The New Original Wonder Woman (1975)

The New Original Wonder Woman (1975)

starring Lynda Carter, Lyle Waggoner

directed by Leonard Horn

74 minutes

A German plan to bomb the Brooklyn Navy tards is foiled by Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner). He parachutes out of his plane as it was destroyed while stopping the German plane that was sent to bomb the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He lands on Paradise Island. He is unconscious when he is found by Diana (Lynda Carter), Princess of the Amazons.

Queen Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, decides that Major Trevor must be returned to the United States. She holds a contest to determine which Amazon will undertake this mission. All of the Amazons taking part in the contest are masked and wear numbers. In the end it comes down to a contest of bullets and bracelets between the two Amazons who score the highest, numbers 8 and 33. The winner (33) reveals herself to be Diana, after she has won the contest of bullets and bracelets.

Hippolyta reluctantly accepts the outcome of the contest. She gives Diana a special uniform, a golden belt, and a golden lasso. Wonder Woman flies Major Trevor back to the Washington, DC. She takes him to a military hospital and leaves him there to recover.

Wonder Woman goes for a walk around town. She stops a robbery in progress. She meets Ashley Norman, a theatrical agent, who convinces her that he can make her lots of money on stage.

The Nazis have not given up on their plan to bomb the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Steve Trevor's secretary, Marcia, is the leader of a gang of Nazis which also includes Ashley Norman. The gang of Nazis capture Steve after he learns that the Nazis have sent another airplane to bomb the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They use truth serum on him to get him to reveal the combination to the safe in his office, which holds the plans to the next experimental plane that the US military is developing.

Wonder Woman catches up to Marcia while the she is stealing the plans for the new airplane. The two women fight, after which Wonder Woman turns Marcia over to the police. Wonder Woman stops the second German plane and rescues Steve from Ashley Norman and the rest of the Nazi gang.

When Steve Trevor returns to his office he discover that he has a new secretary, Yeoman First Class Diana Prince.

Thoughts

This was a made for TV movie although it is now considered to be part of the first season of the 1976 Wonder Woman TV show.

I'm not sure exactly which year this story is supposed to take place. My guess would be 1942. That's the year after Wonder Woman first appeared in comic books. It has to be during the Second World War so it couldn't have been earlier than 1941 or later than 1945.

Lynda Carter is great in the lead role. I know that I saw some of the episodes of the TV show that were set during the Second World War (when I was much younger) but I'm not sure how many of them I have seen or even if seeing them will jog my memory.

I don't recall if I have seen this movie before. I do recall watching the TV show when it was in reruns in the early 1980s.

There is one scene in this movie where Wonder Woman does the spinning transformation from civilian attire to her Wonder Woman outfit. The music at the beginning of the movie is the music that I recall from the TV show.

Cloris Leachman played the part of Queen Hippolyta. I'm not sure she was the best choice for the part but she wasn't bad in that role. She didn't resemble the version of Queen Hippolyta that I have seen in comic books or cartoons. I know Leachman best from Young Frankenstein (1974).

I enjoyed watching this movie very much. It dragged a little in places but I think it held up fairly well if one takes into account that it was made in the 1970s. It is a little tongue in cheek but nowhere near as ridiculously over the top as the 1966 Batman TV show.