Mondo Macabro by Peter Tombs

Author:Peter Tombs [Tombs, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-07-29T00:00:00+00:00

The female Tarzan.

The skull-masked female Killing was a facially disfigured woman who vented her wrath on happy couples.

Hooded Turkish villains show the influence of forties American serials.

Okan Demir as ‘Superman’ in Süper Adam Kadinlar Arasinda.

The film was a huge hit. Within a month it had made more than three times the normal profit for a low-budget movie. Rival producers moved fast to cash in. Three more Killing films were released in 1967, including encounters with the Frankenstein monster, in Killing Frankeştayn’a Karşi (Killing versus Frankenstein) and Mandrake the Magician in Mandrake Killing’e Karşi (Killing versus Mandrake). There was even a ‘female Killing’ (Dişi Killing) and a Western version that combined him with the Franco Nero character Django — Çango Ölüm Süvarisi (Django, the Death Rider). Although unknown in the West, Killing’s career ran to another seven films in Turkey.

Another Atadeniz masked hero appeared in his 1968 production Kizil Maske (The Red Mask), this time directed by his assistant Çetin Inanç. The purple-suited Phantom had been created in the 1930s by American comics artist Lee Falk. In the same year as Atadeniz’s film, a rival producer released another movie with exactly the same title. In 1971, with the addition of some softcore nudity, the Phantom reappeared in Kizil Maskenin Intikami (The Vengeance of the Red Mask).

The main inspiration for Atadeniz and for the film-makers that followed him were the American serials of the 1940s. Masked heroes such as Zorro and the Lone Ranger were soon joined by local versions, including Demir Pençe (The Steel Claw) and Şimşek Hafiye (The Thunder Detective). Superman, the most famous costumed hero of them all, paid a visit to Turkey in 1969 with Süpermen Fantomaya Karsi (Superman versus Fantômas). He returned two years later in Süper Adam (Superman) and Süper Adam Kadinlar Arasinda (Superman and the Women). In 1979, following the success of the Christopher Reeve film, came a Turkish imitation, Süpermen Dönüyor (The Return of Superman), starring Tayfun Demir. This film even used some of the John Williams music from the original production and had would-be lookalike actors in the main roles.

Kunt Tulgar, director and producer of the film, was something of a one-man industry. He had begun as an actor in the 1960s before moving into direction and production. His company, Kunt Film, churned out thrillers and crime films as well as a Tarzan movie, Tarzan Korkusuz Adam (Tarzan the Mighty Man), and a martial arts feature, Ejderin Intikami (The Dragon’s Revenge). The astonishing poverty of Süpermen Dönüyor makes one question his sanity. Why attempt to remake one of the most expensive Hollywood productions of its year when you obviously don’t even have the budget to hire decent transport? Most of the cast drive around in motors that look like rejects from a stock car race.

The obvious cheapness of these productions is made a virtue of in Yilmaz Atadeniz’s Süper Selami (Super Salami), a slapstick parody of this whole subgenre. Its nerdish hero is played by comedian Aydemir Akbaş, who specialised in playing horny

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