Hello one and all!
Welcome to my first review of my lengthy, difficult, ongoing movie marathon. I don't want to waste too much of your time so here is a brief introduction. Let me take a little time here to tell you what this is all about. I'm attempting to watch and review all the major theatrically released superhero films leading up to the release of The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, Man of Steel, and Avengers. I threw in a few extra just to get a nice round number for you peoples. I'll be regularly posting reviews and after every 10, a ranking will be posted, depicting the placement of each film on a scale. This ranking will be determined by a combination of both my review score and audience participation rankings. So be sure to VOTE!
As should be obvious by the title, today's film is Superman and the Mole Men, from 1951.
I will typically post the trailer but seeing as this film is so old, I had difficulty finding one. So I'll cut straight to the chase. Here it is, enjoy!..... hopefully.
"There is only one man who can handle a job like this, and that’s Superman!"
Seeing as it began the entire superhero comic book movement, it isn’t surprising that the first theatrical released superhero film was with the character of Superman. Now this is far from his first on screen début, as he appeared in multiple serials beforehand, but it is the fist time a super powered hero was brought to the large cinemas and featured as a major release. What can I say. Apparently outwards underwear and tights were the most badass fashion of the 50's
As with everything else, the first outing rarely gets it just right. Superman and the Mole Men tells a single of many presumed Superman’s adventures. It only mentions briefly a summery about the origins of Superman through a short, choppy narration. However the main story depicts Clark Kent and Lois Lane traveling to a small town, barely over a thousand, to cover a story on the deepest hole ever drilled, a pit dug nearly six miles under the earths crust. Lois is angry at the assignment and thinks it beneath her. But that changes when it is revealed that an underground race of “mole men” have emerged from the hole drilled in the ground.
The film is campy and goofy without a doubt. It is very much the predecessor of the all to similar Superman TV series that followed it. Lois Lane played by Phyliss Coates is well portrayed in her traditional snappy, fashion. George Reeves plays a very bland Clark Kent and Superman. He really couldn’t be more wooden if he was carved out of driftwood.
There is little to no mention of the famous Superman-Lois relationship and appears to have been written out of this version mythos entirely. Here Lois and Clark just seem like respectful colleagues and Lois never goes goggly eyed over Supes. Some will be more thankful for that than not, but to me, it just seemed to loose a sense of its humanity as a result.
Yet the film does give an interesting villain in the character of Luke Benson. Rather than making a horror-like story with Superman fighting a group of underground demons, rather it becomes a story about tolerance. The Mole Men are innocent creatures that people accused of murders and hunted down. Superman must save them.
The effects were about as bad as they could get. Cheap and dated. That's not the real issue though, it's the fact that even for the 50's they were lackluster. Some just got lazy. High on the list is when Superman flew off and three characters were supposed to be watching him go....except they were all looking in different direction.
But by no means can any of this be taken seriously. It suffers from the overall hamyness, cheap effects, and overly long chase scenes. Yet if any credit can be given to it it’s that it help to further solidify Superman’s popularity back in the 50’s leading to the eventual Richard Donner/ Christopher Reeve films which perfectly capture the character.
FINAL RATING: 4/10 (40%)
NOTE: reminder that polls are used in ranking process so PLEASE VOTE!