Film #025 - Superman (1948)
The serial Superman marked the debut of the Man of Steel in live action and would help define the character for many years. Even the portrayals by George Reeves and Christopher Reeve, both of whom far outshone Alyn, owe something to his version.
The first thing that impressed me about Superman when I originally watched it was the opening episode: “Superman Comes to Earth”. In less than twenty minutes the entire history of Superman, from the destruction of Krypton to his formative years in Kansas to his job at the Daily Planet is covered. (This feat is replicated - with a bit more detail - in the first episode of Adventures of Superman.) It’s all done very well until one, particular point: when Krypton explodes. It is here that we meet the achilles heel of Superman: animation.
In 1948, the prospect of mounting a huge production like Superman was an expensive undertaking. And in those days, DC Comics didn’t have the might of Warner Bros./TimeWarner behind it. Instead, Columbia Pictures undertook the task. But serials were not a priority for Columbia (unlike at, say, Republic) and they decided that instead of creating costly special effects, they would use animation. So, after a huge buildup, a cartoon rocket flies away from a cartoon explosion. Bummer.
This carries over into the rest of the serial, as all of Superman’s flying is handled through animation (apparently by Fleischer Studios, known for their earlier “Superman” cartoons). It’s a major distraction and helps bring down the overall production. It’s simply impossible to accept, when Republic had accomplished simulated flight so effectively seven years earlier in The Adventures of Captain Marvel.
But that aside, Superman still has other problems. Primarily, it is the villain (or villainess, I suppose): The Spider Lady. She’s just not a reasonable foe for Superman. She’s basically a crime lord with a few high-tech toys at her command. But she fails to display the menace seen in other serials (including the sequel to this one, Atom Man vs. Superman - which had Lex Luthor). The other problem is the regular re-use of footage (mostly Clark turning into Superman and/or taking off) that would have been blatantly obvious even if watched one episode per week. (The same footage is sometimes used more than once in a single episode.)
Aside from the disappointing villain, the rest of the cast does fine. Alyn proves to be a fine Superman and a decent Clark Kent. He comes off a bit too smarmy as Clark for my tastes, but does a good job of differentiating between the two sides of the character’s personality. Noel Neill portrays Lois Lane with a lot of “spunk” and a harder edge than she would bring to the character on Adventures of Superman. But she also seems a bit dimmer, too easily falling for traps. Tommy Bond’s Jimmy Olsen is justifiable best remembered for being kocked unconscious throughout the serial and Pierre Watkin’s Perry White shows little characterization other than shouting. But neither is awful or does anything to take too much away from their respective characters.
In the end, Superman lays the groundwork for all the major Superman adaptations that follow. Unlike, say, Batman, whose stories usually start out with him in full swing, they all seem to want to tell the whole story, right from the beginning, just as this serial did. Clark and Superman’s very different personalities were not as strong in the comics before the serial and that would become a major factor in later years. As a first try at the character, Superman is pretty good. It’s just been heavily overshadowed in the years since.