Movie Monday Supplemental - Parting Thoughts on Atom Man vs. Superman

So now that the second serial is over, what more is there to say about it?

First and foremost, of course, is that despite taking so much inspiration from the radio serial, this serial bears absolutely no plot relationship to one of the most popular and long-running storylines of the radio series, in which Superman fought Atom Man, the Nazi agent powered by a Kryptonite solution injected into his veins.

Second is that this series managed to jack up the spectacle by cheating as much as possible. By reusing as much effects footage as possible from the previous serial along with using stock footage of several natural disasters, the producers were able to pack every episode with action while saving up their money for the really big effects in the last few chapters: the flood, the flying saucers, the missile, the rocket ship. Between that and the futuristic menace of the teleporting villains, Atom Man vs. Superman feels a lot more super than the first serial.

Also, and this is pretty significant, this serial may be the only comic book adaptation of the serial era to actually use a villain from the comics. Captain Marvel, Captain America, Batman, and even Superman in his first outing battled generic serial master villains who had never appeared in the comics. And though Superman would next star in a long-running television series, not one villain from the comics appeared there. Brainiac, Luthor, Toymaker, Mr. Mxyzptlk: they were all ignored in favor of generic gangsters. Not counting any of the animated series, Superman would not face another villain from the comics onscreen until he faced Luthor again in the Richard Donner film we'll discuss in two weeks. So that was one significant thing this serial did right.

That being said, Kirk Alyn still makes an underwhelming lead. It's not just the way he moves, either. There are scenes where he's got this goofy grin on his face like he's not all there, and there are other scenes where he seems to be having trouble with his teeth or something; his mouth twists funny when he delivers his dialogue.

And that's not counting the inconsistencies in the writing, when the writers seem to forget that he's just as super when he's Clark Kent as when he's in costume as Superman. One of the cooler moments in the series is when Clark uses his super-thumb to dent a coin to make it look as if it was struck by a bullet. One of the dumber moments is when Clark spends 25 seconds changing clothes when a plane crash is imminent, just so he can rescue a fainted Lois and change back before she wakes up.

Not the mention all the times the writers simply invent new super-powers to get Superman out of a jam, like being able to divine the combination of a safe merely by spinning a dial or control an electric typewriter with the power of his ghostly mind. This wasn't unique to the movies, of course. They did it in the comics of the time as well. Superman gets cornered by Lois who's sure she has proved he is Clark Kent, and whoops, suddenly he has the power of Super-Ventriloquism! Nor was it unique to the 40's and 50's. Superman was still coming up with weird one-shot powers even in the films of the 70's and 80's, like ripping the "S" shield off his chest and using it to trap Ursa (but we'll get to that in a few weeks).

One other thing that becomes apparent is that, at the time, Superman was way cooler than Batman. I mean, since the late 80's, when first the Tim Burton movie and then the Bruce Timm animated series redefined Batman in the eyes of the viewing public, Batman has been perceived as this edgy, cool character while Superman was this boring whitebread straight arrow who only got any kind of attention at all because he could just do anything. Batman had the interesting origin, the psychological hang-ups, the cool gadgets, the epic villains, and the moody atmospherics. Superman was a farmboy who could fly. Yawn.

But back in the day, it was Superman who was by far the more interesting character of the two for audiences. I mean, compare these serials to the two Batman ones. Superman stopped fires and floods, got sent into space, bounced bullets off his chest, got zapped with heat rays, shot by missiles and electrocuted. Though both Luthor and the Spider Lady had a pretty shallow menu of plot options (announce your plans over police band radio, then capture Lois Lane to lure Superman into a trap), the chapter endings themselves featured a wide range of perils. By contrast, Batman and Robin were constantly getting into fistfights (that they usually lost), then running their car off a cliff. It got old.

And why was this true? Two reasons. Number one, despite the adage that Superman stories were intrinsically boring because Superman's only dilemma was figuring out who to hit, his powers gave the writers great flexibility in coming up with varied situations to throw him into. And more importantly, number two (cue sound of broken record), his supporting cast--the one developed for and lifted from the radio series--was more interesting. Lois, Jimmy and Perry formed a group dynamic of varied personalities that you just didn't get with Robin, Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, and whoever Batman's girlfriend was this week.

Which is why it was over 15 years between the second Batman serial and his next live-action appearance on a weekly television series, while for Superman, the transition was almost immediate.

But more on that next week.

Movie Monday - Atom Man vs. Superman, Chapters 12-15

This is it! The titanic conclusion to Atom Man Vs. Superman, the second Columbia serial from 1950, starring Kirk Alyn. And before we get into Chapter 12, "Atom Man Strikes," I must say I'm confused so far. I mean, I thought sequels were supposed to be bigger and more elaborate than their predecessors, but so far, this sequel has been cutting corners at every opportunity. I mean, even more than your usual serial. Reusing special effects, exploiting stock footage of natural disasters, and even inserting several minutes of Superman's origin from the previous serial into one chapter. What gives?

Speaking of exploiting stock footage, in the last chapter, Superman had headed upstate to rescue people from a stock footage flood. Then Lois, in an attempt to make an "epic of TV reporting," ended up trapped in the truck as rushing waters from a burst dam rushed down at her. As the new chapter opens, Superman swoops down and...

So that's where all the money went. Given the way the miniature truck flies, I'm guessing this miniature was not reused footage from some other movie but was built especially for this production. So Superman saves the truck and Lois, and for once, she's not smiling inappropriately seconds later. She actually seems to have a reaction to this near-death experience.

Superman notices the secret compartment inside the truck and asks Lois to keep an eye on it, then flies away. When Lois and her crew return to Metropolis, they win Luthor an award for awesome journalism and public service in the TV coverage of the flood, which I guess compensates him for the loss of the TV camera Lois abandoned. As soon as they leave his office, Luthor radios his headquarters. And he's no longer identifying himself as the Atom Man, but now using the call letters "XL." In fact, the whole Atom Man persona with the robe and the glittery mask never appears again. For the rest of the serial, it's just Luthor.

The next day, Lois and crew are doing man-on-the-street interviews again, while the thugs in the secret compartment use the special X-Ray viewer to read the combinations on safes inside stores in the area. Helluva zoom on that thing. Lois ends her live remote spot by sending the viewers "back to the main studio for the time signal." And I know TV news still does the same thing, occasionally giving the time, but wow, the way she says it sounds so formal and antiquated.

The next day, Lois becomes suspicious when she learns that three stores were robbed in locations where she had been doing her live interviews. She calls the Daily Planet to tip off Clark, but Jimmy says he's still upstate covering the flood.

Upstate, Clark is listening to an emergency radio call with the same cop who warned Lois's crew about the bursting dam. There's a fire in a chemical factory and there might be an explosion! Time for Superman to battle some more stock footage!

Superman flies over the burning stock footage factory and lands inside. And I must say, it's pretty cool that the animators had such an eye for detail that they added highlights to account for the light from the fire.

Switch to live action just long enough for Superman to grab a box conveniently labeled "Explosives" and Superman takes off again. And that wonderful eye for detail I just complimented? Not so much this time.

Lois goes back to Luthor's office for her next day's assignment, where she sees him tear a page off a notepad and put it in his pocket. So she surreptitiously swipes the notepad. But as she leaves, two thugs come in from the secret elevator and say they saw her swipe the pad. It has more safe combinations on it, so it must be retrieved.

The thugs chase Lois down the street, where she foils their pursuit by ducking around a pillar, then running into an insurance company where we encounter the Batman corridor!

I don't have screen grabs of the corridor from the other serial, but trust me, this is the same set used for the Norton/Markham building in Batman and Robin. I've missed you, old reused set. Anyway, after another tricky bit with a fire escape, Lois escapes into the Daily Planet building with the note, where she shows it to Clark and Jimmy. Now every schoolkid knows the way you read impressions on a notepad, right? The thing where you lightly color with a pencil lead across the surface of the paper? Lois, Clark and Jimmy have never heard of this trick. Clark suggests letting the photo department somehow try to read the impressions, then simply defaults to super-fill-in-vision.

Meanwhile, the thugs report that Lois got away, so Luthor does the only reasonable thing. He orders his thugs to use the Thermo-Ray to destroy the Daily Planet. The thugs drive out to the Planet building, where they open a panel in the roof and aim the Thermo-Ray... Hey!

It's not the same ray cannon from the previous serial, which was the reused Atomic Disintegrator from the first Batman serial. But it is the same prop as the Teleport Ray we've seen used throughout the serial whenever someone coin-teleports, only with a different mount and barrel.

Anyway, they start zapping the building with it, which causes sparks to fly and papers to burn. Clark changes to Superman and flies out to stop the menace, so the thugs turns the ray on him. He is stunned and falls from the sky onto an electricity generating station. Ouch.

But as Chapter 13, "Atom Man's Flying Saucers," opens, we see that Superman is merely stunned rather than killed. He gathers his wits and leaps back into the sky to fly in the window of Perry White's office, where he announces the danger is over. I have no idea how he thinks that. I mean, he just got zapped out of the sky by a heat ray, then electrocuted. The danger would appear to be far from over.

Back at the truck, it turns out that... the danger is over. As always happens when ray guns are used against Superman, the power has somehow reflected back to the gun, causing it to overheat and shoot sparks. So okay, Superman was right. But how did he know?

Superman points out the departing truck to the Planet gang, although for some reason, the truck's roof is solid, without the sliding panel the thugs used to shoot the Thermo-Ray from. Superman recognized FGD-Alpha standing outside the truck, so he knows they're the Atom Man's men, and the sheet of paper with the safe combinations on it prove Luthor's crooked (although it probably burned when the Thermo-Ray struck). Nevertheless, Superman believes he has enough evidence to haul Luthor in. He tells the Daily Planet folks to follow the truck while he flies to Luthor's office.

At the same time, though, Luthor has already been informed that the destruction of the Daily Planet was a no-go, so he decides to make himself scarce. He grabs some essential papers and tells his secretary that he has been called away "indefinitely"--he's such a considerate boss--then teleports to his cave. Superman's too late!

The thugs call in to Luthor that they're being chased by the police. Luthor orders them to ditch the truck, but leave the power circuit on or something so he can blow it up remotely. They follow orders, abandoning the truck and watching from cover as the police arrive with Lois and Jimmy. As Lois reaches for the door, Superman yells from the sky not to touch the truck. The police and reporters retreat just as the truck is exploding.

Superman then tracks the vibrations of the Destruct-o-Beam back toward Luthor's headquarters, causing the Destruct-o-Beam to (what else?) back up and begin sparking and smoking. Luthor decides he's going to have to abandon the mountain caves soon and use his spaceship to go into orbit (what spaceship? the one he never mentioned before but is almost finished building, apparently).

Back at the Daily Planet, Superman confers with Perry, Lois and Jimmy. He decides that the best way to locate Luthor's lead-lined lair is to have Clark Kent and Lois Lane do an aerial search in an attempt to draw a response from Luthor that would give away the location.

Now, I can see him suggesting Clark go; Clark would be safe from any attack. And I can see him suggesting Lois go; he could fly along and shadow her to make sure she was safe. But what possible reason could he have for suggesting they both go together? It makes no sense.

Anyway, Superman flies off, and Lois for the first time in any chapter of either serial throws a wistful look after him like she's pining for his love. When did Noel Neill decide to turn on the acting chops? And what about poor Jimmy? Oh well, after taking a cheap shot at Clark Kent's cowardliness, she goes out to the newsroom to hunt him up and take him flying. Moments later, they're in the sky over the hills, and Luthor isn't happy about it. So he orders a flying saucer be sent up to take care of them. The flying saucer (singular, despite the chapter title) is fearsome and deadly.

Okay, maybe not fearsome. But certainly deadly when it crashes right into the plane, blowing it up.

But like a lot of serial chapters, the opening of Chapter 14, "Rocket of Vengeance," takes us back in time a step. As the flying saucer approaches, brave, brave Sir Lois screams and faints, leaving Clark free to act. He runs to the back room of the plane to change clothes, then runs back up to the cockpit, grabs Lois, carries her back to the door (this airplane interior, btw, also appeared in Batman and Robin) and jumps out seconds before the saucer collides with the plane.

Got that? Lois not only faints, but faints a full 25 seconds before the collision. And Clark's the cowardly one. Or maybe it was bullet time.

Anyway, Lois comes to just as Clark's zipping up his pants (okay, no, but it would be funny), and Clark tells her that Superman saved them again. Lois asks Clark if he's jealous of Superman, but before Clark can answer, a cop pulls up, and it's the same damn guy, the cop who warned Lois and crew to flee the flood, then told Clark about the fire with the explosives (he has a very distinctive voice). Man, they got their money's worth out of this guy.

Lex Luthor's spaceship isn't ready yet, so he decides to bluff the police into backing off. He broadcasts on the police band that unless the police abandon their search, he's going to destroy the city in an earthquake from his Sonic Vibrator. He then arranges a brief demonstration, including many stock shots of urban destruction.

The Police Chief is in Perry's office debating how to handle this situation, and son of a bitch, the Chief's cigar is lit while poor Perry's sits on his desk, ignored.

Perry can't catch a break. There is a public outcry over the Luthor situation. The men of Metropolis demand the police comply with Luthor's demands so he doesn't turn the Sonic Vibrator back on, while the women are demanding he turn it on for just another minute, because they were so close...

Luthor threatens to destroy the Daily Planet building next, so Clark offers to take a look around outside and changes to Superman. The earthquake strikes, and Superman tries to save the Planet building by hugging it, but it doesn't work as well as it did for the bridge in chapter 1. The Police Chief accedes to Luthor's demands, and the earthquake stops.

Luthor orders that his men redouble their efforts to finish the spaceship, and after he leaves, one of the men mentions that Luthor's starting to go off the deep end. Alber replies that Luthor is the greatest genius in the world and "we're in it with him to the end." Somebody has a crush (shameless plug).

Superman refuses to give up the search, however, as do Lois and Jimmy. They decide to drive around the Culver Hills to search for Luthor's HQ while Superman searches from the air. Luthor is at his desk when he is informed of the searchers. And Luthor's desk has an ashtray on it, which is funny, because Luthor has never been shown smoking. The good guys, like Perry White and the Police Chief, smoke, but Luthor doesn't. That would be completely reversed nowadays.

Anyway, Luthor orders that his men deploy the Atomic Projectile, and here we have yet another bit of reused footage from the previous serial, as the "Atomic Projectile" is the same weapon as the Kryptonite Missile the FGD fired at Superman in the previous serial. Like before, the missile is fired, and Superman catches it and throws it back at them. The two thugs duck into a cave, and the explosion seals them in.

Now Luthor's angry, so he gets on the police band again and says that since the search is still proceeding, he is going to destroy Metropolis with a giant rocket. Huh, launching the rocket uses the exact same controls as the Sonic Vibrator. Who'da thought?

So after a stock footage launch, cartoon Superman jumps onto the cartoon rocket. Back in the studio, Kirk Alyn sits on a rocket mock-up and makes faces as smoke blows past him. Perry orders Jimmy to take a picture, so he grabs the camera and takes it to the window, then drops it and says "You can take it yourself" before running away. And I've got to say this for Tommy Bond. He may have had a grotesque little pushed-in face, and his character may have been an incompetent foil for Superman, but he was the only actor in the entire series to get me to laugh intentionally. Clark's and Lois's attempts at humor were invariably lame, but Jimmy made me laugh a few times. He could sell a joke.

Perry grabs the camera, but doesn't take the picture either, as he is frozen in terror at the sight of the rocket heading right for him. Could this be the end?

Not quite. We have finally arrived at the final chapter, "Superman Saves the Universe," which is a pretty grandiose title. I mean, so far, all Superman has done is foil the plans of one admittedly brilliant inventor , but mediocre crook. It's quite a leap to jump from that to saving the universe. I'm guessing the title might be a slight exaggeration. Let's see.

After making faces doesn't work, Superman decides to use his cape as a sail to turn the rocket off its course.

And what do you know? It works! The rocket flies over the Daily Planet building and out to sea, where it collides with some stock footage of an A-bomb test. Luthor's gang start to panic, because there's nothing to stop Superman from coming after them now. But Luthor says he still has a trick up his sleeve and cuts loose with a brief, but pretty creditable attempt at a crazy evil laugh.

Later, a package is delivered to Lois, with a note that says, "From an Admirer." Lois opens it and oops, it's another teleport coin. And it's not even her birthday. She disappears and materializes in Luthor's cave. He informs her that she is fortunate in that she may end up being the only surviving human woman. Of course, looking at the guys Luthor intends to be the only surviving human men, "lucky" is probably not the word she'd use. The only halfway good-looking one is Alber, and he only has eyes for Luthor.

Luthor orders Alber to take the spaceship into orbit while he sets the Sonic Vibrator to destroy Metropolis. And since Alber's not there to throw the switch, some other nameless henchman does it. Seriously, this guy has not appeared in the serial at all up to this point. It's probably just a random guy from some other serial that they just cut in there.

Of course, before Luthor can start the earthquake, he has to brag about it on the police band radio. Then the vibrations start. Buildings fall and women scream, perhaps even in fear. Superman saves a few people here and there, then heads for the mountains to join the cops in the search for Luthor's machine.

When Luthor learns that Superman is just outside, he decides to call in an earthquake on his own position. FGD-Alpha and sidekick, realizing that a world in which the only woman is Lois Lane is not exactly a fantasy come true either, rebel and try to stop Luthor and shut down the machine.

Meanwhile, outside, Superman is climbing the hillside when a big boulder rolls down toward him. He nimbly steps aside, watching it roll by to crush the cops (okay, we don't actually see it crush the cops, but they were right behind him).

Luthor pulls a gun and manages to keep the henchmen at bay long enough to beam himself and Lois up to the ship. Yes, this cheap serial may have been the first screen depiction of a man beaming up to a spaceship. Put that in your pipe and look for a match to light it with.

Superman arrives seconds later, ignores the useless synthetic Kryptonite and knocks out the henchmen, then flies up after the spaceship. He catches up with it moments later and leaps in through a hole in the floor!

What the hell is that? Is that supposed to be, like, the moon pool in a submerged platform or something? Whatever. Superman grabs Luthor and Lois and leaps back out of the ship, leaving henchmen Alber and Baer, who die when the ship is hit by a meteor and explodes seconds later. Wow, Luthor's lucky Superman arrested him.

Superman drops Lois and Luthor off in Perry White's office so the Planet can get the reward for the capture or something. And later, as Clark and Lois discuss how everything is resolved, Jimmy comes in with a little box of Luthor's Craptonite. Lois immediately opens it and holds it up to Clark's face, not having heard the news that it has lost its mojo. Clark is unaffected and Lois's suspicions are once again proven silly. As they leave the office, Perry searches his pockets for a match to light his cigar and finally finds one. He strikes the match, and it malfunctions, hissing and shooting off sparks. After 15 chapters, the gag finally pays off. Ha!

The End. Finally.

Movie Monday - Atom Man vs. Superman, Chapters 8-11

Here begins Part 3 of our extensive recap of 1950's Atom Man vs. Superman. And in the tradition of Batman and Robin (and since it's Saturday night and I don't begin my first official day on the new job until 3:30 tomorrow afternoon), I'm going to designate this episode as the official Atom Man vs. Superman drinking game. For the sake of self-preservation, I'm not going to drink a whole shot every time I drink, but just take a swallow from this Nyquil I've mixed up (vodka, Chambord, Blue Curacao, and Grenadine--It's purple and really tastes like Nyquil).

So, the ground rules: Drink when the narrator mentions that Superman is "once more" using his X-Ray Vision. Drink when a sequence reuses footage from the previous serial, or when it uses stock footage from a real disaster. Drink when Jimmy is knocked out. Drink when Lois smiles inappropriately. Drink when Perry White can't find a match to light his cigar. Drink when Luthor announces his plans on police band radio. Drink when the Planet plants a fake story. Drink when either Superman or Luthor recognizes a trap, then decides to walk right into it. I could come up with more, like when Superman invents a new power to solve his current problem or when they reuse sets or props from other serials, but those eight will do.

So, when we last saw Superman, he was being dumped into the back of a fake ambulance after being knocked out by Luthor's fake kryptonite. As Chapter 8, "Into the Empty Doom," opens, the ambulance wails away, watched by a mysterious stranger. Could it be the deadly Professor Stone, come to be a real villain?

Nah, just an Innocent Bystander, apparently (gratuitous plug).

Once in Atom Man's secret cave headquarters, Superman is revived and forced to stand under the Main Arc. As Atom Man is preparing to send Superman into the Empty Doom, he asks if Superman has any last words. Superman channels his Inner Arnie and says, "I'll be back."

After Superman has disappeared, Atom Man begins to remove his mask. Will we finally see on-screen proof that Luthor is Atom Man, or will the director continue to play coy? Coy.

Back at the Daily Planet, Lois and Jimmy realize that both Superman and Clark are missing. Then Lois has a frustrating bout with her "darn newfangled typewriter," so Jimmy plugs it in for her. Yes, this will be important later.

With Superman out of the way, a new crime wave strikes Metropolis, and though ghostly Superman tries to stop it, he can't actually do anything.


Meanwhile, Perry White has also noticed the missing Clark, and decides this means that Clark Kent=Superman. He orders Lois to write up the story, which Lois surprisingly balks at. Apparently, all those times she tried to prove Clark was Superman, she was just a dog chasing cars. She heads out to her desk, and Perry searches for a match. DRINK!

So Lois heads out to start on the story. Ghostly Superman tries to grab the paper out of her typewriter, but fails. I think they meant him to seem insubstantial, but the film is misaligned, so he's clearly grabbing several inches to the side. The Empty Doom screws up your depth perception!

She finishes the story and hands it in, but before Perry can get the front page replated, Clark calls in to say he's on the trail of a hot story. Turns out Jimmy Olsen can imitate Clark's voice perfectly, almost as if Kirk Alyn were doing a voiceover. Jimmy and Lois flirt a little afterward, because there are still flashes of romantic chemistry between the two. I wonder if Noel Neill and Tommy Bond ever hooked up off the set?

Suddenly, Lois's typewriter starts typing by itself. Superman has apparently visited that creepy old ghost in the subway, because he can now concentrate his superpowers to move the keys of Lois's electric typewriter. He tells Lois that Atom Man's HQ is in Cave Mountain (the same one where they found "bare rock walls" before). He tells her to go to the police, but she just grabs Jimmy and heads there herself. She even channels her inner action hero by knocking out a guard with her purse.

But once in the cave, she and Jimmy are caught by Atom Man and his thugs. He gives Lois a sporting chance, telling her one of two switches will free Superman, while the other will doom him forever. She tries reading the thugs' faces while reaching for the switches, but one thug stays stone-faced, the other smirks no matter which switch she contemplates, and Atom Man is just a glittery helmet. So she chooses lady AND tiger and throws both at once.

BOOM! goes the Chapter 9, "Superman Crashes Through!"

Lois and Jimmy are knocked out by the blast. Atom Man orders his thugs to dispose of the bodies. So they drag Lois and Jimmy outside, where they run into a couple of repairmen from the electric company. Atom Man has apparently been tapping into power lines illegally, the fiend. The thugs learn not to mess with the power company. These guys obviously belong to the union, because they beat the crap out of the thugs, who run away. And once again, when the union toughs explore the cave, they only find bare rock walls.

Back at the Daily Planet, Superman types another ghostly message to Lois with the power of his crotch.

When Perry sees the message, he phones up a friend at the press association and says he needs help. Soon, headlines appear that Superman has returned from the Empty Doom and will appear on television live to prove it. Luthor doesn't believe it, but he turns his fancy big-screen TV on anyway.

We see Superman stop a couple of thugs in footage reused from the previous serial. DRINK! Is Superman really back?

No, it's just a fake story planted at Superman's request--DRINK!--abetted by a television station (not Luthor's) showing old newsreel footage of Superman's exploits.

But Luthor wants to be sure, so he sends one of his henchmen into the Empty Doom to take a look around and see if Superman's still there. Which of course, he is. There's a chase in space!

Superman catches the thug and tosses him away into oblivion, then rides down the beam back to Earth. One of Luthor's thugs pulls out the synthetic Kryptonite, but it has lost its potency over time. Superman slaps it out of the thug's hand, then knocks Atom Man's head clean off!

DAMN, Supes is hardcore! Oh, it's okay. It's just a robot (convenient). Later, Clark Kent shows up at the Daily Planet, claiming he was saved from the Empty Doom by Superman. He and Perry cook up a plan to prove Luthor is Atom Man.

Perry chews Lois out in front of the entire newsroom, so Lois quits and goes to work for Luthor's TV station. On her first day, doing man-on-the-street interviews for the cameras, there's a robbery in a nearby jewelry store. Clark and Jimmy run off after the robbers, while Lois hands her mike off to a random bystander and steals the Planet car to give chase. Thugs shoot the tire out, and Superman has to stop the car from crashing. Lois gets out, thanking him while smiling as if nothing has happened (DRINK!), and Superman says, apropos of nothing, "You can thank Clark Kent." For what, exactly?

Meanwhile, Jimmy has chased the thugs to a trainyard, where he gets his foot caught as a train approaches. He's doomed! Doomed, I tell you!

Oh, look, Chapter 10, "Atom Man's Heat Ray." Wow, we don't seem to be drinking much so far. The opening theme music has changed slightly for some reason. And Superman once more stops a train instantly without derailing it. But while he's busy saving Jimmy, the thugs coin-teleport away. Clark and Jimmy suspect it was no accident that the robbery happened so close to one of Luthor's TV trucks, or as Clark says, "Luther's" TV truck.

Luthor suspects the same thing and pledges to help catch the crooks. He hires a couple of mooks to get caught robbing a payroll trailer the next day.

Lois visits the Daily Planet, where it's revealed that her quitting was all a ruse. Only now,Lois thinks Luthor is telling the truth. Unfortunately, a thug standing outside the door overhears and tries to blackmail them. He orders Clark to open the safe. Clark tries to fight, but is knocked through the door to Perry's office. Jimmy is knocked out, too. DRINK!

Clark changes to Superman and confronts the thug. The thug shoots, but Superman just lets the bullets bounce off his chest. And looking at his smile, I'd guess he's been drinking a lot more than I have. Plus, he decides to ricochet one of the bullets off his hand, knocking a light fixture down on the thug's head. Ouch!

Superman races out and changes back to Clark. When Lois finds him out on the window ledge, he gives the lamest excuse in the history of lame Clark excuses, which is not something I say lightly.

The next day, the mooks and FGD-Alpha rob the payroll trailer. The mooks get caught, but Alpha flees, pursued by Clark, Lois and Jimmy. Alpha calls Luthor, who tells him to let himself be seen, then lead them into the trap. He lets the trio see him, then ducks into a doorway. As the three reporters enter the room, Alpha hides behind a crate marked "Rubber Life Raft" and coin-teleports away. A steel door slides down to trap the three reporters, and then Luthor pumps in poison gas.

Now, I know I'm not a brilliant criminal mastermind or anything, but it seems kind of counter-productive to me to set up a fake robbery to prove my innocence, only to kill the reporters who were set up to be the witnesses.

Oh, well, who cares? Welcome to Chapter 11, "Luthor's Strategy." Glad to know he has finally come up with one. And I'm still (mostly) sober, darn it.

Clark changes to Superman and inhales all the gas in the room. Then he punches a hole in the steel door and blows the gas outside. He forces the steel door open and carries Jimmy and Lois outside onto a sidewalk covered with dead pigeons and passers-by (okay, not really, but that would be funny).

Later, Clark and Jimmy try to convince Perry that the entire scheme is a big scam being pulled by Luthor to divert suspicion away from him. Perry toys with his cigar and says he doesn't believe it. Could we be about to drink?

Nope, it cuts away to two of Luthor's thugs in a TV truck outside listening in. Drink denied! They report the conversation to Luthor, who is unhappy that Kent is so smart. Funny how Clark is so smart while Superman is so stupid. In order to throw Clark off the trail, Luthor gives a press conference in which he displays letters he claims to have received from Atom Man, threatening him. And then Atom Man's voice sounds in the room and stuff starts blowing up!


Notice Lois on the left, wearing a Flash Gordon-looking outfit. She's practically a superhero herself in that dress. BTW, is it drink-worthy if it's Luthor planting the fake story in the Planet? I think so. DRINK!

Back at the Planet, Clark is telling Perry he's still not convinced of Luthor's innocence when Jimmy rushes in with a teletupe (sorry, teletype) story about a lfood (sorry, flood) upstate. Cue the stock footage! DRINK! Okay, maybe I got a little buzz going.

Lois and her cameraman set up to film, while Superman flies around sving people from hte stock footage. Look, more crates marked "Rubber Life Raft." They actually have a purpose this time, tohugh, as Superman uses them to save people from the rising waters.

Then a cop drives up to Lois's crew and tells them to clear out because the dam's about to burst. The men want ot leave, but Lois offers this rousing sentiment: "Let's make this an epic of TV reporting." Not quite a St. Crispen's Day speech, but what do you want on this budget?

So the dam bursts nad Lois's crew flee to higher ground (it appears to only be about a foot higher, but still...), but Lois stays womanning the camera until hte water is rushing down upon her, at which point she leaps into the truck, and can't get it started.


Oops.

To Be Concluded Next Week!

Movie Monday - Atom Man vs. Superman, Chapters 4-7

Continuing our recap of the second Columbia Superman serial starring Kirk Alyn, 1950's Atom Man vs. Superman.

One thing I failed to mention last week was that, since this was a sequel to a serial that appeared only two years earlier, there was no need to recap Superman's origin at the beginning. What a relief, eh?

Anyway, there's a lot to cover, so let's get right to it. At the end of Chapter 3, Lois and Jimmy were trapped in the lab of Professor Stone, who had been locked inside his vault, where he was using special controls to scour his lab with fire. And seriously, at this point, given how ineffectual Luthor has been, I'm wondering why a guy who looks like this...

who has his lab rigged to do this...

isn't the real villain of the piece? Seriously, everybody needs a vault like that. Talk about a panic room...

So of course, as Chapter 4, "Superman Meets Atom Man," opens, Superman saves Lois and Jimmy from the flames, then switches back to Clark. When Professor Stone gets out of his vault, he's pissed at our heroes, blaming them for concocting some sort of stunt to get a sensationalized story for their paper. Then he throws them out, and the coin goes unanalyzed.

Later, Luthor and Alber have a little therapy session about Superman's interference. Then Lawson shows up with some stolen jewels, only he's holding out, which prompts Luthor to have him searched. When they find jewels hidden in his hat, Lawson claims he 'forgot' they were there. Before he can claim he was just holding them for a friend, and besides it wasn't even his hat, Luthor has him thrown under the Main Arc and sends him into space and the Empty Doom.

Meanwhile, Lois is having a birthday party at the Daily Planet. After Clark helps her blow out her candles, she opens her presents and receives a special coin that teleports her into the Atom Man's secret cave. The Atom Man tells Lois to make a special broadcast to let Superman know he has her. Her script says for Superman not to look for her, but she starts ad-libbing, telling Superman to hurry up and "go after him."

Superman comes up with a plan. He flies out to the desert, digs a rock out of the ground and hurls it up into the sky so that it comes down with explosive force. Next thing you know, the newspapers are buzzing about the "meteor" that landed in the desert. Then Clark lies to Perry White that the university thinks that the meteor came from Krypton (what was that thing about trumping up sensationalized stories for the newspaper?).

Of course, Luthor bites hard on the bait and sends his thugs to steal the meteor from the museum. But rather than follow the thugs to their hideout, Superman heads back to the Daily Planet just in time to hear one of the thugs call in that Lois was last seen in the vicinity of Cave Mountain (where Luthor has moved his HQ). Superman shows up in the secret cave moments later, in what appears to be the same cave used by Luthor in Chapter 1. There he confronts the Atom Man, whose lead-lined helmet conceals his identity from Superman's X-Ray Vision (although seriously, how hard can it be to figure out?).

Of course, Superman does not fall victim to the fake Kryptonite. But then Atom Man warns him that there is a photoelectric beam that will kill Lois if he comes any closer. So Superman agrees to stand under the Main Arc (at which point the Atom Man and his thugs cross through the so-called "photoelectric beam" and Superman does nothing about it). The Main Arc is activated, and Superman disintegrates.

Atom Man uses a hypnotic ray to knock Lois out, then his thugs put her in a car and send it careening toward a cliff. Oh no!

But as Chapter 5, "Atom Man Tricks Superman," opens, Superman swoops out of the sky and saves Lois.

But hey, that looks familiar. Have we accidentally started watching Chapter 7 of the previous serial? No, it's just reused footage. And by the way, Superman's not disintegrated! He tells Lois that the Main Arc was unable to affect him because his atomic structure is different from humans. He faked his disappearance by moving faster than the eye could see (not the last one-shot invented power we'll run into). They then drive back to rejoin Jimmy and cops (this may be the only time we'll ever see Superman at the wheel of a car).

And as they get out, notice that apparently that Chaplin lady is not the only one to have an anachronistic cell phone (okay, she's actually just fixing her hair). Jimmy runs up to say that in the minute or two that has gone by since the car rolled past, the cops have searched the cave and found only "bare rock walls" (man, forget Luthor, get me the name of his moving company). They go back to the Planet.

Later, Superman explains to Perry White and the Chief of Police that Luthor's machine could have affected him if he'd used plutonium. No idea how he has figured this out, BTW, but it's necessary to set up Luthor's next plot.

And by "set up," I mean of course that Superman asks Perry to plant another fake story in his newspaper. What does he think this is, the New York Times?

So the Planet runs a story about a plutonium shipment, and Perry sends Lois and Clark to cover the story on the train. And of course, can't find a match to light his cigar. Hello, running gag. I've missed you.

Luthor, of course, knows it's a trap, but decides to send one of his men to fall into it anyway. He sends FGD-Alpha, who disguises himself as a porter, but gets caught by Superman when he pulls a gun on the fake detective carrying the fake plutonium. Superman flies FGD-Alpha back to Perry White's office for questioning. Last time he did this, in the previous serial, Perry ended up getting thrown out the window by the same actor. That doesn't happen this time. Instead, it's Alpha who gets thrown out, tossed into the air by Superman to scare a confession out of him.


Alpha then confesses that Luthor was just using the fake plutonium robbery to cover his real objective, retrieving a package from Central Station. Having planted the bait, Alpha then uses his magic coin to teleport out.

So Supes flies to Central Station to check out the packages. The Chief of Police expressed his doubts that they could "legally" open and search all those packages, so Superman just sweeps his X-Ray Vision around the room, finding nothing but personal belongings and a box of nails. After he leaves, Luthor's thugs arrive to claim the box of nails. Glowing nails.


Yow! Turns out the nails were made of a special alloy designed to turn to plutonium when bombarded with X-Rays. Great plan, except for, you know, the cancer.

As the thugs are leaving, Lois spots them and sends Jimmy to phone the police while she stalls them (there's a great throwaway moment where a newsboy asks Jimmy if he wants a paper, and Jimmy mutters an acid "Are you kiddin?" with perfect timing). The thugs capture Lois with Jimmy in hot pursuit. And of course, Clark has overheard the conversation with Perry, so Superman should be showing up soon as well.

The thugs drive out to an abandoned farm, where they tie Lois up in the barn. And wow, all of a sudden, Lois has really got the bullet bra thing working this episode.


The thugs hide when Jimmy pulls up moments later, driving right into the barn to save Lois. So the thugs knock Jimmy out (remember when I said last week that this would happen many times?), then shut and bolt the barn doors, leaving the running engine of Jimmy's car to kill the two reporters with carbon monoxide. Awfully considerate of Jimmy to provide the means of their execution.

But aw crap! As Chapter 6, "Atom Man's Challenge," begins, Superman arrives in time to save them. And because farmers tend to be practical people who anticipate and prepare for problems before they occur, the door already has a Superman-shaped cutout in it for easy access.


Luthor's thugs arrive at his lab and report the death of the reporters. But when Luthor checks on activities at the Planet, he learns Lois and Jimmy are still alive. He sentences one of his men to the Empty Doom for giving a false report. But then, since he's sorta' running out of henchmen, he brings him back almost instantly. Luthor's such a softie. I wanna see more Professor Stone. Now there's a scientist who knows how to kill people.

Luthor's next plan involves synthetic Kryptonite. "When the Kryptonite was in my possession, I analyzed it," he says. Okay, we know that the 'Kryptonite' a couple of chapters ago was fake. Are we supposed to forget that, or is Luthor saying that he had some real stuff before the serial began? I mean, we're told from the beginning that Luthor is Superman's arch-enemy, but this is really big ret-con from out of nowhere.

Anyway, Luthor's synthetic Kryptonite is missing only one element: radium. So Luthor goes to his extraordinarily diverse file of stratagems and... broadcasts on the police band that he's going to steal the radium. Perry sends Clark, Lois and Jimmy out to find the story, and then can't light his cigar. Could we take up a collection to buy him a Zippo or something? Please? You can use the "Donate" link on herogohome.com if you want.

So two of Atom Man's thugs go to the hospital (which is the same building as the university from the previous serial, only with a sign that says "Metropolis Hospital" by the door).



They pose as cops come to transport the radium to a "safe location." The genius working for the hospital pulls the radium out of the safe before asking for written authorization, at which point one of the thugs writes the authorization across the guy's jaw. With his fist. They drive away just as Clark Kent is pulling up. Clark's too late!

So Clark races to the Carlysle Reduction Plant, home of a second supply of radium. Turns out it's supposed to be transported somewhere else, but the armored car has been hijacked. So Lois is recruited as a mule to move the radium in her handbag. No one would suspect that.

Except the two thugs outside with a Gieger counter, who detect the radiation. Lois tries to fight them off with powder from her compact, but they somehow overcome that assault, take the radium, lock her in the vault and knock out Jimmy for good measure (third time in six chapters!). They flee with Jimmy and the radium.

Superman arrives moments later to find the plant manager out cold on the floor and Lois locked in the vault. The guy doesn't have the combination, so Superman says he'll use his "special powers" to find the combination.

Now at this point, you would be justified in thinking that Superman would use his super-hearing to listen to the tumblers fall into place, but you would be wrong. He simply spins the dials this way and that, and thanks to some undefined "special power," the dial magically stops on the right numbers. Wow, I know you can't be too picky with this stuff because it was written very quickly and not meant to be rewatched for continuity, but seriously: the writers are too lazy to even take the most obvious solution.

Superman then flies off in hot pursuit of the thugs, catches the car and turns it over. But too late! The radium and Jimmy have been transferred to another car. So Superman rips out the engine and uses it to trap the thugs in the car. "That ought to hold you for a while," he says before flying away.

Which it would, if the car didn't have, say, a glass windshield that could easily be broken by gun-wielding thugs, or if the entire gang weren't carrying special coins they can use to teleport to the Atom Man's secret cave headquarters. But how likely is that?

Anway, the car carrying the radium and Jimmy pulls onto a bombing range, where Jimmy is punched unconscious again (twice in one episode!) and then left to be blowed up real good by a bomb.

Which brings us to Chapter 7, "At the Mercy of Atom Man."

Boy these episodes are really packed with stuff! Should I stop here or try to fit in one more chapter? Show of hands?

Okay, one more chapter it is. Superman, of course, arrives just in time to pull Jimmy out of the car, but the thug uses his teleport coin to escape with the radium. So now Luthor has everything he needs to make his synthetic Kryptonite. While he's waiting for the furnace to cook the ingredients, Alber asks how Luthor knows this recipe will work.

Luthor says he knows everything about Krypton, pieced together from dozens of astronomical reports along with coded messages received by a ship's radio operator. And now we get four minutes of recycled footage of Superman's origin from the previous serial, showing how Jor-El built the rocket, got laughed out of Science Council, and launched Kal-El to Earth. Wow, so not only was I wrong about the sequel not retelling Superman's origin (although it did wait until Chapter 7 to do so), but that saved us a lot of description. We're almost done!

Soup's on! Luthor sends the new synthetic Kryptonite to his man inside the Daily Planet, a janitor named Harris. Harris plants the I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Kryptonite in the water cooler next to Clark Kent's desk, just in case Superman should happen to get thirsty of something. Of course, Clark gets dizzy and passes out, which makes Harris think he's Superman. But as he's fetching another thug, Clark stumbles out, and Harris's story is judged hogwash.

Luthor decides the "Wait for Superman to get a drink from the Daily Planet watercooler" plan is a bit too iffy, so he decides to use the Craptonite at a ship launching that Superman is due to attend. Superman is introduced by Professor Hammil from Batman and Robin (last seen hawking papers in the first Superman serial).



One of the thugs uses the fake Kryptonite to knock Superman out, then others arrive in a fake ambulance to whisk him off. How will Superman get out of this one?

Be here next week for the next clump of chapters.

Movie Monday - Atom Man vs. Superman, Chapters 1-3

Starting our recap of the second live-action Superman serial, released two years after the first. This is about as pure a sequel as you are ever likely to see, produced by largely the same cast and crew (with Kirk Alyn once again uncredited as Superman), with music and special effects recycled from the old serial. Some of the incidental music cues from the "Batman and Robin" serial are also used.

Chapter 1, "Superman Flies Again," opens with a crime wave terrorizing the city. A group of thugs are surprised while robbing a war surplus depot. Two of them hold off the cops while a third uses a radio to call for help. Who ya gonna call?

Lex Luthor. Luthor uses a special machine to cause fiery flares to shoot from the building, distracting the cops long enough for the thugs to escape.

At the Daily Planet, the old gang is still together. The cast hasn't changed a bit, though Lois is now sporting shorter hair.


They discuss Superman's arch-enemy, Lex Luthor. Perry White doesn't believe Luthor's involved in the recent crime wave, though. "I still believe Superman scared him away"

Clark Kent, who is the first of many through the years to exhibit a problem remembering how to pronounce Luthor's name, says that if it is Luthor, he won't be able to keep from bragging about himself. And literally seconds later, Luthor's on the radio, threatening to destroy Metropolis unless he is paid a huge ransom. He says he'll destroy a bridge first, as a demonstration of his power. Perry sends his reporters out to get a story, then has trouble finding a match to light his cigar (we'll see this gag a lot).

So Lois and Jimmy head out to the bridge, where we see stock footage of the real Tacoma Narrows Bridge swinging in the wind. Lois points and says a woman has driven onto the bridge, at which Jimmy replies, "Typical woman driver," then we cut to stock footage of a car on the road.

Meanwhile, Clark changes to Superman and flies out to save the bridge. Columbia is still using the same animated flying effects...

but is now also intercutting close-ups of Kirk Alyn with smoke blowing past him to simulate flying.

Supeman stops the bridge's swaying long enough for the woman to be rescued (an effect accomplished by simply stopping the film in mid-swing, then cutting to Superman with his hands braced against a stone wall), then uses his super-hearing to trace the ultrasonic waves to Luthor's hideout. Moments later, he has captured the mad scientist. It's ten minutes in, and Luthor has lost. Now what the hell are we supposed to do for 14 1/2 chapters?

Luckily, a new crime wave starts once Luthor's in jail. Jimmy Olsen, sent to cover a fire, catches a crook running out of the burning building. The crook pulls out a distinctive coin and disappears.

The next day, convicted killer Lawson, on his way to the state pen, pulls out a similar coin and also disappears.

Clark suspects Luthor's hand in this, but Luthor is still in the penitentiary. However, he also has a special coin that he uses to transport himself to a secret cave headquarters, where he reveals to Lawson his newest invention, the Main Arc. Apparently a bigger version of the machine he used to get out of the pen, the Main Arc can transport people anywhere; he plans to use it to beam Superman out into space for eternity, into what he calls the "Empty Doom." Luthor claims to have developed it with the help of his partner, Atom Man.

Next day, Clark is reading that Lawson previously did a Human Fly act, when Jimmy runs up to say there's a human fly scaling a building. It's Lawson, of course. He robs a diamond merchant then uses a coin to disappear.

At the scene, Jimmy peeks into the back of a TV truck and sees Lawson inside, pulling diamonds out of his pocket. Another thug happens by and knocks Jimmy out (the first time of many).

He's dumped into the TV truck, which takes off. Lois sees it and tells Clark, then takes off with the cops to give chase. Clark changes to Superman and chases it down. The driver gets out and runs while guys in back call for help on the radio. As Superman is disabling truck driver, the truck blows up with Jimmy inside.

Until Chapter 2, "Atom Man Appears," when we see that Jimmy and the thugs teleported to Luthor's secret cave headquarters. Atom Man appears, wearing a black robe and a soup tureen covered with glitter for a helmet.

Boy, Atom Man's main helper on the left sure looks familiar.

Atom Man explains the Main Arc again, then uses it on Jimmy, teleporting him to the Daily Planet to challenge Superman or something. Luthor immediately radios his thugs in another TV truck to retrieve the special coin from Jimmy. Those guys look really familiar, too. Perry tells Lois to store the coin in the safe, but she keeps it and leaves the building.

We now interrupt the story in progress, so Superman can save the passengers on a burning cruise ship, while Perry White can't find a match to light his cigar (again).

The thugs come in to steal the coin from the safe, by posing as electricians come to check the wiring. Um, in the safe...

Perry figures out their ruse, so they punch him, and holy crap, I recognize them now...

They were two of the Spider Lady's men. The guy in back is Rusty Westcoatt, who was also one of the bad guys in "Batman and Robin." The guy in front is Jack Ingram, better known as Anton, aka the Alpha half of the Fabulously Gay Duo (and of course, now I remember why Luthor's assistant Alber looks so familiar--he was FGD-Beta). The two thugs escape by jumping off the roof then teleporting away. And yeah, in case you're wondering, the rest of Luthor's gang also appeared in the previous serial, and some also were in "Batman and Robin." And the guy playing Killer Lawson was actually Kirk Alyn's stunt double in the first serial.

But back to the action. Atom Man's thugs are chasing Lois, who drives into a blast area to evade capture. Superman saves her from the blast, then captures the thugs chasing her. He keeps the coin, which Luthor is happy about, because he can use it to lure Superman into a trap. Not sure why Luthor doesn't just try to teleport Superman into his secret cave with the coin, but oh well.

The thugs try to lure Clark Kent into an ambush, but as usual, Lois hijacks the call and falls into the trap. Superman tries to save her, but is struck by reused Reducer Ray footage from the first serial. It doesn't hurt him, but it slows him down.

Lois gets pushed out a window and falls into Chapter 3, "Ablaze in the Sky."

Superman saves Lois, while Jimmy notices a TV truck nearby. Given his recent history with another TV truck that looked exactly like this one, you'd think he'd be suspicious, but he never mentions it to anyone.

Later, Luthor is paroled for helping the government with a new defense weapon, said to be a cross between radar and television. It's never really explained beyond that, although from the description, I picture one of those standard mad-scientist viewscreens that allows them to see stuff at a distance without a camera, and from the same angles that the cameraman on the show uses.

Clark and Lois confront Luthor, who says he's going straight by investing in a TV studio, where he plans to use his "inventive genius." And of course, neither Clark nor Lois think about the TV truck that captured Jimmy in Chapter 1, because that would be, I don't know, intelligent.

A couple more reporters arrive, but Clark spots a gun inside their camera and helps nab them. Luthor claims they must want to stop him from testifying or something, but Clark is suspicious.

And well he should be, because Luthor is still just as crooked as ever. And in his business suit, he looks a lot like the future Business Luthor from John Byrne's Superman reboot.



It's like he's channeling the future or something.

So later, Superman stops a stock-footage oil well fire, because he's got to do something super every chapter, even if it has nothing to do with anything.

And once that interlude is done, Clark, Lois, and Jimmy are sent upstate with the coin to have it analyzed by one Professor Stone. Only the bad guys have rigged one of the plane's engines to catch fire. Superman puts the fire out, though, so the plane can land safely.

The thugs then race ahead and take the professor prisoner. They lock him in his own vault, then one of the thugs poses as Professor Stone so he can get the coin from the reporters.

Chark sees through the ruse, though, and beats up three armed men, taking a bullet in the process. He passes it off by saying the bullet hit the coin in his pocket. He pulls out the coin and uses his super-thumb to dent it. When he shows it to Lois, one of the thugs grabs it and runs away. Clark chases after him, leaving Lois and Jimmy to keep the other thugs covered.

At which point Professor Stone wakes up and uses special controls in his vault to seal his office door and roast the lab with jets of flame shooting out of the walls. Seriously, how hard-core paranoid is this guy that he's got special lab-destroying controls inside his vault?

We'll find out next week.