Argoman the Fantastic Superman

A wild mix of the Batman series and thirty years of US comic culture, Euro pulp villainy a la Fantomas and Judex, self-referential `masked superhero' genre goofs on Diabolik and Superargo, exploding 60s pop-art cinema, James Bond recycling and fertile Italian filmic cross-pollination, all wrapped up in a cut-rate package with a yellow body stocking.

After a brief credit stroll past Buckingham Palace, Scotland Yard's Inspector Lawrence discovers the Crown of St Edward has been stolen from the Tower of London in a daring daylight robbery. All fingers point to arch masked criminal Argoman! The Inspector calls Argoman's (unbeknownst to him) debonair alter-ego Sir Reginald Hoover in a vain effort to locate him. Hoover (Roger Browne) is an English adventurer (despite an American accent), scientist, arch criminal with a luxury French villa crammed with the Mona Lisa and other antiques, and a compulsive womanizer, although he confides to his turbaned butler Chandra (Eduardo Fajardo) that he loses his powers for six hours after being with a woman. His non-sexual superpowers, however, are extraordinary: ESP, super-hearing, and more than personal magnetism. Says `scientist' Hoover confidentially to the Inspector, `His abilities are truly metaphysical.'

Meanwhile the crown's real thief, super female criminal Jenabell (Dominique Boschero), now in not-so-plain clothes as Regina Sullivan, motors by Hoover's coastal sex palace in her personal hovercraft. As Argoman, Hoover concentrates his ESP ability to draw the craft off course and come flying onto his private beach literally into his lap. He then presents his willing victim Regina with a simple task - shoot an arrow on a button on the wall and you get a Rolls and a box of emeralds. If he shoots the button, then `hubba hubba'. Guess which arrow goes purposefully off course.

Jenabell soon declares herself `The Queen of the World' (Modesty she ain't) and returns to crown to an increasingly befuddled Inspector Lawrence, adding she intends soon to demonstrate her amazing power. It turns out the `power' comes from a huge diamond found in the base of an atomic explosion which radiates gamma rays and so forth (the muddled pseudo-science becomes too much at this point); with the diamond and her army of `automatons', a slave race of human robots, at her command, she then pulls off her second daring plan - robbing the Bank of France with her leather-suited henchmen (vague shades of bondage chic) and littering Paris with the banknotes from a plane, quite an effective setup in front of the Eiffel Tower. Using his new girlfriend, the glamorous English nymphet Samantha (Nadia Marlowa), as bait, Hoover hides in one of the trucks and emerges triumphantly after a brief punchup in his trademark Argoman suit: a yellow body stocking, black mask with red psychedelic spiral on it, red cape and flashlight eyes through a slit. It's a hoot to behold.

Argoman now allows himself to be abducted and taken to Jenabell's underground lair, a bizarre modern art gallery fronting a futuristic Bondian laboratory. Jenabell is now truly in her element, parading around in a veritable rat's nest of garish 60s fashions, careering through a change of wardrobe every few minutes from Black Widow to Queen of Outer Space via a snake bikini and tinfoil fright wig. After a brief fling Argoman is given the choice to be her `consort' (i.e. love slave) or run-of the-mill slave; `Your instincts are diabolic!' he hisses (or is that Diabolik?) before choosing to save Samantha instead from the menacing advances of a metallic robot and then attempt to save the world.

Roger Browne had spent a number of years showing his chiseled features in supporting roles in peplums and as a lead in Super Seven Calling Cairo (1965) before teaming up with director Grieco in two other spy/crime features Password: Kill Agent Gordon and Rififi in Amsterdam (both 1967). Grieco chose Browne wisely for the lead, as Argoman's cartoonish visage lends itself to Browne's molded plastic head - even his hair seems completely immovable. Not so the plywood sets at the low-rent end of Rome's Cinecitta studios, although Hoover's coastal love shack, naturally dwarfed by Diabolik's incredible underground lair, has promise. What little money there was evidently went on nicely compact location shoots in England and France, and spare use of effective visuals (Jenabell's hall of mirrors, oversized ray machines). Argoman's real disappointment is its lack of movement, both in the flat dialogue scenes, and in the comic-book action sequences where you at least need to tilt the camera on occasion - didn't the Batman TV series teach Grieco anything? Good try though, and a triumph of visual flair over limitations, budgetary and otherwise.

I was vaguely aware of this superhero, flick but which I almost missed out on when it was shown earlier this week on late-night Italian TV given the misleading original title – which translates to HOW TO STEAL THE CROWN OF ENGLAND (a plot device which, while occurring twice during the course of the movie, is only a means to an end and not the villainess’ ultimate goal)! Anyway, this was one of a boom of Italian superhero/master criminal films (most of them emanating from the latter half of the 1960s) – apart from which, I was already familiar with the enjoyable KRIMINAL (1966; whose sequel, THE MARK OF KRIMINAL [1968], I watched on the strength of this), the obviously superior DANGER: DIABOLIK (1968), the surprisingly agreeable spoof ARRIVA DORELLIK (1967) and, much later, the truly lamentable THE PUMA MAN (1980).

Argoman’s alter-ego is Sir Reginald Hoover (Roger Browne) – a laid-back, womanizing criminologist living in a luxurious gadget-filled mansion and waited upon by his faithful Hindu servant (played by Spaniard Eduardo Fajardo); to put it another way, if Batman is the James Bond of superheroes, then Argoman would be their Matt Helm! Having said that, the outrageous costume notwithstanding (which features a cape and a slit in his mask similar to the armor worn by Gort, the robot from THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL [1951]!), his superhero characteristics make him actually closer to Superman than Batman: as a matter of fact, he has sonar, telekinetic and magnetic powers!; however, these are depleted for six hours straight after every sexual encounter – which exasperates time-keeper Fajardo no end! The villainess, then, is a man-eating redhead (Dominique Boschero) typically obsessed with world domination – which she plans to accomplish via a precious diamond that, through the sun’s energy, is able to dissolve steel (consequently, having relocated from London to Paris, the French currency is soon in peril of being devalued!).

Unfortunately for Argoman, he always seems to happen on the scene at the wrong time – so that the Police (especially an incompetent Scotland Yard Inspector) mistakes him for the perpetrator of Boschero’s nefarious deeds! While generally entertaining, the plot gets a bit confusing in the second half – especially when dealing with a subplot in which Boschero hypnotizes a clutch of high-ranking officials to aid her cause, and also the kidnapping of Hoover/Argoman on a crowded bus. The film (re-edited in 1979 and re-issued simply as ARGOMAN) is nevertheless boosted by Piero Umiliani’s breezy score and the attractive locations. A regrettable occurrence in connection with the version I watched is that, for about a 10-minute stretch towards the end, the beat-up print turned completely to black-and-white!

...was the title of the last print I saw. A classic in the 1960's European superhero/action genre. You'll swoon with B-flick extasy when Argoman confides to his manservant, Chandra, "Sometimes I'd prefer not to have my superpowers, if only to make my adventures a bit more difficult!" This is just one snippet of the dazzling dialogue from this masterpiece. His flair for Jetson-style interior decor makes his pad almost as cool as Diabolik's. He locks horns with supervillain Jenabel, "queen of the world," a hot redhead supermodel type babe with a fabulous Swinging 60's wardrobe and miles of eyeliner. All to one of those upbeat, cheerfully awful, strangely compelling European badmovie soundtracks. There are a couple of loosely related flicks, "Superargo vs. the Faceless Giants" and "Superargo vs. Diabolicus." It's the sort of stuff we lovers of cinematic trash thrive on. This is a film you will watch over and over again. Or maybe that's just me. Whoops.

While nowadays there's been a big boom in super hero movies, it's a little known fact that it's not the first. During the 60s there were a ton of them, most trying to cash in on the Batman show although they did have their own sense of style. Argoman is different in the fact that it lacks the style, because of this it just becomes like the campiness of the 60s Batman. Which IS a good thing by the way, but it doesn't seem as original as stuff like Danger Diabolik. Also, most of the movie is pretty slow, with Argoman trying to find out where Jennabell is by standing around and talking to people! However, the last act in the base makes up for it. Overall, while it's not as stylish as some other 60s super hero movies and is pretty slow at times, it has most of the other traits of a good movie down. Food acting, good effects, a catchy theme song, and a robot! Check it out!

This film is one of those strange super hero films from Europe, I am not sure if it is based on anything, but as is often is the case with these superheroes the powers of Argoman are a bit all over the place. There is also Super Argo, who is a superhero wrestler who does a lot more in his film than this dude, but Argoman does have a way nicer home base. Argoman's powers stop for six hours after he has sex, but that did not play as big a part of this film as I was expecting. Not sure if they were going to do another film where it did play a prominent role, but here it is used only once and does not hinder our 'hero' all that much.

The story has a crown stolen, a warning from the queen of the world and the introduction of Argoman at his awesome house where he gets a sexy redhead driving a hovercraft by his oceanside manor. He boings her and loses his powers, but he is not even on the case. Soon he is as he got busy with the self proclaimed queen of the world! She wants a diamond that does stuff, not sure what as it is as clear as Argoman's powers.

The acting is typical for this type of film as it is a bit over the type and a bit goofy in places. The women look great, a scene with his friend in lingerie is awesome. Women definitely looked better back in the day than they do now and dressed better too. These days they dress in sweats and weigh more than Andre the giant riding carts around Walmart. Thank god for the internet, anime and Asian girls...

So I thought the movie was a fun watch despite its rather strange premise. Not much action mond you, but it makes up for it with pretty women, cool locations and just the fact it is not taking itself too seriously. I would rather watch this film than most of the Marvel films released since Endgame.