Dude has been flying around for almost 100 years and it shows.
So, I needed something to pick me
up after the week we’ve had (deaths of Sir Patrick Stewart and Eric Bauza) and
I figured that nothing could do that better than a good old fashion Superman
story. So we’re going all the way back to the 1940s with the Fleisher
Superman movie. This movie is a compilation of short films that Fleisher
directed across the 1940s. So, there will be a couple stories included. This
movie also came out WAY before Superman’s canon got really established, so be
prepared for some “Wait, that’s not right…” moments. Let’s watch.
Oh, and I’m breaking this into two
parts, just because there are a LOT of shorts and it’s just a lot of Golden Age
Superman to watch in one go.
The Mad Scientist
We open with a brief history of
Krypton, it was a beautiful green planet that was destroyed by tectonic upheaval,
and the lone survivor was a baby fired from a rocket to Earth. The baby was
found by a passing motorist, who dropped the child off at an orphanage. Ya,
guess we’re skipping even the Kents in this story. He eventually grew into
Superman, faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and
capable of leaping over a tall building in a single bound. All that jazz. He created
the identity of Clark Kent and started working at a “Great Metropolitan
newspaper.” It’s WEIRD not hearing the usual names.
Clark and Lois Lane are called in
by Mr. White, their editor to cover a story. He shows them a ransom note from a
‘madman’ that is going to use an “electrothenasia” death ray at midnight to
destroy the city. Mr. White wants Clark to back Lois up on this case, but Lois takes
a grunt of thought as approval to cover the story on her own and then runs off
before they can stop her. Clark points out that this is a rather dangerous
mission before the scene cuts. We see Lois get in a flight suit and take off in
a plane… kay.
We cut to an evil lair somewhere
where the mad scientist prepares his death ray along with his pet crow. He’s
interrupted by Lois’ plane touching down right in front of his front door and
Lois knocking. The scientist and his crow immediately kidnap Lois and tie her
to a chair so she can watch him destroy the city. He powers up his death ray,
and we see him fire it from his mountaintop lair and strike a bridge. The
bridge is destroyed. Clark hears about the destruction on the radio and says,
“This looks like a job for Superman.” He then calmly walks into the stockroom
and changes his clothes before carefully sneaking out and leaping from the
building.
Before he can get very far, the
scientist uses the death ray on the News building, so he has to quickly circle
back and stop the building from toppling. After straightening the building, all
the while holding off the ray, Superman turns his attention to the ray
specifically. He pushes it back for a bit before the scientist increases the
power. Superman is briefly brought to his knees, but then he rallies and starts
punching the ray back. He punches it all the way back to the cannon and then
bends the cannon to block the flow. The ray is destroyed; Superman grabs Lois
and they all flee the building. The scientist tries to escape, but Superman
grabs him and he leaps back to town. He throws the scientist in a jail cell and
Lois publishes a story about it. Mr. White congradulates Lois on the story,
Lois says it’s all thanks to Superman, and Clark winks at the camera before the
screen fades out.
The weird sidekick crow just kind
of disappears after they escape the evil lair. I’ve no idea why he was even
there.
The Mechanical Monster
After a quick recap of Superman’s
powers and secret identity, we get on with the story. A mysterious flying robot
is stealing from a bank for a new mad scientist. The robot initially looks like
a plane but once is lands we see that it’s a pretty traditional giant robot
with a propeller it grows from its neck to help it fly. It drops off the money,
and we see that it’s one of dozens of robots.
We then see a newspaper front page
touting a gem exhibition that is going on in (City). It boasts the show will
have 50 Million dollar’s worth of rare gems. There’s also a line that special
precautions are being made to combat the mechanical monster.
Clark and Lois are at the event.
Clark is reporter in charge, but Lois sneaks in to try to scoop him. Before
they can do anything, though, the Mechanical Monster attacks. The robot is
immune to bullets, and it breaks in to steal the jewels. Lois pulls Clark away
asking if he wants to get trampled. The robot loads up on gems while Clark
calls the story into Perry White. Lois takes the opportunity to slip away and
get inside the robot’s pack. Clark sees Lois is gone, so swaps into his
Superman suit. He flies… sorry, leaps and glides after the robot. He uses his
X-Ray vision and sees Lois inside the robot. He tries to save her, but the mad
scientist gets an alert that the robot is being tampered with, so he hits a
button that makes the robot throw Superman off and accidentally drops much of
the loot. Not Lois, though. Superman falls on some electrical wire and is
stunned temporarily by the current.
She is dropped off at the secret
lab and sees the dozens of robots. The mad scientist threatens Lois, demanding
to know what happened to the jewels. She says he can read about it in the paper
tomorrow, and he threatens her.
Superman frees himself from the
cables and goes after Lois. The mad scientist puts Lois in an elaborate death
trap, lowering her into a liquid hot vat of metal, when Superman busts down his
door. The mad scientist activates all of his Mechanical monsters, and they
menace Superman with fire and metal fists. Superman takes out the robots one by
one until they’re all destroyed. The Mad Scientist flees into the lower chamber
where he’s lowering Lois. He tries to cut the cable and drop Lois into the vat,
but Superman is too fast and he saves her. The mad scientist tries to drop the
boiling metal on Superman, but he is, ya know, invincible, so it doesn’t work.
He grabs Lois and then the Scientist and leaps away. The scientist is jailed,
Lois writes the story, but thanks Superman for it, and Clark nods at the
camera.
Billion Dollar Limited
Recap on Superman, and then to the
story. We see a newspaper article about a billion dollars in gold being moved
to the mint. This is 1940, so that’s an even more insane amount of money that
it would be today.
We see the gold get loaded onto the
train as Clark says goodbye to Lois. He apologizes for not being able to come
with her, but he’s got another story to cover. She says it’s fine, she’ll see
him at the office. We cut over to some thugs in a car. They mask up and hit a
button, turning their normal car into a high-speed racer. Clark waves goodbye
to Lois and is nearly hit by the car as it drives by.
Lois works on her story as the
masked men attack the train. They separate the main engine from the car with
most of the security and then try to stop the train. Lois gets up to the front
of the car, and when the goons fire on her, she grabs a machine gun and fires
back. Lois can’t stop the train, obviously, but news of the runaway train
spreads until Clark hears it, so he Superman’s up and goes to save the day.
The crooks set up a plot to stop
the train, send it toward a car full of explosives, but Superman arrives and he
pulls the tracks up and moves the train to the other line. They then try to
blow the bridge, but Superman catches the train and puts it back on the tracks.
They then throw a rocket on the train. Superman is too slow to stop it, so he
grabs Lois and leaps off the train. The rocket explodes and the train starts
hurtling backwards. Superman puts Lois down and he grabs the train, pulling it
forward. The thugs throw tear gas grenades at Superman, which does cause him to
slip and almost lose control of the train, but he recovers. They try shooting
him… but when has that ever worked? He speeds up, rushing past them and
bringing the train all the way to the mint. Rince and repeat the ending, Lois
writes a story, she compliments Superman, and Clark gives a knowing grin at the
camera.
The Arctic Giant
Rather than a newspaper article,
the narrator tells us that some scientists discovered a huge creature in the
depths of frozen Siberia. They bring it out from the ice and bring it to (City)
to be displayed. It is the first time the creature has been seen by man as it
is from the Mesozoic era. The monster is labelled a Tyrannosaurus… but that’s a
dragon.
We move over to the Daily Planet
(Hey, it’s named this time!). Mr. White gets a call warning him that if the
monster defrosts, it could come back to life. Because. Mr. White calls up Lois
and tells her to get on this case. Clark offers to go with Lois, but she turns
him down, saying that he scares so easily he might pass out if he sees the
monster. Clark shrugs and says “Superman hasn’t fainted yet.
An engineer shows Lois the
refrigeration until, but accidentally leaves an oil can in the wrong place. It
falls, breaking the refrigeration unit and the monster thaws. “Boy what a
story!” Lois says. Everyone but Lois evacuates as the monster thaws, because
Lois. The dragon frees itself and starts rampaging. After some panicked cop
calls, Clark suits up and goes to save the day. He frees the trapped civilians
before finding Lois and freeing her. He tells her to return to the office where
it’s safe. She agrees, but then says “And miss the best story in years? Fat
chance.”
The monster breaks through a dam as
it heads out to sea. Superman grabs a mountain and blocks the hole. The monster
walks through a bridge. Superman grabs the end and fixes the bridge. The
monster heads toward a stadium, just as Lois pulls up to it. Superman grabs
some cable and hurls it at the beast, catching it like a bola. Lois gets
grabbed by the creature and almost swallowed. Superman saves her and tells her
to stay put this time. “Yes Milord,” god, this woman has ALWAYS been sarcastic,
I love it. Superman captures the monster. Lois writes a story about it, Clark
compliments the story, she asks where he was, and he gives the camera a knowing
look as he says, “Me? Well, I must have fainted.”
The Bulleteers
We open on the Police Headquarters
of (City) as it’s hit by a mysterious rocket car. The news gets to Mr. White,
who calls in Lois and Clark. Mr. White starts to tell them that he wants them
to cover the story, when the rocket car owners do a broadcast saying that
they’ll destroy the whole city with their rocket car unless they get the city’s
entire treasury. Lois and Clark interview the mayor, who says that Law and
Order will stand. They set up a lot of national guards, barricades and weapons
and prepare for the worst. Lois prints the story about how the city is ready
for the bullet car and the Bulleteers say “bet.”
They launch their fabulous rocket
car and destroy the powerplant. The city grinds to a standstill and Lois races
off to get the story. Clark, left behind, switches to Superman and leaps into
the air. The Bulleteers head for a building, Superman gets in the way and
punches them out of the way. The Bulleteers race around the sky, destroying
buildings and covering Lois’ car in rubble. Superman saves her, leaps up and
throws oof the Bulleteers flight path. They throw him of and hit another
building. Superman tries to stop them but is buried tin the rubble. Lois
follows the Bulleteers to the treasury, sneaks into their rocket car and starts
smashing the controls. They get back in as Superman frees himself. He leaps
onto the car and starts bending the wing of it. They retract the wings and try
to go faster. Superman climbs onto the top of the car, rips open the top, grabs
everyone and leaps away. Lois writes a story, Clark compliments her, and she
says, “It was easy, thanks to Superman.”
The Magnetic Telescope
We open on a mountain side where a
giant U shaped magnet is pointed to the sky and powered up. We cut to the Daily
Planet where Perry white asks Lois and Superman what they think. They think
it’s dangerous and hope that nothing goes wrong. The magnet pulls something
from the sky, and it crashes through the city and into the bay.
The Mayor orders the professor in
charge to shut down the experiment. The professor refuses, saying that he is
going to use his mighty magnetic telescope to capture a comet, study it, and
then send it back out into space. The cops try to stop him, but he seals off
his chamber from them. He powers up the telescope and draws the comet towards
them. The cops, being idiots, attack the power supply for the magnet, shutting
it down and giving the professor no way to send the comet back. Rocks start
raining down on the city. Lois, who’d been there the whole time, calls Mr.
White to let him know what is going on. Sensing that’s his cue, Clark heads
out. He’s driven in a cab towards the telescope, but a falling meteor stops the
car. Clark changes into his costume in the backseat and flies out. He saves
Lois and then leaps up to try to knock the comet back. It’s too powerful,
though and he gets knocked aside. More fragments fall and destroy the city.
Superman recovers and flies at the comet again and is once again thrown off. He
falls into the power chamber and uses his powers to fix it, giving the magnetic
telescope power again. He tells Lois to use the controls and she fires it up.
She sends the comet back into space. In the dark, she runs over to Superman and
calls him wonderful before giving him a peck on the lips. Clark, because he’s a
bit of prankster, swapped back to his normal clothes and says that she’s pretty
wonderful herself. Lois asks how he got there, and he says it’s thanks to
Superman, winking at us.
Electric Earthquake
We open on (City) bay where we drop
into the water and see cables stuck to everything. We follow the cables to an
underwater pod that sends a tub upward. A man gets out and takes a boat towards
the city.
At the Daily Planet, the man has an
interview with Mr. White, Lois and Clark. He tells them that he demands that
Manhattan be vacated as it belongs to his people… ohhh, he’s an evil Native
American. Weird. They tell him he’s crazy and he walks off in a huff, saying
that modern science will prove his point. Lois, being Lois, sneaks after the
man and gets into his boat. He drives to his lab, notices Lois and tells her to
follow him, as she wouldn’t want to miss this story. He takes her into his lab
and straps her to a chair, as a precautionary measure. He powers up his device
and extends a periscope. He tells Lois to prepare for the biggest story of her
career. He flips a switch, and it sends energy through the cable and causes a
massive earthquake.
Clark and Mr. White evacuate the
Daily Planet, Clark says, “This looks like a job for Superman!” and switches
into his costume. He flies into the bay, follows a flow of electricity through
the cables and tries to stop it from detonating. It doesn’t work, but he keeps
trying. He rips cables free, but the electricity keeps exploding. He follows
the cables back to the lab and starts ripping them free, destroying the
machine. The mad scientist fleas, leaving Lois trapped. Superman tries to go
after him, but he’s briefly trapped by the suction of the water flowing into
the lab. He escapes, grabs the scientist, but he warns him a girl is still down
there. Superman goes down to free Lois, and the scientist sends a bomb down
after them. He frees Lois, escapes the bomb, grabs the villain and sees him
arrested. Clark later says that the island looks as good as ever, and Lois
says, “Yes, thanks to Superman!”
Volcano
We open with exposition about a
volcano called Monokoa that three hundred years ago erupted and destroyed a
city. In the centuries since, a new city has sprung up, and they’re now
detecting new seismic waves. Clark and Lois are sent in to interview the
scientists. Mr. White gives Clark and Lois their tickets and tells them to try
to work together for once.
They head to the volcano, Lois is
able to get in, but Clark “lost” his press pass, so he has to go back for a new
one. Lois obviously has it, she’s just being cheeky. Clark heads in to get his
new pass as Lois gets the rundown on the plan to protect the city from the
lava. Unfortunately, the Volcano erupts early. They try to set off the
explosives to create a path for the lava to drain into, but the machines are
damaged. Clark sees all of this and goes, “This looks like a job for Superman.”
He changes and flies up to stop the eruption. He hurls balls of magma into the
ocean as Lois tries to scale down the volcano on a cable car line. Superman is
briefly disabled by the heat but recovers and saves Lois. He grabs the cable
car full of explosives and hurls it at the volcano, blocking the lava. He
returns Lois to the docks and then flies up to set off more of the explosives.
When the trigger doesn’t work, he forces the lines together, setting them off.
The lava flows into the water, ending the danger of the explosion.
Clark and Lois head back to the
mainland. Clark compliments Lois on her writing, and Lois makes a snappy come
back about how it’s a shame he wasn’t there. He notices his press pass in Lois’
purse and laughs that he might have been if he had that pass. Dude is a good
sport about these things.
Terror on the Midway
We open on, obviously, a midway. We
see carnival games and sideshow attractions as Clark and Lois take photos of
the circus for a story. Lois heads into the big top for the show, and a large
gorilla seems to pay special attention to Lois. The woman can never have a
normal night out. Clark leaves… because.
As the show starts, a misbehaving
monkey pulls a cable and frees the gorilla. The gorilla enters the big top,
interrupting an elephant conga line and other performances. The gorilla snarls
and everyone starts to panic. The Gorilla, Gigantic, gets tangled in ropes by
the circus security, but he breaks free and destroys more of the circus.
Clark sees cop cars racing towards
the midway and heads back that way. In a taxi. I swear this man is always
forgetting he can FLY!
Lois stays behind to take pictures
of Gigantic and helps a little girl escape. Clark arrives and forces his way
through the panicking crowd to try to get ot Lois. He stops to help calm a
rampaging elephant. Bullets start flying and it’s only then that Clark suits
up. He wrestles a panther into submission and puts it in its cage. He catches
more animals as Gigantic chases Lois. The Gorilla almost gets Lois, but
Superman leaps to her aide. The struggle with the gorilla causes a fire to
break out. Superman beats the Gorilla with a good sock to the jaw and throws
him in the acrobats’ safety net before grabbing Lois and then putting out the
fire. Lois types up the story, Clark compliments lucky Lois, and thanks
Superman she got to write it.
I think we’ll stop there for
tonight. There’s still another hour worth of shorts on the Complete Superman
Collection movie, but again, it’s just a lot of Golden Age Superman to digest.
It’s not bad, really, it’s just… 1940s. It was interesting to see how elements
of the character developed as the shorts went on. By the time the third short
aired, they’d finally named the Daily Planet. And as Superman was animated
flying more and more, we see the classic, “Faster than a Speeding Bullet, More
Powerful than a Locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!”
updated to “Able to fly higher than any plane.” I don’t know why the plane line
is less impressive than super leaping, but it is. There’s really not much to
say about Lois and Clark in these shorts as they’re not really doing much in
terms of character. Just about all the shorts involve Lois getting in danger
covering a story, Clark saying, “This looks like a job for Superman!” and then
saving the day. This isn’t a bad formula, especially for shorts, but it leaves
me little to work with in terms of analysis. They’re both well-acted, they’re
played by Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander, their voice actors for the Superman
radio drama. As the series goes on, they’ll be replaced by Lee Royce and
Barbara Wilcox, due to some behind the scenes issues and funds drying up. It is
also weird to see all of the mad scientists and villains that Superman battles
throughout the shorts run. Almost all of them are nameless, and most of the
villains could be swapped out for any other. But this was in the early days of
Superman, I suppose, so a lot of his more iconic villains simply hadn’t been
made yet. It made me laugh to see how much Superman’s power fluctuates between
stories. Sometimes he’s strong enough to hurl mountains, other times a Gorilla
is more than a match for his strength. Just some fun, Golden Age inconsistency.
It’s still a fun set of stories to watch, and I highly recommend them. Next
time, the second half of the shorts. Have a good night and stay safe.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u2761062/posts/review-fleisher-173924498
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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