After a few days of training and programming Frank (by talking to him in his sleep through the receiver in his head) the Doctor then gives him the ability to fly- and that he does, though he appears to be transparent when doing this. Frank is now ready to go to work- the Doctor shows him the "Evil-Finder" (a video screen with omnipresent camera) which reveals The Rat attempting a museum heist. Frank quickly confronts The Rat, deflecting his bullets and giving him a hard punch that lands him right in jail! As Frank keeps peace in The City, The Boss calls on his friend Claude (also played by Serven Darden) to create "Fake Frank" (also Jon Voight) and take out the real Frank. By this point the viewer is either "getting" the movie or they aren't. It's played out like a live-action cartoon, slightly in the vein of the 1960s "Batman" TV series but with even lower production values other than being shot in Techniscope. The cast definitely camps it up, but at times they're at a loss for words- voice-over god Ken Nordine comes to the film's rescue at these times as the "Storytelling Stranger", narrating the film to the audience and making it more coherent than the actors can, though it will likely still leave many viewers confused. At these moments he often gives play-by-play commentary and conveys characters' inner thoughts as the actors pantomime their actions onscreen, with Nordine's narration accompanied by cartoon sound effects and Meyer Kupferman's jazzy 60s-era music score. Running just a bit over 75 minutes, "The Boss" and his team aren't given enough time (or likely budget) to commit any true acts of pure evil, but that just adds to the overall campiness (the main element that discerns a movie that was intentionally made to be silly from one that aimed for something more serious but just came out ineptly.)

Fearless Frank not only help launch Jon Voight's acting career but also that of writer-director Philip Kaufman, who went on to direct much higher-acclaimed movies like The Right Stuff and help George Lucas come up with ideas for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Just what he was thinking when he wrote and directed Fearless Frank is somewhat of a mystery as it hasn't been seen too widely- it got a theatrical reissue in 1969 to cash in on Voight's breakthrough performance in Midnight Cowboy and acquired a small cult following after being shown on late-night TV in the 70s and 80s, but it's never had a home video release until this DVD-R from MGM.

The DVD presents the movie in its proper 2.35 Techniscope ratio (shot as a 2-perf 35mm film frame, not anamorphically as has been traditional) from a very clean print, free of any scratches or damage. Some detail is lost from the limitations of standard-definition video, but this is likely the best it has looked in quite some time.

The mono audio track is presented in 2-channel Dolby Digital, and while not up to the sound quality standards of today's movies is still very clear all things considered.

Fearless Frank is certainly a movie that could only come from the 1960s, and will have some audiences laughing hysterically while others will just be scratching their heads in confusion if they give it a chance at all. Given the talent involved who would soon go on to bigger things, it's certainly a curiosity that should be seen by open-minded viewers (and might also explain some of Jon Voight's later role choices such as in the Baby Geniuses sequels- while those appeared rather awful, maybe he was embracing that.) It's likely that later superhero parodies (like 1999's Mystery Men, which I didn't care for too much but need to give another chance) were influenced by this. While a "special edition" release with extras to put all of this in better context would have been great, many will still be thankful that it got this release at all.

Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.