Superman (1948)

While Kirk Alyn brought a lot of fun to the role of Superman, this serial, cheap like most, has a lackluster villain and some really cheap effects. Still the character of Superman is done well and the supporting cast is decent.

Seasoned serial directors Spencer Gordon Bennett and Thomas Carr contended with several complications to bring the DC Comics' character Superman to the silver screen as a live-action yarn. This serial contained 15 episodes. The weaknesses grow out in the primitive technology and the lackluster, sometimes sloppy scriptwriting. Ultimately, despite its distinction as the first screen appearance of the Man of Tomorrow, "Superman" ranks as a lame serial with fleeting moments of humor. The story suffers from lapses of logic the size of a black hole. Performances are good enough, considering the sketchy characterization. Kirk Alyn looks like Clark Kent's double. Alyn makes a better impression as the perspicuous Clark Kent than he does Superman with his booming voice. His Superman behaves as if he were rehearsing for the ballet after he dons his distinctive outfit. He tilts his arms away from his hips as if he were performing a balancing act. Of course, this serial was designed for adolescents whose critical faculties lacked sophistication. Noel Neill plays a smart aleck Lois Lane. She likes to play jokes on Clark. Tommy Bond makes his Jimmy Olsen a presumptuous pup who typically succumbs to the first blow that a henchman delivers. Pierre Watkin is feisty as cigar-smoking Daily Planet editor Perry White. I. Stanford Jolley has a bit part as a skeptical jailer. The humorous finale when White, Olsen, and Lois find Clark sleeping and he claims that he was dreaming about being Superman is cute. Of course, Superman doesn't kiss Lois and Lois doesn't daydream about the Last Son of Krypton the way she did in the graphic counterpart.Initially, neither leading man Kirk Alyn nor the special effects crew could conjure up a way to make Superman fly. Producer Sam Katzman resorted to the alternative of cartoon Superman. Any feats of derring-do that Alyn couldn't physically perform, the cartoon Superman carries out. Usually, Superman is shown flying, but one time he smashes through a wall. This novel effect of morphing an individual into a cartoon is clever. Sometimes, the transitions are neat. When Alyn leaps toward the camera, the filmmakers reverse the perspective so that his cartoon counterpart appears sweeping over our heads and to fly into the image. This gimmick, however, serves to undermine your "willing suspension of disbelief." Furthermore, whenever the cartoon Superman lands, he touches down behind objects such as trees, rocks, buildings, or other obstructions. This exemplifies the 'Texas Switch' where a stunt does the stunt and then disappears behind something without revealing his face and the actor walks out. At the heart of any serial were the inevitable cliffhanger conclusions. For example, as his first feat of heroism, Superman prevents a train from derailing by bending the rail back into conformity. Bennett and Carr put the action on pause with a train bearing down on Superman. The common complaint about most serials is the heroes appear in jeopardy, but they are rarely in jeopardy. In other words, like skilled magicians, Bennett and Carr set up predicaments that generate considerable suspense and tension. Unfortunately, they don't consistently pay off these incidents with credible resolutions. Superman spends his most of his time rescue Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen from peril. This complaint concerns Superman's incredible escape from Kryptonite in the final chapter. Sometimes, they goof up the cliffhangers as when Jimmy Olsen hides in a packing crate and the consequences are depicted inconsistently. First, two men are shown firing into the packing crate and in the next episode only one man is shooting at the packing crate while his accomplice is just climbing out the truck to admire his handiwork!As a narrative, "Superman" works best when The Man of Steel demonstrates his unique abilities. Unfortunately, Superman is rarely called on to do anything truly extraordinary like he did in the Max Fleischer cartoons. Alyn doesn't swap blows with ray guns; keep skyscrapers from falling, or battle robots. Indeed, he does save a woman by flying with her in his arms from a smoke-filled house. When he peers into the camera, we see his X-ray vision penetrating opaque objects. Naturally, when he is ogling Lois, his vision doesn't undress her. Typically, Clark Kent must conceal himself before he changes his wardrobe. The chapter where he is imprisoned for stealing Lois' car creates an interesting challenge and serves efficiently to conceal his transition. Scenarists George H. Plympton and Joseph F. Poland pit the Man of Steel against the treacherous 'Spider Lady.' She is a harmless looking dish in a wig with a cocktail party mask that exposes her nose. Hardly a disguise! We never learn her true identity. The villainous Spider Lady is after the Relatively Reducer Ray, a weapon whose potential far exceeds the destructive capability of an atomic bomb. An unscrupulous scientist Dr. Hackett (Charles Quigley) abets her in her criminal endeavors. Of course, neither are matches for the Man of Tomorrow. The filmmakers do a fine job of establishing Superman's origins on planet Krypton with his father warning his peers about their impending disaster. Bennett and Carr have neatly encapsulated Superman's upbringing with Ebem Kent and his wife. Ebem is a pipe-smoking good old boy who doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth when he sees it. The childless couple appropriate the baby. They raise Superman and exhort him to protect "truth, justice, and tolerance." As an adult, Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman, tangles with the Spider Lady. She manages to hold sway over several men who could easily overpower her. Sadly, the scenarists don't provide the Spider Lady with any backstory. She kidnaps the scientist, Dr. Graham (Herbert Rawlinson of "Perils of Nyoka"), and forces him against his will to operate the Reducer Ray. Later, Graham refuses to cooperate, and Hackett devises some mysterious way of coercing him.Happily, the heinous Spider Lady gets her just comeuppance in her own web of intrigue. Although she never actually kills anybody, she orders the deaths of several characters without a qualm.

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.

Superman, the 15-chapter serial, is the best of it's kind. Kirk Alyn is excellent as Superman/Clark Kent, Noel Neill is the best Lois Lane ever to hit the screen, Carol Forman makes Spider Lady one of the most hated serial villains of all time!Some say that the animation is terrible, but I'd prefer it over using real people. The special effects are very amusing, and Mischa Bakaleinikoff's musical score fits the themes of the movie perfectly.The story goes like this, Jor-El is the only scientist who knows that the planet Krypton is going to explode. He builds a rocket and sends his son far off to the planet earth before the doomed planet explodes. Clark grows up and moves to Metropolis, where he becomes better known as Superman. As Superman he fights for "Truth, Justice, and Tolerance", but the evil Spider Lady plans to destroy everything he represents.I give it 10/10 Stars