I’m reading the first novel and they (the spies) don’t know her nationality. She may be Japanese they speculate, but they don’t know. She apparently changes her look, from blonde to brunette, etc, so those who have had interactions with her (one a Frenchman, the other a Russian), never describe her the same way. She’s a woman of mystery, little is known of her.
She is referred to as Madonna by women in her organization, who are called “Sisters”, Sister Jean, Sister Delores, etc. It’s almost like a religious order, a cult, and the secret service agents refer to them as “victims”, and what has happened to them equated to white slave trade, the implication so far is that they are kidnapped, brainwashed or coerced (the two “sisters” I’ve met in the story so far, clearly fear her)
The characters and names are different, the main guy is a newspaper person who gets tangled with these agents and this plot to stop Sumuru.
Unless the other novels clearly state her race, the filmmakers might have said, they (in the book) don’t know and we’re not going to bother with it, so just be Shirley Eaton and play her as a powerful leader, nationality and origins unknown.
…in the hands of a competent writer, that sounds like it could be a really good story. The problem is that it requires the delicate sort of care of a writer that’s actually trying, which you don’t usually see on MST3K.
I think producer and screenwriter (sing it with me) Harry Allan Towers! was more interested in trying to draw from Bond and make a buck.
Update on the novel - the reporter comes face to face with Sumuru… and he can’t describe her, other than she’s beautiful and that he thinks he’ll likely forget what she looks like after she’s left the room.
Rohmer is being deliberately vague about her nationality. Even her dress or decorum of rooms is scattered (Egyptian, Greek), it’s like she appropriated all these cultures so she can go anywhere, and be anyone with ease.
And that scene is so badly staged. She just scoots across to the other door and trots away while Sumuru’s minions kinda just… mill around looking confused. It’s like the actress made a break for it and the rest of the cast didn’t know how to respond.
I don’t think you could suggest that there’s a good premise behind The Starfighters. There is no way to execute that film and make it good. The closest you could come is a movie like Top Gun, but that’s not really the same premise.
I mean, you make a farcical slice of life based around the armed forces, maybe. But that movie’s lacking a bit in plot, so it’s hard to say it has much of any sort of premise.
Dudes are weirdly obsessive about this premise. I guess because once or twice a pretty woman turned them down and they couldn’t cope just by drinking and doing coke. But that doesn’t make the premise good.
Reminds me of Rifftrax’s take on The Dark - a minor character starts a scene by saying “Welp, I’m gonna sit this one out” or similar and then leaving, and Mike’s like “What?! These actors can just opt out?”
Well, between Fu Manchu and Sumuru, it’s obvious that Sax Rohmer had bought the extra large jumbo economy family size box of "u"s at Costco and he was desperately trying to use them all up before they went bad.
A bonus bit of trivia: Didja know that in 1952 a Fu Manchu TV pilot was made for NBC with the title role played by our old pal John Carradine.
IDK. The basic core premise of The Starfighters (excellent choice of example) is “We need to sell more of these fighter jets, so we’re going to make a movie about how cool they are.” That should not be a heavy lift. The problem is that the plot they came up with is… well, they forgot to come up with a plot, really. Also, they didn’t have access to the jets except for a brief time with them on the ground. The flying scenes are all stock footage, and all from the training grounds. That really limits what they can do.
Bit of trivia, Bruce Lee was deeply involved in the initial development of that show but was passed over to star in it. Apparently an ABC executive said “you can’t make a star out of a 5’3” Chinaman.”
Upset by this snub he left the US for Hong Kong and became a global action movie icon.
Harry Allan Towers!