Superman (1948)

Very best movie i ever watch

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

U.S. release: 1948. U.K. release: 1949. 2 reels each episode. Total running time: 284 minutes. In 1953, Columbia cut the serial down to a mere 7,923 feet (88 minutes). This cutdown was released in England in September 1953, but it was never released in any medium, either theatrically or to television, in Australia or the U.S.SYNOPSIS: Superman, alias Clark Kent, reporter, assisted by his Daily Planet colleagues Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, thwarts the nefarious plans of the self-styled Spider Lady, mistress of crime. COMMENT: Katzman's Columbia serials are a sorry lot. And this one alas is no exception. Produced on an obviously miniscule budget, this one can't even afford a change of clothes for Lois Lane. Throughout almost the entire film, she wears a ridiculously plate-shaped cap, both indoors and out, whether in peril or in repose. She finally gets rid of it in chapter 13.All the cliffhangers are as tame as iced tea, with obvious resolutions that wouldn't excite a six-year-old child. Also noticeably juvenile was the decision to have Superman fly not with the aid of wires or special effects but crude animation. I'm afraid this Superman would be jeered off the screen by today's youngsters.The players do what they can against a trite, talky, amateurishly plotted script. The "B" grade shuffle is much in evidence with the players using up an unconscionable amount of screen time making entrances and exits, walking to the telephone, and general bouts of just twiddling around.If you must have an episode for your collection, I would suggest 13. Not only does it feature all the principals, but it ends with a chair thrown at the camera, the one sole trace of directorial flair in the entire movie. And the preceding fist fight is not too badly staged either.Otherwise a pedestrian effort in all respects, this Superman is best forgotten.

*Spoiler/plot- Superman, 1948. An alien baby is sent to Earth and develops superpowers. He hides his identity as a newspaper reporter to do good for his adopted planet and human race.*Special Stars- Kirk Alyn, Noel Neil, Tommy Bond, Pierre Watkin, Carol Foreman, Doodles Weaver.*Theme- American values are good.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W, Theatrical serial. 15 episodes. Rocky area locations was courtesy of Iverson Movie ranch, Chatsworth California. Watch for the live action Superman fly through animation. Noel Neil was kept for the famous George Reeves TV show in the 50's.*Emotion- I just found this VHS double tape 40's matinée serial and thoroughly enjoyed viewing it. Great to see the WW2 vintage cars and clothes fashions of this fine show. It was well edited, shot, written and expertly acted. Great and interesting Superman/Kent casting. I always felt that in the 50's Superman TV show, the actor's Clark being the same actor as Superman was a mistake, but it worked. Also I found out that the makers of Superman copyright sued and won against the copyright holders of Captain Marvel. It was a battle against Superman was lost and as part of the Superman winning settlement was that Capt Marvel took a cash settlement to stop making it's projects. Captain Marvel disappeared from the popular minds. Republic Pictures is back and re-releasing their archive of films. The home studio of early John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and other matinée serials was in the present CBS Radford studio lot in Studio City, CA. The flying figure on a wire of CM was done and the same as Republic's 50's Commander Cody's rocket pack shows. The show still manages to hold-up in today's superheroes and was refreshing to see the stunt work and physical special effects and NO over used CGI.

Despite years of immersion in various aspects of the Superman character, I've only just now seen one of the Kirk Alyn serials. I'm not a huge fan of serials, but I've enjoyed several. This one is shot pretty effectively, but what a chore to get through. Primary culprit: Kirk Alyn. Granted, I'm extremely biased in favor of George Reeves's portrayal of the character. And granted, I think that Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, and Brandon Routh all did fine work in the same role. But I was unprepared for how bad Kirk Alyn was. Much has been made of his "balletic grace," his experience as a dancer, but I found these aspects the most ludicrous when it came to playing Superman. Alyn comes off as unmasculine and sort of child-like, neither of which stands him in good stead as the greatest superhero of all. He kind of bounces around, waving his arms and grinning sort of dopily, coming off more like a horribly miscast Tinkerbell than the Man of Steel. Carol Forman must be the worst actor in the history of serial villains (that's saying something), and she manages to make the actors around her look like the Royal Shakespeare Company. Tommy Bond is a bit tougher and a bit nastier than any subsequent Jimmy Olsen. Noel Neill is cute and perky and easily distinguished from Meryl Streep. Pierre Watkin's Perry White is incredibly one-note (though he does get to have a fistfight and fall out a window!) The story is not complex enough to fill out even one chapter, let alone fifteen. And worst of all, Superman doesn't even do much that's super. Some bullets bounce off him, and he flies (sort of), but even the Fifties TV series, on a fraction of the budget, managed some spectacular effects. This was just boring, and could have been about a big Boy Scout instead of a superhero. Which is kind of the way Alyn plays it.

If you've read any reviews of this first set of serials, most of them say the same thing. Superman turns into a cartoon (which I found fun!), the acting is wonderful, and the adventure is a real good yarn.The problem is the Spider Lady. Not an interesting character, and she doesn't really give Superman enough challenges. The same 2 thugs seem to be beat up and nearly caught in every episode, and the plot really gets sluggish between episodes 9 through 13, and then picks up at 14 to a quick finish at episode 15.The best are the first few--krypton, Jor-El, the Kents, Superman first meets Kryptonite, early use of his vision, 'up up and away,' etc.--and the last 2 episodes.The 2nd serial set is superior, but this is still great fun to look at from time to time.