Superman (1948)

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  May 23, 2012

  SirPant

  Fifteen glorious 17min serials, I can only imagine how excited young boys of the 1940s would have been to go see each weekly instalment. The acting is crummy, the effects pretty bad, most of the action scenes are repeated again and again, the story makes no sense, the props are t... read morehe same in every shot, you can see the reflection of the camera man, you can see the shadow of the boom stick, Superman looks directly into the camera when he changes, I could go on and on about the problems with this series but it would take a whole lot longer to tell you why I love it so much. Might be quicker to just watch it for yourselves. You can quite clearly see Richard Donner was a fan and where he got a lot of his ideas from. I'm so grateful that this is available on DVD and has been reproduced so well. The Spider Lady was quite the vixen, she could definitely be updated and brought back for the new films. A must for Super fans!

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  April 2, 2012

  kenscheck

  In truth I am a much bigger fan of Batman than I am of Superman. That said I have to admit that this first Superman serial is VASTLY superior than the serials that starred Batman. It is just a straight up true to it's source adaptation of Superman. It has it's variations, but i... read moret just carries that tone that Superman requires to work. I think that it is important to note that Superman also fits into the world of serials better than Batman really could. Serials were all about the straight laced hero that kids could look up to...but Batman is a much better character when he is more introspective and a brooding...brooding isn't as much fun. Now that's not to say Batman can't be fun, but the serials took away the essence of his character (oh and this serial lacks racist propaganda overtones). If you like Superman at all, then this serial is pretty great, Kirk Alyn threw himself into the role and it shows (he also is the only actor to pop on glasses and truly look like someone else to me). Noel Neill is also quite good as Lois Lane, no wonder she eventually returned to the role on the TV show. The Spider Lady is actually a pretty solid villain too. In spite of the cop out animated special effects, this serial is pretty solid.

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• Kirk Alyn as Superman/Clark Kent
• Tommy Bond as Jimmy Olsen
• Stephen Carr as Morgan
• Carol Forman as 'Spider Lady'
• Terry Frost as Brock
• Jack Ingram as Anton
• George Meeker as Driller
• Noel Neill as Lois Lane
• Charles Quigley as Dr. Hackett

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