1974 Wonder Woman TV Movie Review

I watched the 1974 Wonder Woman TV Movie recently. (I did not see it when it was originally broadcast.) I have mixed feelings about this version of Wonder Woman. Blonde Cathy Lee Crosby did not fit my image of Wonder Woman. It did not seem as though she had much of a secret identity. Almost everyone knew she was Wonder Woman even when not dressed as Wonder Woman.

A major plus in the casting was having the always wonderful Ricardo Montalban as the villain, Abner Smith. I don’t know if his role as the villain was supposed to be a surprise (we do not actually see his face for quite some time), but he had an extremely distinctive voice so it was no surprise when we saw his face.

The movie opens with Wonder Woman saying good bye to her mother and her Amazon sisters. In the United States, other than having amazing athletic abilities, she has no super powers. Repeated attempts on her life fail. I was hoping for at least one round of bullets and bracelets, but no such luck.

Smith’s henchmen have stolen books that when all gathered together, contain information that would compromise all the U.S. Agents in the world.  Diana Prince informs her boss, Steve Trevor, that she is going to a dentist in France, which just happens to be one of the places Smith may be located... Meanwhile, Steve follows the instructions for delivering the ransom money for return of the books.

One worthy opponent appears – a fellow Amazon who was hired by Smith. Wonder Woman has been warned about her arrival. They meet and Wonder Woman easily defeats her. She shows mercy to her defeated opponent. She, however, tells Wonder Woman that next time they meet, if she wins she will kill Wonder Woman. She is never seen again in the movie. My guess is that if the TV movie had led to a TV series, she would have been a recurring villain.

After the ransom has been delivered successfully, Smith hands the books over to Wonder Woman. He sets a trap for her that he believes will finally be the end of her.

After all of Smith’s minions have been disposed of and he believes Wonder Woman has died, he believes he is free to leave with the money. His plan is foiled when Wonder Woman rises out of the sea and stops him. His parting comment before he is taken away is, “Wonder Woman, I love you.”

Will I ever watch this movie again? The jury is still out on that one.

Review of The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore

I borrowed this book from the library, expecting not to like it. I was not disappointed. (In the interest of full disclosure, I will say right now that I am not a feminist.)

It was well-researched. However, Lepore made sure we knew how well-researched it was. She used paragraphs to say something that could have been said in one sentence. I personally did not need to know the whole life stories of William Moulton Marston, Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne.

I kept reading out of morbid curiosity to see how bad things would get. I learned why things that bothered me in the first volume of the Wonder Woman Omnibus (e.g., women who have been freed from slavery still wanting to wear chains) were there. Marston was into bondage and believed “The secret of woman’s allure is that women enjoy submission – being bound.” He insisted that every story included Wonder Woman being bound.

Among the women who inspired Wonder Woman were Marston’s wife, Elizabeth, his mistress, Olive, and Olive’s aunt, the infamous Margaret Sanger. (Although to be fair, I have read in a few different sources that Sanger eventually abandoned her support for abortion. I have not read anything one way or the other if she also abandoned her racism and support for eugenics.)

Once I got past Lepore’s problem of showing us all her research (doing lots of research – good; showing us all her research in her book – bad), I do not find a lot of admirable qualities in the Wonder Woman Marston created. I will take Silver Age Wonder Woman over Golden Age Wonder Woman any day of the week. Men were frequently depicted in the Golden Age Wonder Woman as brutes who treat women as chattel. It was not about female equality, it was about female superiority. Even Steve Trevor, in a nightmare Wonder Woman had, expected a no longer super-powered Wonder Woman to stay home and take care of him.

Marston was a classic beta male. He could not keep a job, his wife wanted children but did not want to take care of them. Her job provided financial support for the family. His mistress stayed at home to take care of the children. Olive claimed to be a widow and that her children were fathered by her late husband, not by Marston, as was the reality. There were four children, two by his wife, two by his mistress. All of which was kept under wraps until recently.

The infamous Fredric Wertham despised comic books, believing them to be a negative influence on children. Most of his subjects were reformatory residents, which obviously skewed his results. He already decided what he wanted to find – and found it. Wonder Woman was a major target. Robert Kanigher, who took over Wonder Woman after Marston, was not a fan of Marston’s Wonder Woman and did whatever he wanted with her. His Wonder Woman became a romance editor. Eventually a balance was struck between Moulton’s version and Kanigher’s version.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman was not a particularly enjoyable read, but it did give me insight into how feminists view things. It was too long, somewhat boring and plodding. It was not an effective way to get across her message, even if it had been a message I approved of.  I cannot recommend this book under any circumstances. Two thumbs way, way down on this one.

MCU Movies Review

I recently finished a project my husband asked me to do – to watch all of the MCU movies that have been released on DVD or Blu-Ray. I will not provide detailed reviews of each movie. Please note: this review will include spoilers.

Iron Man was magnificent. Watching all Tony Stark went through to realize there was more to life than money and women. His assistant, Pepper, had a wonderful line when she was arranging for the departure of Tony’s one-night stand. “I do whatever he needs me to do, sometimes even taking out the garbage.” (This is a paraphrase, as I don’t remember the exact phrasing.) Near the end, he starts with his prepared statement for a press conference, then throws it away and says, “I am Iron Man.” Nothing against Iron 2 and Iron 3 – they were all great – but the first movie was the best of the three.

The Incredible Hulk had some great moments for fans of the original Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV series. A scene from The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (an earlier Bixby role) was shown. And Ferrigno had a cameo as a security guard. Even as the Hulk, Bruce Banner protects his girlfriend. Edward Norton as Banner/Hulk is not, in my opinion, as good as the later Mark Ruffalo as Banner/Hulk. The end battle between the Hulk and the Abomination was breath-taking. It would have been nice to see a second Hulk movie.

Then Thor, son of Odin, god of thunder, makes his MCU debut. In his first movie, he is cast out and ends up on Earth. He has been deemed no longer worthy of wielding Mjolnir. When he is willing to sacrifice himself to save humans, he proves himself worthy of Mjolnir again. The battles are amazing. The only weak point in the movie was his romance with Jane. His second movie was weak. Thor: The Dark World did not hold my interest at all. Ragnarok, on the other hand, was amazing. As a gladiator, he faces Hulk. His response upon seeing him was priceless: “Yes! He’s an old friend from work!” Hela, the villain in Ragnarok, longs for the days when she was an only child and she ruled alongside a ruthless Odin. Loki shows in all three Thor movies that he can’t be trusted.

The first Captain America movie followed the first Thor movie. Even though I’m not crazy about actor Chris Evans, Captain America is hands down my favorite Avenger. Props to the team for flawless use of photoshop (whatever the movie equivalent is) to use Chris Evans’ face over that of the stereotypical 98-pound weakling. Knowing that Bucky Barnes would be back in Winter Soldier, I knew he survived the accident that Cap thought killed him. An excellent entrance into the MCU for my favorite Avenger. Winter Soldier and Civil War were also edge of the seat movies.

The two Guardians of the Galaxy movies were great fun. When young Peter Quill loses his mother to cancer, I cried, as that was the way I lost my mom. The 70’s and 80’s soundtrack was great and Groot was really groovin’ to that music! The totally snarky Rocket Racoon was a lot of fun. The unlikely grouping of these characters works. In the second movie, Peter meets his longed-for father. It seems like a blissful father-son reunion – until Ego’s true motives are revealed.  “Join me and we can rule the universe as father and son.” Nah, that’s not what he really said, but it had that feel. He killed his other children for the crime of not having his spark in them. Peter was about ready to join him until he says that he killed his mother. After destroying his father, the Guardians are off to save the galaxy once again. I wish there was more backstory of Gamorra and Nebula’s life growing up as adopted daughters of Thanos. Nebula doesn’t join the Guardians – her plan now is to kill Thanos.

Ant-Man was a story of a thief turned superhero. It was a more light-hearted story, although with a villain who wanted to use Hank Pym’s (the original Ant-Man) technology for evil purposes. Scott Lang, as an experienced thief, was his choice to become the new Ant-Man and foil the plot. I’m looking forward to Ant-Man and the Wasp, to see what the future holds for Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne…

I like Doctor Strange as a character, but the movie dragged. I kept expecting the Ancient One to start spouting Buddhist ko-ans…

Spiderman: Homecoming was a disappointment. It was enjoyable the first time, but it doesn’t bear up to repeated viewings. I found very little likeable in this version of Peter Parker. Marissa Tomei as Aunt May? Really? I’d always pictured her as a frail, elderly lady. Having seen Spidey and Aunt May in Civil War, a comment made by Tony Stark makes sense now. Tony asked her what she was wearing and added, “Something skimpy, I hope.” (He erased that comment before actually sending the voice mail.) Peter has grown by the end of the movie, choosing being a friendly neighborhood Spiderman over receiving a new high-tech suit from Tony and officially becoming an Avenger.

Black Panther was awesome! To see T’Challa rule Wakanda with wisdom and justice after the death of his father was inspiring. I knew, after being presumed dead after the challenge by Killmonger, he’d be back to defeat Killmonger. I love Shuri. I hadn’t seen Captain America: Civil War prior to my first viewing, so a line by Shuri that confused me made complete sense when watching it a second time. I’m paraphrasing here, but her line about T’Challa bringing her another broken white boy to fix was great, the first broken white boy being Bucky Barnes. T’Challa is ready at the end of the movie to share Wakanda’s wealth with the rest of the world.

Now for the Avengers movies. They were all action-packed and held my attention from start to finish. A seemingly unlikely grouping at first, but they all brought their strengths together to fight to protect Earth. Great Captain America quote from Avengers after being told Loki and Thor are gods: “There’s only one God and I’m pretty sure He doesn’t dress like that.” By time I got to Age of Ultron, I was able to guess – correctly – that when Tony and Bruce worked to find a way to stop Ultron it was going to end up being Vision (of course, if I hadn’t seen Infinity War before seeing Age of Ultron, I probably wouldn’t have made the connection). Then came Infinity War, a non-stop breathtaking movie. I kept hoping Thanos wouldn’t get all of the Infinity Stones. Having seen all the movies prior to this one, I understood a lot more. Some amusing moments: Thor explaining how he can understand Groot, saying he took it as an elective; Thor commenting to a now-bearded Cap that he copied Thor’s look; dialogue between Groot and Cap – Groot: I am Groot. Cap: I’m Steve Rogers. After Thanos finds all the Infinity Stones, the survivors are few. Rocket is the lone survivor of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America all survive. When (not if) the Avengers defeat Thanos, will everything he did with the power of the Infinity Stones be reversed?

I, for one, enjoy Stan Lee’s cameos in the movies. It would be hard to pick a favorite. It will be a sad day when an MCU movie is dedicated to the memory of Stan Lee…

I’ve enjoyed the MCU movies so far (some, obviously, more than others) and am looking forward to other MCU movies, especially Ant-Man and the Wasp and the next (as yet untitled) Avengers movie.