Superman and the Mole Men

Superman and the Mole Men (1951)

ON THE SCREEN...America's Favorite Hero!

Reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in the small town of Silsby to witness the drilling of the world's deepest oil well. The drill, however, has penetrated the underground home of a race of small, furry people who then come to the surface at night to look around. The fact that they glow in the dark scares the townfolk, who form a mob, led by the vicious Luke Benson, intent on killing the strange people. Only Superman has a chance to prevent this tragedy.

Date of release
1951-11-23
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (81)
Runtime
58m
Genres
Science Fiction, Action, Adventure
Director
Lee Sholem
Collection
Superman (George Reeves) Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Superman

Superman and the Mole Men is a 1951 American superhero film released by Lippert Pictures. Produced by Barney A. Sarecky and directed by Lee Sholem, it stars George Reeves as Superman and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane. It is the first feature film based on any DC Comics character, and it is the first occurrence of Reeves playing the role of Superman as he later would in the television series Adventures of Superman.

Production

Superman and the Mole Men is the first theatrical feature film based on any DC Comics character. There had been a series of 17 animated Superman short subjects theatrically released by Paramount Pictures' Fleischer Studios. Two live-action, multiple-chapter serials produced by Columbia Pictures and featuring Kirk Alyn as Superman and Noel Neill as Lois Lane had been shown in weekly installments at cinemas.

The original screenplay was by credited to Richard Fielding, a pseudonym for Robert Maxwell and Whitney Ellsworth.

Superman and the Mole Men was filmed over the course of nearly two weeks, starting on July 10, 1951 at RKO-Pathé Studios. The film, only 58 minutes in length, was released as a trial in anticipation of the syndicated Adventures of Superman television series, for which it became the only two-part episode, titled "The Unknown People".

The laser-like weapon employed by the Mole Men was a prop fashioned by adding metal shoulder braces to one end of an Electrolux vacuum cleaner body. For the ray's gun barrel, a standard metal funnel was attached to the other.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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