Reception and Reaction
Producer George Pal reported to Edward Felipe in the magazine Castle of Frankenstein that "We made it too good." However, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze proved to be inferior in every production category – set design, art direction, costuming, hair style – to Chinatown, The Sting, Murder on the Orient Express, and other 1930s nostalgia films released during this period. Even Pal's trademark visual effects and matte paintings were mediocre, with the depiction of the Green Death as animated serpentine vapors being particularly unconvincing (pictured).
The decision by Warner Brothers to shift the release date from the Spring of 1974 to Easter 1975 denoted a lack of confidence in the production and its box office potential. However, a 16-page press kit was prepared, and Ron Ely participated in a press junket that included an appearance in the WSB-TV annual Fourth of July parade in Atlanta, Georgia.
Reviews were scathing, with Daily Variety noting: "Execrable acting, dopey action sequences, and clumsy attempts at camp humor mark George Pal's Doc Savage as the kind of kiddie film that gives the G rating a bad name."
The movie proved to be a disappointment for both die-hard Doc Savage fans and the general public. The film did not do well at the box office, and it soon disappeared in a summer dominated by the blockbuster box office of Jaws.
Read more about this topic: Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze
Famous quotes containing the words reception and/or reaction:
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)