Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coming Attractions: Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil

Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil was announced as the sequel to the 1975 George Pál-produced film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze at the conclusion of that film prior to the end credits.

According to the screenplay by Joe Morhaim that was posted on the Internet, as well as other archival and news accounts, Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil was based very loosely on the October 1934 pulp novel Death in Silver. Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil would feature a deformed, German-speaking supervillain, whose pet man-eating octopus was a nod to a similar plot element in the September 1937 pulp novel The Feathered Octopus.^[1]

In fact, this screenplay was originally intended to be filmed as the first Doc Savage movie. However, producer George Pál commissioned a second script based on the first Doc Savage pulp novel, The Man of Bronze, because he felt the movie-going audience needed more background information about Doc and his origin.^[2]^[3]

Contemporary news accounts indicated that Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil had been filmed in the Lake Tahoe area simultaneously with the principal photography for the first Doc Savage film.^[4]^[5] However, due to the poor reception of the first film, Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil was never completed or released.^[6]

Another screenplay was written by Philip José Farmer based on the January 1936 pulp novel Murder Mirage^[7] It included a potential Wold Newton Universe cross-over involving a meeting between Doc Savage and a retired Sherlock Holmes in 1936. In any case, this screenplay was never filmed.^[8]^[9]

Finally, in anticipation of a proposed Doc Savage TV series, George Pál commissioned a two-part teleplay by Alvin Sapinsley based on the May 1935 pulp novel The Secret in the Sky. The teleplay was completed in January 1975, but due to the poor reception of the first Doc Savage film, a pilot was never filmed.^[10]