Color, 1967, 89 mins. 26 secs. / 79 mins. 6 secs.
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Starring Frankie Avalon, George Nader, Shirley Eaton, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Klaus Kinski, Maria Rohm
Blue Underground (UHD, Blu-ray & DVD) (US R0 HD/NTSC) / WS (2.35:1) (16:9)
The busy and shameless British producer 
Harry Alan Towers was never one to miss a trend, and one he exploited all the way through the '60s was the 
James Bond craze sweeping the globe. His entry into feature films with spy yarns like Mozambique and Code 7, Victim 5 paved the way for a handful of Edgar Wallace and Sax Rohmer adaptations clearly inspired by the exotic thrills of the 007 films, with the latter author turning into a fine showcase for Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu in several titles. Towers also wrote several of these films (as Peter Welbeck), and that applies to another pair of Rohmer projects (with no attribution to the author) based around his jet-setting supervillain, Sumuru, who started off as a radio serial essentially offering a female twist on the Fu Manchu character. Rohmer ultimately penned six novels with the character, though none of the storylines really informed the films. Both features were turned into star vehicles for Shirley Eaton, best known for being fatally painted gold in Goldfinger, who had also starred in Towers' solid '60s version of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. Her career didn't last very long (she retired in 1969 to raise her children), but she certainly left an impression while she lasted.
First along was 1967's The Million Eyes of Sumuru, a rare English-language production for its time to be shot in Hong Kong at Shaw Brothers' studios. Director Lindsay Shonteff was the definition of a gun 
for hire director, having done solid work on the horror cult favorite Devil Doll and a couple of middling spy films, and he brings competence to this generic tale of two secret agents trying to take down the nefarious Sumuru. Her plot this time 
involves using her trained army of female accomplices to seduce and marry the eleven wealthiest men in the world before taking over their empires (by deadly means if necessary), and it's up to the governments of the West to stop her plan. The genial Colonel Baisbrook (Hyde-White) pushes together a pair of agents, Tommy Carter (Avalon) and Nick West (Nader, far more famous in Europe as wisecracking spy Jerry Cotton), to undertake the mission, though they mainly run around and toss out lame jokes, even when they find a topless woman dead in their hotel room.
Luckily Eaton was a strong enough presence to hold the basic concept together, even if everyone seems to be floating around in their own movie including a misleading "introducing" appearance by Maria Rohm, Towers' eventual wife. Fans of Klaus Kinski will enjoy his incredibly bizarre glorified cameo here as one of the targets, a prissy president who keeps a look-alike bodyguard on hand and disguises himself in gray makeup! Also noteworthy is the bouncy, Eastern-flavored score by John Scott (credited here as Johnny), who became a library music fixture and would go on to such films as Greystoke, Shoot to Kill, King Kong Lives, and of course, Yor, the Hunter from the Future. The 2016 Blue Underground release marked the first U.S. home video edition of any form for this film, either solo on DVD or on Blu-ray as a double feature with its Jess Franco-directed sequel (of sorts), The Girl from Rio. Why this remained so elusive for decades 
is a mystery, but it looked solid here with bright colors and minimal damage (albeit with noise reduction significantly applied). The DTS-HD MA English 
audio track sounds fine, and optional English subtitles are provided along with the original theatrical trailer.
In 2024, Blue Underground revisited the title for a 4K UHD and Blu-ray combo edition featuring a new scan from the negative that surprisingly represents a much longer cut of the film than what was released earlier to theaters and on home video -- ten full minutes! It fills in some of the more abbreviated edits in the familiar cut, which was probably created Roger Corman-style to better fit into double bills with numerous trims to dialogue scenes. This version also features the simple Sumuru as its main title, with a different John Scott piece playing over the credits. The DTS-HD MA 1.0 English mono track sounds immaculate and features optional English SDH, French, or Spanish subtitles. Also included are two commentaries, one with David Del Valle and Dan Marino and the second with this writer and Troy Howarth, so no evaluations here but hopefully you'll enjoy them. The extensive Naomi Holwill documentary England's Unknown Exploitation Film Eccentric: The Schlock-Cinema Legacy of Lindsay Shonteff (100m40s) juggles audio interviews with the late director, a slew of film clips including some of his rarer espionage and adventure titles, and interviewees including Linda Marlowe, Kim Newman, Kevin Lyons, Miles Flanagan, Caleb Lindsay, Aimi MacDonald, and Johnny Walker. Along the way you get a lot of info about how his films got released and sold, plus insights like the connection between Permissive and Kids. Also included are the digitally reconstructed theatrical trailer, a gallery of posters and stills, and the heavily truncated 71m26s Rifftrax edition in HD.
BLUE UNDERGROUND (2024 Blu-ray)
BLUE UNDERGROUND (2016 Blu-ray)
Updated review on September 22, 2024
