Goldface, The Fantastic Superman (1967; Bitto Albertini)

By day, Vilar (Robert Anthony) is a mild-mannered scientist who abhors violence. By night, he is the amazing wrestler Goldface! Vilar’s boss is part of an organization that is besieged by a mysterious villain named The Cobra, who is blowing up their plants. The Cobra’s next move is to kidnap the boss’ daughter Pamela (Micaela Pignatelli) for ransom. Goldface is recruited to journey to The Cobra’s island fortress, rescue Pamela and save the day! 

Amusingly, Pamela seems oblivious to the danger her life is in… blithely participating in car races, pool parties and waterskiing while imminent danger lurks close by. Although the film is filled with plenty of action, some of the set pieces make little sense. Pamela is somehow kidnapped after being pursued by a plane (a scene that compares unfavourably to the crop duster sequence in North By Northwest). The most bizarre sequence involves a traitorous member of the organization shooting at several Goldfaces! 

As for scary villains, The Cobra won’t invite comparisons to The Crimson Ghost. It is no wonder we don’t see him in full shot until the very end, as his costume consists of a black kimono with an upturned lapel to obscure the bottom half of his face. And his fetching Austrian assistant wears a plastic Halloween robber’s mask!

Many of the Italian superheroes have sidekicks (or butlers!), but none are as egregious as Goldface’s right-hand man, a peanut-eating African warrior named Gotar. His character evokes the Lothar stereotype from the Mandrake comic strip, which was already cringe-worthy in the 1930s, and certainly more so now. Its attempts at humour are quite juvenile; unsurprisingly director-writer Bitto Albertini (who also co-wrote with Jamie Jesus Balcazar, Italo Fasan and Palmabrogio Molteni) would fill a career of lowbrow farce, including some later Three Supermen movies.

Otherwise, Goldface is mildly amusing bubblegum, ambling along to sleazy strip club muted-trumpet jazz and a non-stop funky organ loop in its climax. Trivia note: one of the dubbed voices in the early wrestling scene sounds a lot like Mel Welles from Little Shop Of Horrors.