The Human Underworld Ghost Crime Experiment

I now wonder if the open credits where Superman stands in space is actually supposed to by Krypton and two moons. Just a thought. Today represents February, 1953, still only The Adventures of Superman. I won't be born for another 19 years, but who knew back then I could catch up on 58 year old episodes on DVD? Enjoy. All these, with the exception of The Ghost Wolf, quite good. All these episodes were actually filmed back-to-back in 1951. It's kind of sad that the later episodes you can see the "S" on Superman's top getting more ragged as the series goes on. That must represent a lot of crime punished. Then again, people would have seen this on 10-inch B&W TVs, so I doubt they wouldn't have noticed.

The Human Bomb- It is becoming apparent that the citizens of Metropolis are seeing a connection to The Daily Planet and Superman. One such person is Butler, a millionaire, who makes a bet at the Metropolis City Club that he can control Superman for 30 minutes. Not a horrible idea, but he is the first character in the series to even suggest that Superman likes Lois Lane. So Butler makes a bomb vest (sort of) with dynamite and holds Lois ransom. To make the situation as crazy as possible he stands on the ledge outside her office to attract as much attention as he can. Sure enough Superman shows up and is made to promise not to interfere with a museum heist going on. Sadly there a few moments when the good guys could have turned the tide on him and ended the episode early. But Superman, channeling MacGyver, sets up a contraption to appear to be in The Daily Planet building while he stops the robbery. Jimmy Olsen however is so pissed that someone is threatening Lois Lane he takes matters into his own hands when he learns all the dynamite might be fake. According to Night of Terror The Daily Planet offices are on the 28th floor, but the stock footage used doesn't quite support that. A decent episode that shows Jimmy getting in a fist fight with a dude on a ledge. He even gets a raise for his efforts. The characters should probably take stock of what happened here, but since they already don't think Clark is Superman, they just don't see that the rest of the Metropolis' ne'er-do-wells are putting two-and-two together.

Czar of the Underworld- For the past month Clark Kent has been writing articles about a mobster out of LA, known as Luigi Dinelli. The articles are picked up by Hollywood to be made into a movie known as (you guessed it) Czar of the Underworld. Clark and Inspector Henderson are invited to be present of the shoot of the film, but Dinelli wants to end the picture before it starts, so he has a sniper team try to take out Clark. It doesn't work, so Clark and Henderson are more determined than ever to help with the picture and expose an untouchable mob boss. Through a montage and some studio "accidents" it's shown that Dinelli has declared war on National Studios (the makers of the movie), yet the Chief of Police on set says Dinelli is clean. They have an address but no enough on him to get an arrest warrant. When the main actor is killed, Clark puts himself out as bait by staying overnight on the set, which gives him a chance to be Superman and directly confront Dinelli. He actually flies into his house, beats everyone up, then drops Dinelli off on the set where a hitman mistakes him for Clark. By the end Dinelli is taken down and the Chief of Police is found to be working with him. Amusingly Superman slips a couple times and makes reference to himself being Clark. Good episode.

The Ghost Wolf- This one is only mildly convoluted and takes place from May 12 to 20, 1955. After some cool lumberjack stock footage, we learn that Perry White has contracted the Lone Pine Timber Company to cut down the wood for the mill that gets sent directly to The Daily Planet presses. But workers at the Timber Company are quitting due to a werewolf sighting. Perry is livid, because he's loosing traction to competing papers that can print full runs. He then sends Lois, Clark and Jimmy to check the situation out. In one of the most iconic moments of any Superman tale, he single-handedly holds a bridge up while a lumber train (containing Lois and Jimmy) crosses over him. When they finally get to the Timber Company, Lois has a couple run-ins with a wolf and a forest fire is started. Superman does some hard work to save everyone in the forest, get to the bottom of the mystery, and put the fire out. I don't like these stories with mysteries that are resolved without the main characters. Even though it's hinted that the story is set in either Washington or western Canada, most of the workers are French-Canadian, and something about the King who owned the land had died, and a daughter who snubbed a lumberjack. He got mad and tried to destroy everything. It kind of falls apart at the end, but Superman figures he can stop the forest fire by flying an un-shielded phone line into a thundercloud and when lightning strikes it will force a rain storm. They never really explain why this lady gets to walk around with a wolf scaring people off. Something about reclaiming her land. Perry White should just hire a different lumber company. It was kind of cool to see the French-Canadian character go hand to hand with a wolf and knock it out.

Crime Wave- One of the best episodes I've seen yet and my top episode for the day. Mob crime suddenly skyrockets in Metropolis, with a mob war and open season on all police. A special taskforce is put together to end it once and for all, with Superman leading it. He is even outright called "Metropolis' number one citizen" in the press. If Clark Kent is trying to lay low with the Superman thing, he went about it the wrong way. There is a lot of stock footage of crime, shootouts, murder, Superman beating people up, etc. Metropolis becomes more like Gotham City than ever before. The only ding I have on this episode is most of Superman's scenes are stock footage from previous episodes, but since this isn't a "clip show" it kind of works. Early on Superman declares the top 12 Public Enemies of Metropolis (no Lex Luthor) and he goes after them one by one. He even knows they can't do anything so he tells the press who he's going after just to show off. Here is the list:

12- Johnny Neale
11- Sam "The Fish" Miller
10- George "Greasy" Born
9- "Willie The Weeper" Shoemacher
8- Harry McCann
7- Phil "Shortcake" Mitchell
6- Duke Pizanno
5- Mike "The Crusher" Dana
4- Vince Jordon
3- Nick Marone
2- Big Ed Bullock
1- ?

The question mark is a ring-leader both Inspector Henderson and Superman (but not most people) believe is out there. As it turns out the No. 1 man started the crime wave to get Superman involved because he has a mad scientist in his back pocket with a plan to kill him. Finally, a sci-fi super-weapon. In the end the day is saved and the truth behind everything is revealed. Even the cheezy special effects are good enough. Once again cleaver crooks with an 8mm camera start to figure the connection between Clark and Superman. A must see from the first season and the last regular episode to air. The final two episodes of the season are a two-part story taken from Superman and the Mole Men, which was produced well before Crime Wave.

I doubt there was an intended story order to any of these episodes, but it seems to me that The Human Bomb should come after Crime Wave; due to the fact Butler refers to a massive crackdown on crime (specifically twelve gambling joints) in Metropolis at the beginning of the episode. This leads him to strap a bomb to himself and go after Lois. By now Superman has made such a huge name for himself there's no way people on the street don't know who he is. It is pointed out in the commentary that George Reeves was 38 during filming season 1. Why are all Superman actors now in their mid-20s? I'd like to see a seasoned Superman in a movie, and Superman Returns doesn't count.