3 Dev Adam
| Three Giant Men | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | T. Fikret Uçak |
| Produced by | Hasan Tual |
| Written by | Doğan Tamer |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Orhan Kapkı |
| Edited by | Hüsamettin Üren |
Production company |
Tual Film Arsel |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 81 minutes |
| Country | Turkey |
| Language | Turkish |
3 Giant Men (AKA: Captain America and Santo vs. Spider-Man; Turkish: 3 Dev Adam Turkish pronunciation: [yt͡ʃ dev adam]) is a 1973 Turkish cult action film, directed by T. Fikret Uçak and written by Doğan Tamer based on the characters created by Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Joe Simon and Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, featuring Aytekin Akkaya as Captain America and Yavuz Selekman as Santo called to Istanbul on a special mission to stop the villainous Spider-Man and his criminal gang. The film, which went on nationwide general release across the country on November 1, 1973, was completely unauthorized by the copyright owners of the characters depicted.
Plot
The story takes place in Istanbul, where a violent criminal organization led by Spider-Man ("Spider's Gang") surfaces in the city with counterfeit United States dollars. A small task-force consisting of Captain America, Santo and Captain America's girlfriend Julia arrives to help local police stop Spider-Man and his gang.
Captain America's girlfriend, who has infiltrated Spider-Man's hideout, is captured and taken to a house in a remote location. She manages to send an SOS signal to the Captain. Captain America saves Julia and chases after Spider-Man, who manages to escape.
Meanwhile, Mexico's national superhero/wrestler, Santo, infiltrates the dojo that is used as a front for counterfeiting. After being captured, he manages to escape along with incriminating evidence.
Captain and Santo raid a very important hideout where most of the counterfeiting operation is taking place. They manage to shut down the hideout while Spider-Man kills a couple, steals a statue and runs away.
Soon afterwards, another fight between heroes and Spider-Man begins. It is revealed that there are four Spider-Men as one is beaten to a pulp by Santo and another is strangled to death by Captain America.
Captain America and Santo then go undercover in a club. Spider-Man's gang notice them and a fight occurs. The heroes are seemingly overpowered this time and are taken to Spider-Man's hideout. Once there Captain America and Santo act like they are fighting themselves to confuse their captors but manage to break out and eliminate most of the gang members. Spider-Man arrives at the end of the fight with his girlfriend, only to have her struck by a wild shot from the gun of one of his henchmen. He flees, with Captain America in hot pursuit.
Captain America catches Spider-Man and defeats him, only to hear the taunting laugh of yet another Spider-Man. The fight continues until all of the Spider-Men are dead.
As the heroes are about to leave Istanbul, Captain America sees the face of Spider-Man in a taxi and furiously runs and removes the mask of the person in the car, only to realize that it was just a child wearing a toy mask.
Depiction of characters
- Santo: Most "normally" depicted character (compared to Spider-Man and Captain America). The primary difference between this version of El Santo and the original is that the character in the film only briefly wears a wrestling mask, whereas the "real" Santo was never seen in public without one. Santo was famous during the '60s, and he was very well known in Turkey. There is even a statue of him outside a movie theater in Istanbul. In this movie he has a bizarre habit of sticking random objects in his pants.
- Captain America: Played by Aytekin Akkaya, an action star, Captain is little more faithfully depicted. He also has a girlfriend with him whose identity is never explained in the movie. Just like he is shown in the poster, he doesn't have his shield and his mask lacks the wings on the side of his head.
- Spider-Man: His costume is vastly different from both the comics and his depiction on the poster, differing both in design and color. He is also depicted as a villain, with none of his abilities from the comics. His only unusual ability shown is the apparent power to come back unharmed from death multiple times and use of a switchblade and guinea pigs as a form of weaponry.