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- The Adventures Of Superman Download
- http://urllio.com/r1od5
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- The Man of Steel fights crime with help from his friends at the Daily Planet.
- "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!" Mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet is really the greatest superhero of them all who "fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way!"
- I had caught a few episodes of this popular show on Italian TV as a kid and, therefore, leapt at the chance of watching this seminal first series via Warners' R2 DVD. It's naïve (Clark Kent needing to go into an alley - which happens to be the same one, no matter where he happens to be at the time! - to turn into Superman, his coming through windows feet first, and the exact same flying sequences duplicated from one episode to the next) but undeniably great fun.<br/><br/>During the course of the series, we get some intriguing borderline horror/sci-fi ideas - while black-and-white allowed for plenty of low-budget (and often studio-bound) atmosphere; apparently, the following series jettisoned the relative violence of the first (several violent deaths occur throughout and, amazingly, Superman himself isn't above 'killing' two blackmailers who accidentally uncovered his identity, or manipulate a villain into an ambush meant for him!) and the show was gradually turned into pure kiddie fare! Thankfully, here, Clark Kent isn't the klutz depicted in both the Max Fleischer animated series of the 1940s (which I rented on DVD to go along with this set) and the Christopher Reeve films of the 1970s and 80s - with Clark and Lois Lane's banter being reminiscent, at times, of screwball comedies.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, however, the special effects are extremely dated and Superman is very rarely called upon to showcase his extraordinary powers - most often, he just beats the villains up like any normal person would! Still, Reeves is a credible no-nonsense Superman, Phyllis Coates an attractive and tough Lois Lane, Jack Larson a geeky but likable Jimmy Olsen and John Hamilton an amusingly irascible Perry White. Supporting casts featured a few character actors familiar from Hollywood films of the time, who were often allowed to let rip with the villainy (especially in episodes such as THE EVIL THREE and MYSTERY IN WAX).<br/><br/>The last entry proper, CRIME WAVE, was basically a summation of the entire first series: Superman cleans up town from the underworld scourge in a number of rapid-fire montages culled from the highlights of several of the earlier episodes. THE UNKNOWN PEOPLE PARTS I & II, which officially closed the first season, are actually a two-part TV reduction of the 1951 film SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN (which, basically, had served as a pilot for the series)! The Audio Commentaries are, obviously, fan-boyish tracks by an expert on the subject who, at least, doesn't refrain from giving away technical blunders or illogical plot developments.
- "Superman" was so full of goofs, it was ridiculous, apart from the obvious failure for the others to reason that Clark Kent was Superman, even when Kent removed his glasses for whatever reasons. Big-city newspapers do not give reporters individual offices nor have just an "editor," as opposed to managing editor, city editor, etc. Why was nothing ever stored in the "store room?" Why did Superman, no matter what his destination, fly out of the Daily Planet past the same construction site every time? Why did it take Superman 45 seconds sometimes, to fly across town, but 30 seconds to traverse oceans? In "Crime Wave," Mr. X's identity was inadvertently revealed to the audience just a few minutes into the episode. When the professor showed Superman how to wish his body into two, had he also shown how to wish up two Superman uniforms? In "Panic in the Sky," although almost knocked silly, how did Superman have the wherewithal to change back into Clark Kent within seconds of when the gal's car appeared in the distance? When Superman rescued the condemned man from the electric chair in "Five Minutes to Doom," why would he even risk taking the time needed to first get the governor's signature on a pardon document, since he (Superman) had truth and justice on his side in the first place? Why, since Metropolis was on the East Coast in the early 1950s, did the Daily Planet staff encounter so many nearby Indians and Mexican natives, but never a black person except one train porter and some people that they encountered in Haiti? And in "The Town That Wasn't," which was one of my favorite episodes even though it was panned by reviewers, why did Inspector Henderson arrest the phony cops and judge, when the real police (probably sheriff's department) from the area should have taken over? I could probably think of many more. However, despite Tom Snyder's attempt to be funny when he discussed the show on "Tomorrow" in 1976, there actually was one "Superman" episode when, after Superman ignores gun shots directly at his heart, the criminal then throws the gun, and Superman does, in fact, duck.
- In the first season Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane. She left to concentrate on her movie career. Noel Neill who took over the role in the second season had experience since she played Lois Lane in the two Superman movie serials. Both actresses were recruited to play Lois Lane's mother: Noel Neill in the movie Superman (1978) and Phyllis Coates in the television series Lois and Clark. a5c7b9f00b
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