Ramsey's Rambles By Ramsey Campbell
DEMIR PENÇE KORSAN ADAM “Iron Claw the Pirate” 1969, Onar Films/Xploited Cinema, DD-2.0/ST/+, $29.95, 84m 50s, PAL DVD-0
A Turkish Fantômas! My innards haven’t quailed so much since I ate my first Izmir Kebab in Turkey, necessitating medication that turned my leavings a nearly fluorescent green. Feuillade’s original Fantômas serials (1913-14) comprise the earliest indisputably great film I’ve ever seen, and the notion of setting the masked villain against a Sixties crime fighter struck me as presumptuous at best. Well, the Feuillade is also a great deal of fun and so, in a different way, is Çetin Inanç’s Demir Pençe Korsan Adam. His Fantômas (Necati Er) is certainly rein- vented, by gum. He first appears on a decidedly rickety secret monitor to tell all the Turkish secret agents that he will come to Istanbul alone (his “ul- timate revenge,” on whom isn’t clear). Presum- ably this means he’s leaving behind the entourage that crowds into the monitor: three vaguely inter- ested girls with two more behind them in front of three men and a girl. He’s probably right to aban- don them, since they don’t do much—anything, actually. His adversary Iron Claw (Demir Karahan) meanwhile goes to a graveyard to be handed a gun in a holster from offscreen, at least the way this print is framed. He vows unstoppable revenge on the bad guys, and his leathery Batman cos- tume complete with cape and half-face mask adds to his authority. His gravitas is undermined only by his belt, which bears what appears to be a robot’s funny face.
His uncle (Danyal Topatan) overhears secret agents in a nightclub planning to swap microfilm
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for a professor in a haunted mansion. Presum- ably, like Fantômas’ entourage, the ghosts have stayed away. The mansion does offer several mem- bers of the local Mafia, identified by their hats. Behçet (Behçet Nacar) wears a Russian one, per- haps to signify that he’s the leader of the secret agents. He hands over the microfilm, which a Mafia man examines for quite a long time before decid- ing it’s porn footage. Iron Claw (or Demir Pence, to give him his Turkish name) shows up for the end of the ensuing shoot-out and announces “From now on, I’ll be your pest.” Who could resist such an offer? Mayhem ensues, as it frequently will, and Pence proves impressively athletic. He can leap from a bridge in a single bound, and pre- fers to swing from a whip rather than use the stairs. After the mêlée, he even greets the befuddled professor by jumping in front of him. Fantômas is informed of the debacle. All his girls (except one) have gone home, leaving him with just four men marked F. They or their fellow Fs prop up the wall at a meeting of Turkish agents to discuss Fantômas’ plans. Project A4 (presumably not a sta- tionery order) is mentioned and heard of no more. Pence and his sidekick Yilmaz (Oktar Durukan) raid the agents’ hideout and shoot innumerable prolifer- ating F men. Apparently Pence is so committed to the pace of things that he didn’t have time to put on his mask. The police arrive, and the subtitles make their leader say “Get well soon, Iron Claw.” He might have saved that wish for Yilmaz, who dies too if not from music suspiciously like Mantovani.
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