1978 was a busy year for Marvel Comics. Not only did it see the TV debut
of both The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man live action series, the legendary
comic company also churned out two Captain America TV movies (the second
featuring Christopher Lee as a terrorist called Miguel) and this curious
TV pilot, based on their supernatural comic crusader.
We open in Hell – or at least a plastic cave that looks a bit like
Hell. The evil enchantress Morgan Le Fay is communing with the gigantic
demon Balzaroth, whose glowing eyes and shroud of red mist aren’t
quite enough to disguise the fact that he’s clearly been hewn from
the same rigid polymer resin as the rest of the set. The demon orders
Morgan to return to Earth for the first time in 500 years and take revenge
on Thomas Lindmer, the sorcerer who foiled Balzaroth’s plan for
world domination, and banished Morgan to the netherworld into the bargain.
The sorcerer in question is, sadly, Sir John Mills, one of the greatest
English actors of all time.
You see, Lindmer’s powers are weakening and his time as Earth’s
sorcerer supreme is coming to an end. His replacement – the Dr.
Strange of the title – must accept his destiny or the planet will
be at the mercy of the bogus beasties currently scheming in polysterene
Hell.
Trouble is, Dr. Strange is a gregarious psychiatric resident at
the local hospital, boasting a perm and moustache combination that makes
him look more like an extra from Deep Throat than mankind’s mystical
saviour, and he’s not easily convinced that spooks and spectres
are real.
As part of her plot to destroy Lindmer, Morgan possesses the body of
a young student, Clea Lake, and uses her to shove the old man off an
overpass into speeding traffic. Despite being clobbered by cars, Lindmer
simply limps off – healing his crumpled legs by making his hand
glow bright yellow.
It’s worth mentioning at this point that there are precisely three
sorts of special effect in this TV movie – red glow (evil), yellow
glow (good) and a sort of fizzy blue thing (miscellaneous). You can tick
them off as we go along.
Reeling from the psychic assault of Morgan’s possession, Clea wanders
into the care of Dr. Strange and that’s all the excuse Lindmer
needs to broach the subject of ditching the hospital gig and becoming
an immortal magician. Strange is cynical at first, but when Clea slips
into a coma and won’t respond to conventional medicine he agrees
to let Lindmer send him to the astral plane to bring her back.
One swirling Seventies kaleidoscope sequence later, and the task is complete.
Bizarrely, it’s at this point – having travelled beyond the
veil of reality itself – that Strange decides that all this magic
stuff really is a load of old bullshit, and he visits Lindmer’s
spooky old house to tell him so. Unfortunately, as he leaves, he sees
up a black cat and, assuming it belongs to Lindmer, lets it inside. Big
mistake. The cat is Morgan Le Fay, and now that Strange has helped her
past the enchanted barrier that kept her from her prey, she’s free
to zap poor old Lindmer with an extra large dose of evil red glow.
She then summons Dr. Strange to the netherworld (he now believes in all
this stuff again – the fickle bastard) and tries to seduce him
to serve her instead. Upon seeing Lindmer strung up in a giant web, his
face painted like a cheap Halloween zombie, Strange fights back (yellow
glow) against Morgan’s assault (red glow) and – by doing
something that is never really explained – Strange manages to transport
himself and his mentor back to Earth. As the sun rises, Lindmer passes
his powers over to Strange (red and yellow glow, plus the blue zappy
thing) and promptly collapses, a mere mortal once again. In one final
act of indignity, the unconscious John Mills is then carried off screen
like a sleeping baby.
The movie ends with Strange assuming the mantle of the sorcerer supreme,
and Morgan reinvented as a self-help guru, ready to begin their rivalry
in the ensuing TV series. A series which, needless to say, never happened.
Though Dr. Strange is undoubtedly a steaming pile of cheap old nonsense,
and certainly not the sort of thing someone like Sir John Mills should
have ever been involved with, it’s actually more entertaining and
more true to the comic character than either of the more successful Hulk
and Spidey TV shows. Like all trusty screen warhorses, Sir John just
keeps his chin up, delivers his lines with conviction – even when
guffing on about psychic bonds, astral planes and demonic beings – and
just about manages to add a much needed touch of class to the otherwise
bargain basement proceedings.
Need to know: In Arthurian legend Morgan Le Fay was the evil nemesis
of Merlin, a fact which may explain Lindmer’s curious name, if
not the surplus consonant in the middle. The voice of Balzaroth came
courtesy of Ted Cassidy, best known to most people as Lurch in the original
Addam’s Family TV show. A talented voice artist, he also supplied
the voice for The Thing in the 1978 Fantastic Four cartoon, as well as
the roars and growls of Godzilla in his Hanna Barbera animated series.
The pornographic synth-and-sax soundtrack for Dr. Strange was provided
by Paul Chihara, who also composed the music for Death Race 2000 (see:
Sylvester Stallone) and another short-lived TV clunker, Manimal.
Honourable mention: A far more appropriate, though no less supernatural,
TV appearance for Sir John Mills came the following year in 1979, when
he took on the role of Quatermass in the apocalyptic final mini-series
for Nigel Kneale’s critically acclaimed grumpy scientist.
Availability: The Dr. Strange movie is now incredibly hard to find, with
a US video release in 1993 as its last official outing. Given its cult
appeal, bootlegs are often available at comic fairs and the like.
