ASLAN ADAM - "Lion Man" - KILIC ASLAN (1975)

Welcome to another Skull Spinning Saturday Night Special down in The Dungeon! From 1975, it's "Aslan Adam" aka "Lion Man!" You know how the word special has more than one meaning, well, that's what I'm talkin' about here, "Lion Man" is freakin' special, with a side of extra special red sauce! "Aslan Adam" is the same movie as "Kilic Aslan" except in "Kilic Aslan," instead of names like Steve Arkin, Barbara Lake, and Charles Garrett, their names are Cüneyt Arkin, Bahar Erdenz, and Yildirim Gencer!

There are only two things you need to know about "Lion Man," number one is that it's a movie, and number two is that it was made in Turkey! Everything else is meaningless, because that explains it all! Don't expect anything, and that's what you'll get, plus two big handfuls of something you were never expecting! That's Turkish movie making at it's finest!

This is Lion Man's Father, and that ain't exactly his wife!

This is Lion Man's Father's arch nemesis as played by Yildirim Gencer, also known as the bad guy, and that was his wife!

Lion Man's Pop is murdered, and Lion Baby Boy is left to fend for himself and is raised by the lions! At that point, about 20 years goes by in the flash of an eye, and now he's all growed up!

"Lion Man" is played by Turkish actor Cüneyt Arkin who has some 285 acting credits to his name and is still working today! In this movie, Cüneyt is credited as Steve Arkin!

Lion Man is the master of "The Claw," and has fighting skills that are almost beyond belief! The strength of a lion makes him sometimes look like he is being catapulted off a trampoline, he's that strong!!

 The naughty Nazan Adali has the role of the dancer with ulterior motives! Most of the music in "Lion Man" is overly bombastic, but here's two minutes of Turkish dance music, with a little dialogue so you can get a reel feel for this flick!

"Lion Man" is a regular "Peyton Place!" Cemil Sahbaz is this dude, the son of the guy who's wife was being screwed by Lion Man's Dad!

The followers of Lion Man's Dad are a bunch of rebels, and this gal, as played by the sultry Bahar Erdenz, is one of the leaders! She doesn't know which side Lion Man is on at first, so like a nice girl, she stabs him when he's not looking!

Then she sees the royal Lion Man birthmark on him, and she realizes she did a bad thing, and now she has to nurse him back to health! Stupid wench!

The guy in the middle's job is to stand around trying to look cool with the big cross costume on! If I recall right, he did finally get a couple of lines near the end, but the rest of the time, he's just standing there!

Lion Man has enough time to get cleaned up, get some civies, and learn to speak English before he gets captured! In the meantime, he's also probably slaughtered 50 or 60 people for various reasons, all good!

Now it's time for the big showdown between Lion Man and the son of his Dad's arch enemy! Three rounds, no holds barred!

Lion Man is just about to polish this punk off when the Mother lets it be known that she was untrue to her husband, and that these two are brothers! The shirt is pulled back, and the other birthmark is revealed! Oh, man, that really pisses off the olde man, and he stabs his wife who he's been keeping in the dungeon anyway! Now he wants to kill both of them!

During the big escape, Lion Man gets acid poured onto his hands while he's hanging onto an escape hatch lid, and almost gets killed again, but this time he's taken to the local blacksmith, who is also a part-time Doctor!

Since Lion Man's hands were all but destroyed, the blacksmith hooks him up with some custom made iron claws! Time for bad guys to get the Hell out of the way or pay the price!

Lion Man is pretty angry at this point, and the hack and slash finale goes on for quite a while!

Had enough? Too Bad, because in 1979 they came out with a sequel titled "Lion Man II: The Witch Queen," and Yes indeed, Thanx to the generosity of the crew over at Cult Action, "Lion Man II" will also grace these pages sometime in the not so distant future!