are also vastly superior to to the previous Blu-ray, aided by some excellent contrast levels. The same new restoration is downgraded to 1080p HD for the accompanying Blu-ray which also showcases new more vibrant colors, back levels, and contrast minus the WCG color-grading, of course. Even of you own the double-feature set and are not to keen on upgrading I say it's worth the double-dip for the extras, as detailed below.
Audio is capably handled by an English-dubbed 1.0 DTS-HD MA track with optional English SDH, Français, or Español subtitles. The track is clean and well-balanced. The English-dialogue comes through clear and precise, and the score from Johnny Scott (The People That Time Forgot) is well represented in the mix and sounds great.
Extras for this set start off with a pair of commentaries; the first is an Audio Commentary with Film Historians David Del Valle and Dan Marino; plus a second Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth. Next is the brand-new 141-minute England’s Unknown Exploitation Film Eccentric: The Schlock-Cinema Legacy of Lindsay Shonteff – a feature-length documentary directed by Naomi Holwill featuring input from film writers/historians Kim Newman, Johnny Johnny Walker, Kevin Lyons, and Allan Bryce, filmmaker Miles Flanagan and the director's son Caleb Lindsay, plus actresses Aimi MacDonald (No. 1 of the Secret Service) and Linda Marlowe (Big Zapper) who starred in the films of Shonteff, as well as archival audio from the director himself discussing his career. It's a terrific tribute to him as they talk about Shonteff's early years and then his film career, going film by film through the years, talking about his association with Sidney J. Fury and how their careers diverges, a failed contract with Columbia followed by a few years without work before getting back into Brit exploitation, and producing his own film, the shot-on-video years and trouble getting his lone western distributed. There's wonderful insights from folks who are familiar with his body of work and first hand accounts from actresses that are delightful.
We also get the RiffTrax Edition of the film as riffed by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy, this being of the shorter 71-minute version of the film, and if you're a fan of MST3K or RiffTrax is sure to be fun. I myself don't get a ton of enjoyment out of these but appreciate that it's here for those who do. The remaining disc extras come by way of a
3-min Theatrical Trailer, and a brief 1-min Poster & Still Gallery. The only extras on the 4K UHD are the commentaries and trailer, all of the extras including the commentaries and trailers are on the Blu-ray.
The 2-disc UHD/BD release arrives in an oversized, black dual-hub keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork with a fantastic new illustration and the vintage illustrated movie poster artwork. The first-pressing comes with a Limited Edition Slipcover with embossed highlights on both the front and back cover as well as the spine, featuring the new artwork.
Special Features:
Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary #1 with Film Historians David Del Valle and Dan Marino
- NEW! Audio Commentary #2 with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
- Theatrical Trailer (2:34)
Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary #1 with Film Historians David Del Valle and Dan Marino
- NEW! Audio Commentary #2 with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
- NEW! England’s Unknown Exploitation Film Eccentric: The Schlock-Cinema Legacy of Lindsay Shonteff – A new feature-length documentary directed by Naomi Holwill (01:40:41)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:34)
- Poster & Still Gallery (0:56)
- NEW! RiffTrax Edition – THE MILLION EYES OF SUMURU Riffed by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy (71:26)
If you're a fan of The Girl from Rio, Danger: Diabolik, Barbarella or the Fu Manchu flicks with Christopher Lee I can only imagine that you will love this sexy spy-spoof. Blue Underground did a bang-up job with the 4K UHD. It looks and sounds stunning, the exclusive extras are a wonderful value-add, and the packaging look terrific. It's another 4K banger from Blue Underground, recommended!
Buy it!
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Screenshots from Blue Underground Blu-ray (2024):
Extras:
