In 1936, Doc Savage (Ron Ely) returns to New York City following a visit to his top-secret Arctic hideaway, the Fortress of Solitude.

He learns that his father has died under mysterious circumstances while exploring the remote interior of the Central American Republic of Hidalgo.

Doc Savage chases and corners the sniper on the nearby Eastern Cranmoor Building, but the would-be assassin loses his footing and falls to his death.

Examining the body, Doc discovers that his assailant is a Native American with peculiar markings; his fingertips are red, as if dipped in blood, while his chest bears an elaborate tattoo of the ancient Mayan god Kukulkan.

Vowing to solve his father's murder, Doc Savage flies to Hidalgo with "The Fabulous Five", his brain trust, at his side.

Following clues left by his father, Doc and his friends locate the hidden entrance into the Valley of the Vanished where the lost Quetzamal tribe lives.

Freed from Captain Seas, Chief Chaac (Victor Millan) offers the gold and land grant to Doc, who vows: "I promise to continue my father's work ... his ideals.

Later, during Christmas season, Doc Savage encounters the former supervillain, who is now a bandleader for The Salvation Army, flanked by his former paramours Adriana and Karen.

Arriving back at his penthouse headquarters from shopping, Doc hears an urgent message about a new threat that could cost millions of lives, recorded earlier on his telephone answering machine.

Although Dent succeeded in launching a short-lived radio program, he was never able to interest Hollywood in a Doc Savage film.

The film would be based on the July 1934 pulp novel The Thousand-Headed Man, with Chuck Connors as Doc, for a 1966 release.

Unfortunately, the producers and Condé Nast Publications, the new copyright owner of the Doc Savage brand, failed to secure the film rights from the estate of Lester Dent.

By the time the legal issues had been resolved, the production team and cast had moved on to do the offbeat western Ride Beyond Vengeance.

Only the one-shot comic book movie tie-in published by Gold Key, with cover artwork by James Bama, remains to mark this aborted film undertaking.

"[1] In August 1971 George Pal announced he had secured the film and television rights to 181 Doc Savage novels from Norma Dent.

"[3] Prior to filming Pal said "In the last six years the Doc Savage Bantam books, the reprints alone, have sold 11,400,000 copies.

The film does not mention that Doc's father, Professor Clark Savage Sr., was instrumental in raising his son from the cradle to become the supreme adventurer under the tutelage of a blue-ribbon group of distinguished scientists.

The Seven Seas is actually the name of Doc Savage's private motor yacht in the pulp novels written by Lester Dent.

Finally, the opening titles used the same typography (pictured) used in the Bantam Books reprints of the Doc Savage pulp novels.

[7][8] At the time Ely was best known for playing Tarzan on television; he says he had been typecast and was unable to find roles in the USA afterwards, so mostly worked in Europe.

Paul Frees, provided the uncredited[citation needed] voiceover narration for the opening title sequence.

Debate continues as to who was responsible for the camp content of Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, the studio or George Pal and his production team.

Among the many examples of over-the-top camp element included: The film is also remembered for its theme song arranged by Frank De Vol, based on John Philip Sousa's The Thunderer.

Sousa's music was intended to evoke a patriotic theme for Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze and attempted to emulate the success that director George Roy Hill and composer Marvin Hamlisch had achieved when they used the ragtime music of Scott Joplin for the 1975 caper film The Sting.

Variety noted that, "Execrable acting, dopey action sequences, and clumsy attempts at camp humor mark George Pal's Doc Savage as the kind of kiddie film that gives the G rating a bad name.

Savage is hampered by budget woes, weak acting, a sluggish script, and some painfully forced attempts at camp.

It bombed at the box office, opening in June to be buried by Steven Spielberg’s Jaws..."[12] Lester Dent's widow, Norma, said, "...

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze was initially released in 1986 by Warner Home Video in a clamshell box, at the time denoting a family film, with cover art designed to capitalize on the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Based on a screenplay by Joe Morhaim, and according to contemporary news accounts,[citation needed] it had been filmed in the Lake Tahoe area simultaneously with the principal photography for the first Doc Savage.

Another treatment was written by fantasy author Philip José Farmer, and included a meeting between Doc and a retired Sherlock Holmes in 1936, but it was never filmed.