The Mole Men and the Unknown People Experiment

Superman and the Mole Men, from November 23, 1951, was the first theatrical release of Superman. Prior to it there were two serials of Superman, but I don't count serials as movies. At the end of the first season of The Adventures of Superman, someone must have decided to break the movie into two parts and end the season, probably to save money. This is also the only two-parter of the series. There are differences between the two versions of the story, but the big one that occurs to me is changing the name of Mole Men to just Unknown People. If you saw the movie, they aren't really unknown. Maybe the studio execs were trying to trick people into thinking they were getting a new story? I also want to point out how well these episodes plug into the established series as if it belonged there. This is technically the pilot of the series, yet watching it at the end of the first season you'd never know. Strangely there seems to be no common consensus as to when these two parts aired. I have arbitrarily decided to tack them on at the end of the season, but I have seen at least one plausible source suggesting August 10, 1953. Most other places claim no one actually knows. So for today I'm pretending these are from March, 1953. My blog, my rules, and I'm sticking to it.

The Unknown People, part I- The town of Silsby, 2500 miles from Metropolis (possibly in Texas), is host to the world's deepest oil drilling platform. Since it passed the 6 mile mark the drill was ordered to stop and be dismantled. Witness to these events are Lois Lane and Clark Kent, who were invited down to write a story. Clark hopes instead to make the story about the sudden work stoppage when they are told by the foreman, Corrigan, to spend the night at the Hotel Silsby and leave in the morning. Oddly, Lois thinks there's nothing here, but Clark convinces her to go back to the site to talk to the night watchman, whom they both find dead. Clark is able to get more information out of Corrigan now that lives are at stake. It seems that the drill had punched through to a hollow spot after passing 6 miles. Examining the drill-bit he found microscopic life and began to worry that the Earth is actually hollow and more advanced life forms live in it. There is also glowing soil samples he thinks are radioactive. This story is pushing for a hollow Earth, but it is more likely a hollow chamber. Clark appears to go along, but I don't think he believes him. They both come to the conclusion that something came out of the hole left behind by the drill. They had even put a hatch over it, but the "Unknown People" were able to open it from beneath. As sightings of strange little people crop up, the town folk of Silsby are in an uproar. In one of those creepy sci-fi moments I hate, strange headed creatures stare in a window at a little girl. Luke Benson gathers a large group at the Hotel Silsby to go hunting for them, even after Clark tries to calm everyone. They storm out and Clark becomes Superman in hopes he can stop everyone. There's a great aerial shot from Superman's perspective flying over the crowd to the girl's house. My favorite moment of the mob itself is when an unarmed man walks past a barber shop and tears down the barber poll as a weapon. Superman fails to get through to them so the townsfolk run off and corner the two creatures on the town's dam...

The Unknown People, part II- ... where one of them is shot. Superman flies in to grab him before he falls in the town's water supply, contaminating it. While he's busy flying the wounded creature to Geneva County Hospital the rest of Luke's mob is hunting the remaining one, chasing into an abandoned tool shack. Luke burns the shack down but leaves before realizing the creature escaped. Luke is proud of himself and goes back to town to tell the sheriff he got rid of the two. When the sheriff tells him one is the hospital and to leave it there, Luke pulls a gun on the sheriff and puts his mob pack together. Superman intervenes, taking everyone's weapons and orders them to stay away. While he's busy fighting the whole town, the lone Mole Man goes back down the drill hole and comes up with two more guys plus a nifty giant silver weapon. Marching through a mostly deserted town the three creatures head for the hospital. Superman confronts them and realizes they want their man back. Luke tries one more time to kill something and he gets shot by the Mole Man weapon. Superman intervenes, gives them their injured comrade, they leave and the town finally relaxes. The Mole Men do blow up the oil platform and the shaft so they will be left alone. THE END.

As creepy and corny as the mole creatures were, they were constantly filmed as sympathetic and not evil. This could so easily have gone the other way if they were just made to be bad guys, as Superman might have had to fight an invading force. The new Doctor Who series had a similar episode dealing with a drill that goes too far and wakens an ancient race deep within the Earth. That, however, did turn into a threat for the entire planet.

This edit is a bit better than the original movie, because some of the slower parts were cut and the music was changed to the now standard Superman themes. This story is all about panic and hysteria over the unknown, very similar (but on a different scale) to The Day the Earth Stood Still, which was released only a month before Superman and the Mole Men. It probably occurs to Superman at some point that if the townsfolk treated him as an alien, and not an American superhero, he might have similar issues. Not that he's easy to hurt, but it would suck to have the entire US government gunning for you. Season 1 ends. Season 2 doesn't start until mid-September 1953, so for the next few days I will watch the summer Sci-Fi movies of the era.