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Copy-Cat Cinema: The Turkish Superman Movies

Deciding to tackle the realms of Turkish copy-cat cinema was never going to be an easy one. Hundreds if not thousands of low-budget movies made as sometimes as a direct rip-off, others as inexplicably twisted versions of the big budget Hollywood movies they took as their inspiration. My first introduction to Turkish copy-cat cinema was I first came across Supermen Dönüyor (1979), which translates as Superman Returns but is usually referred to as Turkish Superman. It was released as a double bill DVD with another Turkish Superman inspired movie Demir Yumruk: Devler Geliyor (1973) known in English as Iron Fist: The Giants Are Coming!  

These movies came out of Yeşilçam (Green Pine), the Turkish equivalent of Hollywood. Named after Yeşilçam Street in Istanbul where many actors, directors, crew members and studios were based. The hey-day of Yeşilçam  was during the 1950s to the 1970s, when it produced hundreds of movies a year. Many of the movies it churned out were extremely cheap copies of existing movies, but also they regularly exploited well trodden Hollywood genres like spy and action movies, sci-fi and superhero movies. Sometimes shoe-horning in all the genres in the same short movie. One character that turned up time and time again, in various guises was Superman. From the nemesis of super villain Killing, (Kilink in Turkey) to the bizarre crime fighting trio from the "3 Supermen" series of movies. 
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Kilink in Istanbul (Kilink Istanbul'da) was the first of the Kilink series, and one of three that came out in 1967 alone. Kilink started out as a popular comic book photo story in Italy called Killing in 1966. It didn't take long for the film-makers of Yeşilçam to pick-up on it and make a long running series of unauthorized movies. In the first Kilink fights the son of a slain enemy who becomes a superhero that's a cross between Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel. Who gets his super powers by saying Shazam. The next was Kilink Vs the Flying Man (Kilink Uçan Adama Karsi), picking up from where the first movie left off. In the 10 or so Kilink movies that followed, the "Superman" character was never featured again, but never fear, this was only just the beginning of Superman appearing in Turkish copy-cat cinema movies.
In 1971 Super Man (Süper Adam) came out, followed a year later by Super Man Among Women (Süper Adam: Kadinlar Arasinda) in 1972 directed by Cavit Yürüklü, who also directed 3 Supermen And A Mad Girl (1973), part of a long running originally Italian movie series. Also in 1972, Super Man in Istanbul (Süper Adam Istanbul'da) was released featuring the same Superman come spy action hero. 

This short run series of Superman themed movies, took some serious liberties. Their Super Man is a American secret agent, accompanied by a female side-kick. He is a rough tough brawling dude, who it appears can't fly and punches or shoots the pistols he carries before asking any questions. Imagine a crazy James Bond in a Superman costume.
To give you a taste of these spy thriller/costumed superhero movies, Super Man In Instanbul, in it's short 63 minutes (many of these movies are little over an hour) it tries to do a lot. Or it could be that it tries to make up for little thought or story-line. The majority of this 63 minute epic consists of fights, (these movies had to have at least half-a-dozen fights in them), torture, escape from torture, more fighting, being captured, more torture, more escapes, more fights, etc... Fight scenes that are often supposed to be a nod towards martial-arts movies, that are performed by people with no knowledge or experience of martial-arts it would seem.

The opening scene is actually the most memorable segment. After being repeatedly stabbed, an unlucky woman wanders the streets, blood running down her legs to the point of leaving bloody footprints. As she stumbles about, the film's credits are literally written on the ground beneath her. This seems to be the only part of the film that shows evidence of any real thought or consideration.
Süpermen Dönüyor (1979), which translates to Superman Returns is the movie that brought the whole Turkish copy-cat cinema to my attention. At the beginning of the movie, Krypton and outer-space are a made up of a terrible special effect of Christmas tree ornaments suspended on wires. Over which is played the original Superman theme from the Hollywood version of Superman. At least in this movie they have made an attempt at some special effects though, and Superman flies. All be it a Ken doll dressed in a Superman suit, hanging from wires while scenes of clouds, cities and villains trying to escape are projected onto a bed-sheet behind the doll. Seriously a 3 year old with a super-8 camera locked in their bedroom for half-an-hour could come up with better special effects.
Even though Süpermen Dönüyor has probably become the better known movie of the genre outside of Turkey, the DVD release of the movie was double-billed with Demir Yumruk: Devler Geliyor (1973). Iron Fist: The Giants Are Coming! (sometimes listed as being made in 1970 rather than 1973) again goes back to playing with the character of Superman, and the costume. The other Turkish Superman, although our masked hero does have a Batman utility belt. Possibly all they had left at the fancy-dress shop! The theme music to this one appears to be a mishmash of whatever was in the sound editors record collection, and so includes a surf-rock theme tune.

The movie has every action spy movie cliché thrown into it. Like some kind of scatter-gun school of movie making. We have an evil Soviet super-villain, with bald head and scar down his face, with a false arm that shoots bullets. A wheel-chair bound Fu Man Chu character, all with henchmen straight out of the ABC Guide To Hollywood Henchmen. An utterly confusing mix or genres, styles, stock-footage and fight scenes. Which is what makes the whole thing so much fun to watch.   
3 Supermen And A Mad Girl (Çilgin kiz ve üç süper adam) is part of a series of originally Italian superhero movies from 1973. There were a number of these made from the early 1970s, through to the mid-80s, some of which were made in Turkey as Italian/Turkish co-productions. The nemesis Mad Girl, dresses in a red Vampira suit, and is trying to take over the world. She works for another villain dressed all in red and wears a devil mask. Assisting her is a band of men in green satin Klansman's robes. She also has robot made out of cardboard boxes that carries a death ray that will cause you to disappear into a puff of smoke. Battling her are the three supermen,  guys who wear red suits with an "S" on the front which are bullet proof. For the better part of an hour the two sides battle each other in a series of spectacular fights. Do you see a pattern forming in these movies? One story-line is pretty much interchangeable with any other. In fact there is only one story-line, they just change the villain and their costumes. If I believed for one minute that any really thought had gone into these movies, I say they were a homage to the Saturday matinee serialisations like Flash Gordon. But they're not, so let's move on.  
Süpermenler (1979) called 3 Supermen Against Godfather in English.  A German scientist builds a time machine and decides to experiment with it in Turkey. He discovers where the Byzantines hid their treasure during the Fall of Constantinople. After this becomes know, the Mafia and world powers fight for the ownership of the time machine. The boss of the Mafia wants to find out the destiny of his lost heroine and the world powers want to rule their enemies via the machine. The 3 detective superheroes, come to the aid of the German scientist, to save the world.

3 Supermen At The Olympic Games (Üç Süpermen Olimpiyatlarda) is one of the last of series, and still features the time machine!
The 3 Supermen go back in time to ancient Greece. For no reason particularly, apart from the usual criminal organisation being involved. As if these movies weren't bad enough when they started the series in Italy in 1967, by the 80s they were really running out of ideas, and had been through 3 different directors.  The improbable saga begun in 1967 by Gianfranco Parolini , continued from 1968 to 1973 by Bitto Albertini and completed from 1974 to 1986 by Italo Martinenghi.