Condorman
(1981, U.K.) color 90 minutes
With: Michael Crawford (Woody Wilkins), Oliver Reed (Krokov), Barbara Carrera (Natalia), James Hampton (Harry Oslo), Jean-Pierre Kalfon (Morovich), Dana Elcar (Russ Devlin), Vernon Dobtcheff (Russian Agent)
Plot Outline (IMDb): Comic artist and writer Woody (Michael Crawford) performs a simple courier operation for his friend Harry (James Hampton) who works for the CIA. But when he successfully fends off hostile agents, he earns the respect of the beautiful Natalia (Barbara Carrera), who requests his assistance for her defection. Woody uses this request as leverage to use the CIA's resources to bring his comic book creation, Condorman, to life to battle the evil Krokov (Oliver Reed).
***
CONDORMAN is a simply awful attempt to parody James Bond and superhero movies, and it ends up tripping over its own cape, as cartoonist Michael Crawford lives his own creation in really lame adventures.
One of the oddest of all Disney live-action flops, this combo of SUPERMAN and tongue-in-cheek secret agent caper fails for many reasons, including choppy exposition, bad sound and muddy photography, amongst other things (not the least of which is unspeakably odd-looking leading man Crawford).
Also, CONDORMAN boasts one of the strongest love interests in Kiddie Matinee history, with doofy Crawford successfully wooing the super-sexy Barbera Carrera in scenes which are way too steamy for tots.
The strong anti-Russian sentiment, too, seems terribly out-of-kilter, even for the Reagan-poisoned early 1980's. Still, there are some fairly cool spy-gadgets (a rocket-powered ski lift, a sports car-hovercraft and a gypsy jet-car among them), as well as pleasing, even exotic foreign locales, make this a most watchable failure. Also odd is the strange score by Henry Mancini. Still, this was an all-time low for Disney, and admittedly a complete mess.
Video/DVD availability: VHS/DVD (Disney Home Video)
Walt Disney Productions
Story: Robert Sheckley (from his novel "The Game of X")
Screenplay: Marc Stirdivant
Music by Henry Mancini
Cinematography by Charles F. Wheeler
Produced by Hugh Atowooll, Ron Miller, Jan Williams
Directed by Charles Jarrott