Pumaman (1980)

Much has been written already about the inadequacies of Pumaman (1980), the Italian Superman cash in from director Alberto De Martino.  The fact that it is a bad movie is attested to by the fact that both its director and one of its stars have admitted as such.  Indeed, Donald PLeasance went so far as to say that he considered it the worst film he had ever appeared in - which is quite something considering some of the stuff Pleasance did in the name of paying multiple alimony to various ex-wives.  That Pumaman is manifestly bad hasn't, of course, stopped the bad movie cultists spending inordinate amounts of time telling us why it is bad, in detail.  Look, just watch the film, or even the trailer, the problems are obvious, from poor flying sequences and scrappy production values to a spectacularly inept musical score.  Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped versions with 'hilarious' commentaries by 'comedians' laboriously ridiculing every aspect of the film from being released.  (I'm sorry, but this is one of my pet hates: I'm perfectly capable of discerning whether a film is good or bad, without a bunch of ignorant morons telling me how bad it is and how clever they are for realising this).  

Pumaman was one of a number of attempts by Italian producers to exploit the success of Superman (1978), others included 1979's Supersonic Man (starring serial Terence Hill impersonator Antonio Cantafora) and Supersnooper (starring the real Terence Hill).  All of these films, in common with other Italian exploitation productions, weren't content simply to ape their progenitors, but also sought to cross them with other genres - Close Encounters-type alien contact films in the case of Pumaman (although its super-villain bad guy also gives it Bondian overtones), buddy cop action comedies in the case of Supersnooper and mad scientist movies in Supersonic Man.  None of these attempts really succeed in part because these cross genre elements detract, rather than enhance their main comic book superhero themes.  Unlike previous Italian cash ins on popular Hollywood hits and genres, they don't really bring anything new to the table, certainly nothing that can transform the genre and make it distinctively Italian, (like the Spaghetti Western genre, or the Italian zombie genre).  It is notable that the only particularly satisfying Italian comic book adaptations have been based on indigenous Fumetti titles (Diabolik, for instance), rather than movies, like Pumaman, which derive from US prototypes.

Ultimately, Pumaman underlines the problems faced by the Italian exploitation film industry in the face of the wave of effects-heavy big budget science fiction and fantasy epics from US studios that started appearing from the late seventies onward.  Their budgets were simply inadequate to replicate the sort of effects work seen in the Hollywood movies - the best they could serve up here (and in Star Wars rip-offs like Starcrash and The Humanoid) were quaint efforts on a par with thirties Flash Gordon serials or mid-seventies Dr Who.  Still, Pumaman isn't entirely bad - unlike many Italian movies set in the UK, this one actually was shot on location in the UK, featuring some very nice footage of early eighties London.  Donald Pleasance, as the villain, is as enjoyably hammy as you'd expect in this sort of film, while lead actor Walter George Alton - whose only film credit this is - subsequently became a lawyer.  Personally, I find it quite entertaining in its quaint and clunky way, as it hopelessly tries to emulate a mega-budgeted US hit.  So, if you enjoy superheroes whose costumes seem to consist of a cloak and fancy belt worn with a regular T-shirt and trousers, whose mentor looks like Antonio Conte and whose girlfriend inexplicably wears a leather flying helmet while driving a regular hard-top saloon, then this is the film for you.  (Incidentally, the reasons for his superhero name are never made clear - he doesn't transform into a puma or have any cat-like abilities).