With few exceptions, superhero movies bore me. The ones of the most interest to me are the ones with the weirdest history. Consider the legendarily notorious Fantastic Four from which Roger Corman produced in 1992–I have more nice things to say about it than anybody I know, though I will never bother with the other adaptations. In that same spirit, I won’t be seeing the Benedict Cumberbatch takes on Dr. Strange but, when I learned there was a 1978 made-for-TV movie of it, I was all over that.
Peter Hooten stars as the titular character this time, battling a 500-year-old demonic force played by Jessica Walter. I can’t begin to tell you how weird it is to see the sarcastic matriarch of the Bluth family on Arrested Development dressed rather provocatively. Well, 1970’s TV provocative.
Given the obvious restrictions imposed by the nature of such a production, it is odd how often it feels like this is going to turn into porn. There’s her attempted seduction of Hooten because, as she puts it, she is a woman with needs, after all—needs which presumably have gone unfulfilled for a few hundred years. His pornstache also strongly conveys this whiff of porniness. And his character is an actual doctor who works in a hospital, which is a location for at least half of all X-rated fare from that era. Consider this: he takes patient Anne-Marie Martin into an empty room there as bad soap opera type music fills the soundtrack. I challenge anybody to not think he is going to give her a “private consultation”.
Actually, that would be even skeezier than the usual violation of the doctor-patient relationship, as this is a psych ward. I guess that explains the woman in the hallway who appears to be changing an obvious doll of a baby. I guess alcoholism also used to warrant a stay in such a facility, as one of his other patients begs him for some booze, despite the ulcers she complains about. She must be thinking there is prescription booze, which is probably in the locked cabinet with the more desirable drugs.
Martin is there because she had been possessed by Walter, who made her throw John Mills off a pedestrian bridge and into the car traffic below. Mills is made of stronger stuff than I expected, and survives the attempt on his life. I have no idea why Walter
didn’t just do the dirty work herself, but it’s all a part of a ageless battle between good and evil between the spirits of the astral plane and blah blah blah. There’s probably something about biorhythms and horoscope signs in there.
I was surprised to see Mills, the star of Hobson’s Choice and father of Hayley, in this. He somehow keeps a straight face while delivering dialogue one expects from a character that is a centuries-old wizard looking to pass on his powers to worthy successor. Failing that, he will choose Hooten, despite that guy being a shoe-in to win a John Holmes lookalike contest. At least Mills gets the occasional mildly witty line, such as this in response to a question as to whether he’s OK: “I’m 700 years too old to be alright.”
The astral plane is where Hooten alternates between fighting and preparing to make sweet, sweet love to Walter. It’s a pretty neat set. In the wide shots, it is some clumps of land floating in space, like something from one of those album covers Roger Dead did for Yes. Further allusions to that group are courtesy of a synth-heavy score that is pretty goofy and completely appropriate for the genre and era.
One odd element of the production I want to singe out is the art nouveau interior of Mills’s house. If that is a set, then that is some impressive design work on a TV movie budget. If it is someplace real, then I wonder where they filmed that.
I could go into the quality of the performances and the believability (or lack thereof) of the plot, but that isn’t why you’re going to watch Dr. Strange. If you’re a comic book fan, you may be interested in such an early take on a Marvel property. If you’re a fan of TV movies in general, you’ll get exactly the kind of moderate camp you’re anticipating. But woe to the fan of the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe series, with all their bleeding-edge CGI effects. For them, this is going to be a painful 90 minutes.
Dir: Philip DeGuere Jr.
Starring Peter Wooten, Jessica Walter, Anne-Marie Martin, John Mills