Brilliant, bold, brawny, blonde and bronzed, Doc Savage was the kind of adventurer that the girls all swooned for and the boys all wanted to be. Created by author Lester Dent (under the nom de plume Kenneth Robeson) in a long-running series of comics and adventure stories in the 1930's, Savage (then darker-haired and less tan) fought evil in exotic locales around the world. His associates in this battle against the forces of badness were a group of experts known as "The Amazing Five," each tops in his respective field. In 1975 (but still set in the 30's), the hunky hero and his associates finally made it to the big screen, starring in Doc Savage: Man of Bronze.

As the Doc continues a series of lab experiments at his Arctic hideaway, The Amazing Five summon him back to New York on urgent business. There, the Five-whiz electrician Long Tom, chemist Monk, engineer Renny, lawyer Ham and archaeologist/geologist Johnny-deliver the sad news that Savage, Sr., has died of a tropical disease. Suspecting an evil plot, Doc Savage flies the gang down to Hidalgo, the small South American country where the elder Savage met his maker.

In Hidalgo, Savage learns that his father had been given a plot of land by a local tribe. His trusty instincts aroused, Savage investigates, with the help of a local beauty named Monja. As it turns out, the land contains an everlasting gold mine, and Savage's arch-nemesis Captain Seas is after it. Armed with a potent virus dubbed "green death," the nasty Captain makes a formidable foe, thrusting Savage into the most perilous peril of his danger-seeking life.

Doc Savage: Man of Bronze may have been intentionally campy, but the seat-clutching youngsters in the audience didn't know or care, except for one scene perhaps where one of the villians rocks himself to sleep in an adult-sized baby crib. For them, the film was simply a mystic jungle adventure in the tradition of the classic, cliffhanging serials of the 30's (a tradition reborn six years later with Raiders of the Lost Ark). The movie was not a rousing success (especially by Indiana Jones' standards), but for a generation of wannabe explorers/superheroes, Doc Savage was a hero in the classic mold-strong, smart, noble and well-groomed.