The Man Jet Dark Defeat Superman Experiment

There were five new episodes of The Adventures of Superman on TV the month of October, 1953. As I've said before there really aren't any good records or recordings of other contemporary shows, so for the time being this show will have to represent them all.

The Man Who Could Read Minds- Superman has to stop another criminal gang. Their plan is to pose as a mind-reading act at the Tip Top Cafe. During the act one of them "borrows" the house key of a rich "mark" attending and makes a wax impression. Then the one dubbed by the media, The Phantom Burglar, drives to the victim's house while cutting a new key from the mold. In, out and done by the time victim is home. This has gone on long enough that The Daily Planet started writing headlines that make the police look incompetent. Inspector Henderson invites all the main characters out into the residential area to show them the police are doing everything possible. Jimmy convinces Lois they can catch the burglars on their own and the two run off. They actually catch the burglars in the act but Jimmy gets beat up and shot at. Laterm Lois dresses up Jimmy to look South American so he can use his Spanish 101 classes and bait a trap. This, of course, backfires and Superman saves the day. At least Jimmy can put up a good fight. The cool Superman moment involves a car chase. Jimmy is driving Lois' car when the bad guys shoot out the tire. He almost goes off a cliff but Superman grabs the car from behind and pulls them off the ledge. There's a weird moment when the picture freezes on Perry White drive Clark Kent after Jimmy and Lois. You can still hear distant action but the image is obviously frozen because someone decided to stretch the scene out and didn't know what to do.

Jet Ace- Another one of Perry White's relatives is in the spotlight. Nephew Chris White is a civilian test pilot for the Air Force, out on a secret test flight in an F-86D Sabre Dog. Something goes wrong during an ill advised dive and he loses oxygen when his controls lock up. Because Perry invited all the main characters to the Air Force Base, Clark is in the perfect position to sneak out, become Superman and save Chris. This is just the excuse Perry needs to force Chris to take a vacation in his hunting lodge. A rival news paper reporter, Steve Martin of The Blade, tries to out-scoop everyone, but gets kicked out by the military. Chris demands to have a rifle if he is to vacation. Later at the hunting lodge Chris is attacked by two thugs who demand to have the report he wrote about his flight. He is taken to a masked man who beats him up for info. Perry gets word that Chris has vanished, fears the worst and sends Clark and Jimmy to check out things. Eventually Chris is taken back to the lodge when the masked man is revealed to be the Martin, the reporter. He torches the lodge to kill Chris, but Superman once again saves him in time. Chris had actually put the report in the barrel of his hunting rifle which was recovered from the scene. Everyone sets a trap for Martin, and Clark watches while Chris beats him unconscious. A descent episode with a convoluted plot to capture and nearly murder Chris, just so Martin can get a story. The Blade must be a terrible paper. Great moments for Superman include saving the jet and interrogating the two thugs who kidnapped Chris.

Shot in the Dark- A little kid using an infrared flash bulb happens to catch a couple photos of Clark Kent changing in to Superman (or the other way around), down the alley next to the Daily Planet. Once again Clark hasn't been as cleaver as he thought and someone just found him out... again... in that alley. That kid also took another picture of Burt Burnside, a con-man, who starts threatening the family. The addle-brained mom finds Clark, accuses him of being Superman in front of Jimmy Olsen and asks for help. The entire episode is enjoyable to watch because Clark has to tap-dance his way around every piece of evidence linking him to Superman, all while either Jimmy or Lois is with him. By the end he captures the bad guys and worms his way out of further scrutiny. This episode introduces Superman's heat vision, which he combines with X-Ray vision to find things behind walls and destroy them (all while doing no damage to his glasses or any walls). But the best bit is when Burt, who realizes Clark is Superman, pulls a pistol out of an ankle holster and shoots Clark point blank. When Jimmy demands to know how he's still alive, Clark pulls a silver dollar out of his pocket, mashes it a little and says the bullet bounced off. All the main characters are ignorant of Clark once again. Background details we learn about Metropolis: they have a subway system with a station at 34th Street and at least two commuter cars named "Valley Express" and "Valley Local". Superman once again proves his immunity to electricity when he breaks the third rail to stop a runaway Local train from hitting the Express.

The Defeat of Superman- Over a year ago crime lord Happy King ran off to Europe just when Superman was about to catch him. Unlike the first season, Superman is known world-wide now and Happy King is back in Metropolis with a European scientist, Professor Meldini. This Professor has an interesting theory. He thinks Superman is not from Earth, and suspects he's from Krypton. How did anybody on Earth know about Krypton in 1953? This is still 4 years before Sputnik. Oh wait, this is Science Fiction. Meldini somehow got a hold of meteor from Krypton and made a bullet out of it, calling it Kryptonite. Superman gets caught in a trap and is shot with it, stinging him. With conclusive proof, Meldini explains that Kryptonite doesn't hurt Superman's people on their home planet, only on Earth, and that it is harmless to humans. He devises a way to create artificial Kryptonite and makes a block of it the size of a stick of butter, enough to kill Superman before he can touch it. Another trap is set, using Lois and Jimmy who stuck their noses in when they shouldn't have, and all three are stuck in a basement with the Kryptonite. It's fast acting as Superman loses his powers then falls unconscious. Eventually Superman comes around just long enough to suggest encasing it in a lead pipe, which Jimmy finds as part of the plumbing. Superman regains all his strength and takes the pipe (with the Kryptonite) and throws it as hard as he can out to sea. King and his henchmen, driving away, see an object shoot past them in the sky, and they drive off a cliff not paying any attention to the road. Great episode again, having to do with bad guys figuring out Superman. This time they had knowledge Superman didn't even have. King also makes the leap of logic that Lois is practically Superman's girl. Now Lois and Jimmy have to keep Kryptonite a secret. This is the best episode of October.

Superman in Exile- Project X is a nuclear reactor that outputs Gamma Radiation. It runs out of control and Superman removes the control rods before Metropolis has to be evacuated. He is however dosed with too much radiation, even glowing in the dark. He chooses to exile himself on Mt. Blue Peak, which overlooks all of Metropolis, until a possible cure can be devised. Criminals realize they're free to do what they want again, and one in particular kidnaps Lois Lane, knowing Superman won't come close if she is threatened with radiation poisoning. They plan to steal an airplane with rare jewels on it. A sudden thunderstorm inspires Superman to fly into it. After a lightning strike cleans him of radiation (how, I don't know), he locates the aircraft with Lois on it, forces it to land and the police arrive to arrest everyone. Jimmy and Lois noticed throughout the episode that Clark wasn't around and began to suspect he's Superman. They are now looking for any excuse to jump to that conclusion, but in the end Clark changes her mind, again. A decent episode. Superman's glowing body is used to good effect whenever he moves into the darkness. A glowing Superman sitting on a mountain, staring at Metropolis is a powerful image.

Since Season 2 started they have been working more and more flying effects into the scenes. They are now more elaborate, and one even shows him flying past buildings, across hills and up into the sky for longer than any other episode. At least once I saw a wire holding him up, but the series is so much fun it can be ignored, and others show him flying sideways and other illogical directions. Not bad, though. He is also getting to show off more of his powers, now, and he also has a better sense of his environment as he constantly scans things using X-Ray Vision or Superhearing. A good group of episodes from October, 1953.