This primordial Doctor Strange was actually the double pilot episode of a series produced by Universal and proposed to the American network CBS, in the same period in which other experiments of live-action series drawn from the comics were carried out, such as The Amazing Spider-Man, which lasted only two seasons, and L 'Incredible Hulk, the one with Lou Ferrigno instead became a cult at the turn of the sixties and seventies. When the network decided not to order the series, those initial episodes were recycled as a movie, which itself got lost in the rivulets of cathodic archeology. But now it will be recovered in some way.
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In the film the actor Peter Hooten plays the psychiatrist Stephen Strange, who is treating a woman, Clea Lake (Eddie Benton) who was possessed by the sorceress Morgana Le Fay (played by Jessica Walter, the late Lucille Bluth of Arrested Development). The witch had attempted to possess her in order to defeat the supreme sorcerer Thomas Lindmer (John Mills), who will eventually surrender her powers to Strange, who has become the new protector of humanity. Obviously, the faithful friend and assistant Wong, to whom Clyde Kusatsu gave his face, could not be missing.
Despite the advice of Stan Lee himself and a cure for special effects unusual for the time, that very first Doctor Strange it did not convince the critics nor the public. Today, however, it has become a kind of rare pearl. In the upcoming Blu-ray version, which will see the film restored and transferred in high definition, there will also be several special content such as audio commentary from pop culture experts such as Russell Dyball and Cole Hornaday. And who knows that in the various multiverses the sorcerer of Hooten will not make the appearance of him again.