Upcoming Spy DVDs: Wonder Women

BayView Entertainment (controllers of the Retromedia catalog) will release the rare 1973 spy movie Wonder Women on DVD (a widescreen special edition, no less!) on June 18. Shot on the cheap in the Philippines, Wonder Women is way more entertaining than it has any right to be! It unfolds like a Eurospy movie (and I mean that in the best way possible) and truly makes the most of its nonexistent budget. (There's a wonderful car chase through Manila that simply has to be seen to be believed. And you know these stunts were all done for real! And probably not insured.) While it sports plenty of genre tropes (and trumps Bond by implementing a particular plot device the year before it's done in The Man With the Golden Gun), Wonder Women is the only spy movie I know of whose plot is set into motion by a kidnapped jai-alai star. That plot? Here's the official copy:

When top level athletes start to disappear, the insurance giant Lloyd’s of London hires slick investigator Mike Harber (Ross Hagen) to unravel the mystery. What Mike discovers is an island in the Philippines controlled by the evil Dr. Tsu (Nancy Kwan) where she and her sidekick (Sid Haig) run an organ transplant operation with the help of a deadly, all-girl army.

Yep, it's another one of those insurance-investigator-as-surrogate-secret-agent movies! A surprisingly stylish Sid Haig (sporting his own personal funky theme music) and Greedo from Star Wars also star. (Some may be surprised to learn that it was actually a sexy woman inside that costume.) I'm thrilled that Wonder Women is finally coming to DVD at all, but elated that it's going to be a feature-laden special edition! From the press release:

This terrific slice of 1970’s exploitation movie making comes to DVD sporting an all-new widescreen transfer from 35mm film materials plus extensive bonus materials: audio commentary track with director Robert V. O'Neill, on-set Super 8mm home movies, radio spots, TV spots, theatrical trailers, missing scenes from the European version, video interview with stuntman Erik Cord, still photo gallery from original color slides & negatives, media gallery, and scenes from the uncompleted sequel, Warrior Women.

Scenes from an unfinished sequel?! Wow! I can't wait for this disc! It hits shelves June 18 and retails for $19.99, though it can be pre-ordered from Amazon at a substantial discount.
Read my review of Wonder Women here.

Thanks to Bob for the heads-up on this!