REEL RETRO CINEMA | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Oct08

The Goofy Charm of 1950’s ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Oct 8, 2019

The Goofy Charm of 1950’s ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN

Kirk Alyn was born 109 years ago! — UPDATED 10/8/19: The late Kirk Alyn, the original screen Superman, was born 109 years ago! My 20-year-old son Sam and I have been watching the old Superman serials, so it’s a great time to re-present this piece from 2016! — Dan — Hey, it’s a special REEL RETRO CINEMA two-fer! We’re gearing up BATMAN/SUPERMAN WEEK, so it only figured to have Rob Kelly take a look at our heroes’ filmic roots — namely, two of their serials! For 1949’s Batman and Robin, click here! For the complete BATMAN/SUPERMAN WEEK Index, click here! — Dan By ROB KELLY Ever since I was a kid, I have loved “versus” movies: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Dracula vs. Frankenstein. Freddy vs. Jason. Kramer vs. Kramer. There’s something about a movie just boldly stating—right there in the title–what it’s going to give you that I have always found very exciting. Forget about complicated themes or nuanced character studies, this movie is about two titanic titans squaring off! So as we await Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, we’re going all the way back to 1950 to look at that other Superman “vs.” movie, the 15-chapter movie serial Atom Man vs. Superman! Atom Man vs. Superman (why does the Man of Steel always get second billing?) stars Kirk Alyn as Superman/Clark Kent, Noel Neill as Lois Lane, Tommy Bond as Jimmy Olsen, and Lyle Talbot as Lex Luthor (and the Atom Man—but shhh! It’s a secret). Alyn, Neill and Bond all played these roles before, in 1948’s Superman serial, making Atom Man vs. Superman a sequel of sorts. Also, by its use of Lex Luthor as the bad guy, it’s the first comic book-based movie serial to use a villain from the original source material. Atom Man vs. Superman opens with a series of robberies that are plaguing Metropolis. It is, of course, the work of Lex Luthor, who threatens to destroy a nearby bridge if he and his gang don’t receive all the money from the Metropolis Trust Company. He turns a destruction ray on the bridge, but luckily Superman arrives to keep it in place while police rescue some stranded motorists. The Man of Steel then finds Luthor, arrests him, and the arch-criminal is sent off to jail. A year later, everyone is perplexed by a...

Jul03

The Not Exactly Amazing 1977 SPIDER-MAN TV Pilot

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jul 3, 2019

The Not Exactly Amazing 1977 SPIDER-MAN TV Pilot

REEL RETRO CINEMA: The Spectacular Mediocre Spider-Man swings onto the screen… — UPDATED 7/3/19: Hey, guess what! Spider-Man: Far From Home is out! Perfect time to re-present Rob Kelly’s REEL RETRO CINEMA column from our 2017 SPIDER-MAN WEEK! For the complete index of features, click here. — Dan — — By ROB KELLY For those who have never seen the original 1978-79 Spider-Man TV show (and that’s most of you, since it has never been released on Blu-ray, DVD or streaming), it was commissioned as a TV movie that would serve as a “backdoor pilot” to an ongoing series. The movie, which debuted in September 1977, was a ratings success, and after some post-pilot tinkering (cast changes, mostly) the series launched in April 1978. For some reason, instead of giving it a regular time slot, though, CBS used it as a heat-seeking missile, airing episodes in clumps to run against other networks’ hit shows, hopefully draining some of their audience away. In an age where you had to actually sit in front of your TV and watch a program lest you miss it forever, this was an insane, maddening strategy, and it couldn’t have done Spider-Man any favors. Anyway, Spider-Man tells the story you’re all familiar with, but with some major changes: Peter Parker (Nicholas Hammond) works as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, where he is on the receiving end of blustery abuse from publisher J. Jonah Jameson (David White). He is also a grad student, and one day while working on some experiments involving radiation, he sees an unwanted visitor. Peter gets bit, you know the rest. Except here, there is no Uncle Ben, so our hero’s decision to become Spider-Man is mostly done on a whim. Not too long after the spider bite, he notices he can climb walls, crawling all over the outside of the townhouse he shares with his Aunt May (Jeff–yes, Jeff–Donnell). After stopping a mugging by scaring the bejeezus out of the crook by scampering up an alleyway wall, he attracts the attention of random passersby — and then the Daily Bugle. Jameson wants pictures of this “Spider-Man” of course, so Peter goes home and makes himself a snazzy suit. For the most part, Hammond is fine in the part, if bland. He’s not given a lot of character stuff to work...

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