Earlier, I live tweeted about Superman: the Movie. Rewatching that movie led to two things: first, it gave us an episode topic for the podcast, “The Test of Time”; second, it made me decide to live tweet while watching the other Superman movies! Instead of jumping into Superman II, though, I went back in time . . . to Superman and the Mole Men, a theatrical movie made to help launch the TV series.
Now, if you have not seen Superman and the Mole Men, well, you’ve missed out on something. You have missed out on a really slow paced 1951 sci-fi movie. That said, you can see my thoughts about it here . . .
Live tweeted Superman the Movie the other day. That wasn’t the first theatrical Superman movie, though. #supermanandthemolemen
First shot: “deepest oil well in the world” sign. I wonder where the mole men come from. #supermanthemovie
Starts with some investigative reporting. Was this movie made before or during the TV series? Feels like an episode. #supermanandthemolemen
George Reeves as Clark Kent is confident, bold, and noble. Like Superman. Great secret identity. #supermanandthemolemen
Half of the title characters just showed up. No Superman, but there’s some mole men. #supermanandthemolemen
The mole men are classic: tall, bald craniums; rubber gloves; bushy eyebrows. At home on Lost in Space. #supermanandthemolemen
Oh, Lois Lane, you emotional woman, you! Tut-tut. Take a pill to calm your nerves. #supermanandthemolemen
Classic leap in logic: we found microbes below the point life should exist. There could be a civilization down there! #supermanandthemolemen
Oh no! It’s not just mole men! It’s radioactive mole men! #supermanandthemolemen
They’re just curious about our world and didn’t mean to give an old man a heart attack and irradiate the countryside. #supermanandthemolemen
The mob is coming for you, mole men. They have guns…and barber polls? #supermanandthemolemen
Supes just happens to show up in the town where Clark & Lois are. Either Superman is Clark…or he’s stalking Lois. #supermanandthemolemen
Secret identity advice: don’t show up at a new place and start calling people by name that you shouldn’t know. #supermanandthemolemen
So this movie was a theatrical pilot for the TV series. They turned it into a two parter on TV later. #supermanandthemolemen
Pretty serious themes and action. Very little humor. (Very little Superman!) Would I like this as a kid? #supermanandthemolemen
The old sci-fi trope of misunderstood aliens and mob mentality. And zippers in costumes. #supermanandthemolemen
Are mole men communists? Is this just a bad remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still? They both came from 1951. #supermanandthemolemen
They made this movie in two weeks. It shows. It’s a good episode or b-movie. 58 minutes long. #supermanandthemolemen
Secret identity advice: don’t accidentally use a first person pronoun when talking about Superman…and then smirk. #supermanandthemolemen
The lynch mob just threatened to string Superman up! #supermanandthemolemen
Superman just said “obviously none of you can be trusted with gns so I’m going to take them away from you.” #supermanandthemolemen
We shot one mole man, tried to burn another, now they’re back…with a ray gun! #supermanandthemolemen
That ray gun is REALLY ineffective! Thirty seconds of continuous firing and their victim is still screaming! #supermanandthemolemen
Superman steps in front of the raygun saves the mob’s leader. “You saved my life.” “That’s more than you deserve!” #supermanandthemolemen
And the mole men use the gun that couldn’t hurt a human…to bow up the world’s deepest oil well! #supermanandthemolemen
And now the b-scifi movie moral. They blow up the entrance to their underground world and Lois says… #supermanandthemolemen
“It’s as if they’re saying ‘you live your life, we’ll live ours’.” #supermanandthemolemen
One of the OTHER extras from this Superman movie collection is the pilot episode of The Adventures of Superpup. I went ahead and watched that, too, just for fun.
Puppet show, using the Superman sets, with actor wearing dog heads. #marketinggenius #theadventuresofsuperpup
This stinker would have destroyed Superman forever. Kiddie slapstick w/ disturbing character design. #theadventuresofsuperpup
If you have twenty minutes to waste, love Superman, and want to see something truly surreal, check out #theadventuresofsuperpup
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