''The Three Fantastic Supermen'' ( it, I fantastici tre supermen) is a 1967 superhero film directed by

Gianfranco Parolini Gianfranco Parolini (20 February 1925 in Rome, Italy – 26 April 2018 in Rome, Italy) was an Italian film director. He is often credited as Frank Kramer. Among his films are ''The Sabata Trilogy'', several sword and sandal films, most of the Kommi ...

. The film was the first in a series of Three Supermen films.

Cast

* Luciano Stella as Tony *

Brad Harris Bradford Harris (July 16, 1933 – November 7, 2017) was an American actor, stuntman, and executive producer. He appeared in a variety of roles in over 50 films, mostly in European productions. He was an inductee in the Stuntman's Hall of Fame ...

as Brad McCallum *

Aldo Canti Aldo Canti (born 9 March 1961 in Montmorency, France) is a French and later Sammarinese former sprinter who competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics and in the 1992 Summer Olympics. Competition record 1Representing Europe Personal bests Outdoor ...

as Nick *

Carlo Tamberlani Carlo Tamberlani (11 March 1899 – 5 August 1980) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 127 films between 1931 and 1976. He was born in Salice Salentino, Italy and died in Subiaco, Italy. His brother Nando Tamberlani was also an actor. ...

as Professor Schwarz * as Golem * Rossella Bergarmonti as Diana *

Gloria Paul Gloria Paul (born 28 February 1940) is a British retired film actress and dancer. Biography Paul was born in London in February 1940. Her father was a journalist and her mother was an opera singer. She began dancing at the age of three years, an ...

as Havana

Production

''The Three Fantastic Supermen'' was conceived during the period of a superhero film cycle during the mid-1960s in Italy. Howard Hughes described ''The Three Fantastic Supermen'' as being patterned after the film '' Superargo and the Faceless Giants''. The director

had worked in several genres including sword-and-sandal films where there are more than one hero helping each other achieve their goals. He also commented on the stunts in the film, noting that they were done on set with actor Aldo Canti having to jump out of 20 feet high window, jump into a trampoline and jump into a truck which was moving at full speed. Parolini directed several

Kommissar X Kommissar X or Commissioner X is a German crime fiction series of books from the Pabel Moewig publishing house. "Kommissar X" is a private detective named Joe Louis Walker who was a counterpart of the German crime fiction FBI Special Agent Jerry ...

films co-starring Tony Kendall and Brad Harris. Former stuntman Aldo Canti billed as "Nick Jordan" appeared in Parolini's ''

Five for Hell ''Five for Hell'' ( it, Cinque per l'inferno, also known as ''Five Into Hell'') is a 1969 Italian " macaroni combat" war film starring John Garko, Margaret Lee and Klaus Kinski. Italian cinema specialist Howard Hughes referred to it as a deriv ...

'' and '' Sabata'' films. The film was entirely shot in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Release

''The Three Fantastic Supermen'' was released in Italy in 1967. In his book ''Diabolika: Supercriminals, Superheroes and the Comic Book Universe in Italian Cinema'', Roberto Curti described the film as a "reasonable box office success in Italy". It was released in France on 3 September 1969. The film spawned several sequels where the trio of heroes showing up in Japan ('' Three Supermen at Tokyo'', 1968), Africa ('' Three Supermen in the Jungle'', 1970), Hong Kong (''

Supermen Against the Orient ''Supermen Against the Orient'' ( it, Crash! Che botte... Strippo strappo stroppio) is a 1973 Italian-Hongkongese superhero film directed by Bitto Albertini. It is a sequel of Gianfranco Parolini's 1967 film ''The Three Fantastic Supermen''. I ...

'', 1973) and the American West ('' The Three Supermen in the West'', 1973).

Reception

In a contemporary review, the ''

Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

'' noted that the stunt work of the title characters and their various stunt doubles "provide a welcome relief from the standard secret agent/judo syndrome" as well as that the "ingenuity of this comic strip adventure begins to pall after the first half hour, and the inevitable final holocaust in the master criminal's lair is brightened by the villain's diverting scheme to produce an army of robot villains who all look like the hero." From retrospective reviews, Roberto Curti described the film as a "mixed bag" taking too much material from its sources such as ''

The Phantom ''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The charact ...

'', ''

Zorro Zorro (Spanish language, Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed a ...

'' and '' Goldfinger''.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Three Fantastic Supermen, The Yugoslav fantasy films West German films French superhero films Italian superhero films Films directed by Gianfranco Parolini Films shot in Yugoslavia Film superheroes 1960s superhero films 1960s Italian films 1960s French films