Between the Superman radio series’ colossal decade-long run, the Fleischer cartoons and two multi-part film serials, I have to wonder if audiences in 1951 were starting to experience superhero fatigue. Remember how people complained when we got the Ed Norton Incredible Hulk so soon after Eric Bana’s? That at least was a five year gap. Kirk Alyn had barely flown offscreen before George Reeves stepped into his bright red boots.

Now, you might be a little confused as to why I’m covering this. If I’m only doing the theatrical live action Superman movies, what is George Reeves doing here? Didn’t he play Superman on TV? Indeed he did. Reeves, as well as being the reason why everyone gets Christopher Reeve’s name wrong, was the star of The Adventures of Superman which ran for a mighty impressive 106 episodes in the fifties. However, this movie served as a pilot of sorts for the TV show and was released in theatres. Alyn was apparently offered the chance to return to the role but he declined for two reasons. One, like many movie actors at the time he thought that TV was a passing fad (incorrect) and two, he worried that being typecast as Superman would kill his acting career stone dead (sadly, right on the money).

And so, the mantle passed to George Reeves, a military veteran and B-movie player whose acting career prior to becoming Clark Kent had deteriorated to the point that he’d been forced to take work digging cesspools just to make ends meet. Reeves was a fascinating and admirable man who deserved so much better than his tragic and mysterious death. But, if nothing else, he was for decades THE definitive onscreen Superman.

We begin with Lois Lane and Clark Kent arriving in the town of Silsby to report on literally the only interesting thing in this place; the fact that it is home to the deepest oil well in the world. The foreman however, is clearly nervous and refuses to show them around which gets Clark’s journalism antenna all twitchy. Later at the hotel, he tells Lois (Phyllis Coates) that he wants to go down to the drill site and snoop around. If you’ve been following this series and you’re a canny and attentive reader you may be scratching your head and saying “hold up, Mouse, in the Superman 1948 review you said that Noelle Neill played Lois opposite George Reeves?” Well spotted, never doubted you. So. Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in this movie and the first season of The Adventures of Superman. And Superman and the Mole Men was actually re-edited into two episodes that closed that season, making this movie simultaneously her first and last performance as Lois Lane. In the subsequent series she was replaced with Noelle Neill. Why? Well, according to Coates herself, she was incredibly frustrated with playing a supposedly brilliant reporter who couldn’t figure out that her co-worker was actually Superman with glasses on. It probably didn’t help that, unlike most other actors who assay the part, Reeves does not appear as interested in differentiating Superman and Clark Kent in his performance. Oh, they’re not the same. Clark is definitely more playful and light-hearted. But it’s not like with Christopher Reeve where it really feels like two completely different characters.

Now, apart from a few random episodes when I was tiny, I’ve never actually watched the tv series so I can’t really comment on it. But going on this movie I can see a pretty glaring problem with how Lois and Clark interact: Clark is the one in charge. Clark is the one driving the investigation, sniffing around suspicious people and deciding where the pair will go next. Now, to be clear, he’s not bossing Lois around and their relationship is both respectful and amicable. But, if you didn’t know either of these characters you would assume he was an experienced journalist and she was his subordinate and that just doesn’t work for a Clark and Lois team. That’s like having a version of Holmes and Watson where Holmes is also a doctor and a war veteran. Being a fantastic journalist, the best journalist, is Lois Lane’s whole deal. If you take that away she’s sort of superfluous.

Anyway, down at the ol’ oil field, some weird creatures have emerged from the well. This being a low budget fifties production, they are of course little people in some shockingly cheap makeup, the go-to for sci-fi monsters before ILM came along and put them all out of work.

The kindly old night watchmen, Pop Shannon, sees these little guys and is so freaked out he get heart attack and keels over dead. Arriving at the scene, Lois and Clark split up. Lois sees the Mole Men and screams and Clark runs to see that she’s all right. At normal speed, I might add. Like, at a brisk jog. A doctor is called and Lois tells them what she saw but, needless to say, we can’t accept that there are subterranean humanoids roaming about until they’ve been seen by a man.

Clark hangs back and interrogates Corrigan, the foreman. Corrigan shows Clark the drill they’d used to dig the oil well. He says that the tip came out radioactive and also coated with micro-organisms, from far deeper in the Earth’s crust than should be be possible for life to exist. He says that the oil company theorised that they’d accidentally discovered a world beneath the Earth’s surface and that, since that could pose a great risk to the community, they decided to seal the well and abandon their search for oil, lost profits be damned. Which is absolutely what I would expect from the oil industry.

Suddenly Clark and Corrigan get news that there have been more sighting of these Mole Men and that a local rabble rouser named Luke Benson is rousing a rabble to git ’em. Clark returns to the hotel where the mob is getting ready to head and gives an impassioned speech for everyone to just chill the fuck out. They ignore him and head over to the last house that the creatures were seen and Clark decides that this looks like a job for Superman

Benson shoots one of the Mole Men but Superman spirits it away to the local hospital. The hospital administrator refuses to treat the creature but Clark is able to convince some of the younger medics to help him. The mob gathers around the hospital but Superman stands guard outside and refuses to let them hurt the Mole Man. These scenes, with Superman facing down the mob and trying to appeal to their better natures are fantastic. I love them. I actually thought this scene in particular had to be a reference to To Kill a Mockingbird, with Atticus Fitch standing guard outside the jailhouse, before I remembered that both the book and movie came out a decade later. So I have no choice but to expose Harper Lee as a fraud who plagiarised Superman and The Mole Men.

Superman tells the mob that they can’t be trusted with guns and forcibly disarms them (holy SHIT can you imagine if a movie did that today?) and mob disperses. But, Luke Benson decides to go after the second Mole Man who’s still wandering veeeeery slowly around town and they end up trapping him a shack and setting fire to it which the Mole Man veeeeery slowly manages to escape from. This second Mole Man returns to the oil well and comes back with re-enforcements and a big ass laser gun.

Superman saves Luke Benson from being shot by the Mole Men and returns their wounded companion to them. And movie ends with the Mole Men returning to the centre of the Earth and blowing up the oil well after them because clearly these surface people are a bunch of jerks and they want nothing more to do with them.

***

This is a very good Superman movie in the sense that it absolutely understands the core of what the character should be, a big guy who fights for the little guy and inspires us to be the best we can be. It is not a very good movie in the sense that it is not a very good movie. I know that recap made it feel like it’s very short and, in truth, it’s not even an hour long but it feels much longer. It is glacially paced and I can only imagine that being edited into a TV two parter improved the experience hugely. Also, I hate to say, but it is MST3K levels of cheap looking. It makes the Kirk Alyn series look a million bucks in comparison.

If you can put that aside though, George Reeves is a charming Clark Kent and an inspiring Superman and that’s worth the price of admission in my book.

The Man of Tomorrow

I mentioned before that I think what makes a great Superman performance is that Superman should seem like he enjoys being Superman. I’d like to amend that slightly. Reeves doesn’t particularly seem like he enjoys being Superman but he definitely loves being Clark Kent. This is a Kal-El who enjoys pulling the wool over everyone around him and winking at the audience. When he becomes Superman however, it’s serious business. This is a rather stern Man of Steel, much more Cavill that Corenswet, with a somewhat jaded view of humanity. This is a portrayal that calls back to the earliest depictions of the character, an at times grim defender of the weak and righter of injustice.

Ace Reporter of the Daily Planet

Phyllis Coates definitely has her fans and I suspect she gives a much stronger showing in the TV show but just on the strength of this movie I can’t say she won me over. It feels like too much of Lois traditional virtues and role in the story have been given over to Clark. This Lois is too much of a follower for me. She does get to shine later on when he realises that Superman is right about the Mole Men and stands her ground against the mob but it’s a pretty weak showing over all.

A Great Metropolitan Newspaper

No sign of the Daily Planet, no Perry, no Jimmy.

Kindly Couple

Ditto the Kents.

Desperate Scientists

Or Krypton, aside from a brief mention in the opening monologue.

Our Nefarious Villains

No supervillains, no monsters, no mad scientists. Just scared, angry people. This is one of many science fiction films of the period that grappled with the McCarthyite wave of paranoia gripping the country and that takes on added poignancy when you learn that Jeff Corey, who played mob-leader Luke Benson, would be targeted by HUAC shortly after filming this movie and end up being blacklisted for 12 years when he refused to name names. Dude wasn’t even a communist, he just didn’t want to be a nark! Thankfully, even though his acting career was effectively over, he went on to become one of the most prestigious acting coaches in Hollywood history with James Dean and Jack Nicholson among his clients.

“With powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men!”

Probably the least powerful live action Superman, this Superman is strong enough to bend a shotgun and is immune to bullets but he does get noticeably staggered by the Mole Men’s ray gun. Also, he can fly but not very fast (or, indeed, onscreen).

FINAL SCORE OUT OF TEN:

NEXT UPDATE: 24 April 2026 (Sorry, sorry I have deadlines up the wazoo)

NEXT TIME: I don’t understand, they solved racism. What else is there left for them to do?