As I sit down to type this it’s suddenly occurred to me that this ABC TV film from 1974 is now 50 years old. Before anyone bakes a cake and breaks out the party poppers, it’s worth pointing out that there really isn’t a lot here to celebrate.
In this small screen outing, Wonder Woman is more superspy than superhero, much as she was in the second and third series’ of the Lynda Carter iteration. Her alter ego Diana Prince works as a secretary to government agent Steve Trevor (played by Kaz Garas), but he knows that she’s Wonder Woman anyway so why does she keep this pretense up in his presence? Who knows? Our hero is played by (blonde) tennis pro Cathy Lee Crosby, and the wafer thin plot involves a number of stolen books that contain information about US agents and their aliases around the world. If the US government doesn’t want this sensitive intel exposed, then they have to pay a ransom. The dastardly villain holing holding this particular gun to the White House’s head is smooth operator Abner Smith, played by professional suave gentleman Ricardo Montalban, who’s always good value for money. Even in this.
The back of the DVD cover promises ‘four-color fans’ that Wonder Woman’s trademark ‘bracelets, lassos, Paradise Island and invisible jets, all make an appearance’. This is a complete lie. Well, apart from Paradise Island, which does. Briefly. But other than that, our hero certainly does sport bracelets, but not once does she use them to deflect bullets. She has a rope but never uses it to lasso someone and make them tell the truth. And as for the invisible jet, it’s mentioned but never seen, as it were. In fact, this iteration of Wonder Woman boasts no super powers whatsoever. She’s just very athletic, and that’s it.
But the most heinous departure from the Wonder Woman that we all know and love is, of course, the costume. Gone is the comic attire and in its place we get a colourful tracksuit, and even this doesn’t make an appearance until we’re well into the second half of the film. In fact, one can say that the only thing that separates Diana Prince from Wonder Woman is that tracksuit. Nothing else really changes.
Another thing sadly lacking in this film is a show-stopping stunt or action sequence. In the Lynda Carter TV series, every episode featured at least one showpiece stunt, whether it was WW hanging from a helicopter, jumping onto a moving truck or even skateboarding. But here, the best we get is WW diving off a rock into a river, or riding a motorbike, and that really is about it. Sure, a helicopter gets blown up but even that happens off camera.
In fact, the only interesting aspect to this show, and one that isn’t utilised to its full potential, is that bad guy Abner Smith recruits one of Wonder Woman’s fellow Amazons as an accomplice. Ahnjayla is played by Anitra Ford, an actress who resembles the traditional image of Wonder Woman far more than Cathy Lee Crosby does. Their eventual face-off is the highlight of the show.
Needless to say, ABC did not pick this up as a series, and went on to produce the far more successfully realised version starring Lynda Carter. Interestingly, Cathy Lee Crosby did claim to have been offered the lead role in that series.
Fifty years on, this TV film remains an interesting aside in the live action evolution of the character of Wonder Woman, but it’s definitely one for dedicates fans only, as there isn’t really a lot of wonder here.
RICHARD E. ROCK 
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