Atom Man vs Superman (1950) DVD9 - Disk 1 of 2 - Chapters 1 to 9 of 15 [DDR]

Atom Man vs Superman (1950) DVD9 - Disk 1 of 2 - Chapters 1 to 9 of 15 [DDR]

Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), Columbia's 43rd serial and the second live-action Superman screen appearance, both featuring Kirk Alyn as Superman, finds Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot), secretly the Atom Man, blackmailing the city of Metropolis by threatening to destroy the entire community. Perry White (Pierre Watkin), editor of the Daily Planet, assigns Lois Lane (Noel Neill), Jimmy Olsen (Tommy Bond) and Clark Kent (Kirk Alyn) to cover the story.

CAST:-
Kirk Alyn as Superman/Clark Kent
Noel Neill as Lois Lane
Lyle Talbot as Lex Luthor/The Atom Man
Tommy Bond as Jimmy Olsen
Pierre Watkin as Perry White
Jack Ingram as Foster (dapper henchman)
Don C. Harvey as Albor (lab henchman)
Rusty Wescoatt as Carl (beefy henchman)
Terry Frost as Baer (medium henchman)
Wally West as Henchman Dorr
Paul Stader as 'Killer' Lawson
George Robotham as Earl, TV truck cameraman-driver

Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet
Produced by Sam Katzman
Written by David Mathews, George H. Plympton, Joseph F. Poland,
Based on Characters by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster

PRODUCTIONS NOTES
Despite their onscreen personas, Talbot (Lex Luthor), who wore a rubber scalp to create the impression of baldness, and Alyn (Superman) spent much of their time, when not shooting, exchanging recipes; both actors shared an interest in cookery.

The final set piece shows Metropolis under attack by "poorly animated" flying saucers and a torpedo.

The flying effects were somewhat improved in this film than in the original, by the simple expedient of turning the camera on its side. Kirk Alyn stood with arms raised in front of a cyclorama, while a wind machine and smoke pot were placed above him (out of frame). This gave an inexpensive illusion of flight. Longer shots continued to use cartoon animation of the Man of Steel.

In their book The Great Movie Serials, Jim Harman and Donald F. Glut describe the serial as "far more gimmicky and gadget prone" than the first Superman serial. In addition to this, they also found it to be "flawed by the same Katzman cheapness."



SYNOPSIS:- Atom Man Vs Superman (1950)
Lex Luthor, the Atom Man, invents a number of deadly devices to plague the city, including a disintegrating machine which can reduce people to their basic atoms and reassemble them in another place. But Superman manages to thwart each scheme. Since Kryptonite can rob Superman of his powers, Luthor decides to create a synthetic Kryptonite and putters about obtaining the necessary ingredients: plutonium, radium and the undefined 'etc.' Luthor places the Kryptonite at the launching of a ship, with Superman in attendance. He is exposed to the Kryptonite and passes out. Superman is taken off in an ambulance driven by Luthor's henchmen, and he is now under the control of Luthor. Superman is placed in a device, a lever is pulled, and the Man of Steel vanishes into "The Empty Doom" (which bears a similarity to the Phantom Zone of the comic books). Most of chapter 7 is a repeat of the origin story from chapter 1 of Columbia's first "Superman" serial, and this serial also finds a way to work in stock footage from Ken Maynard's 1936 Avenging Waters (also directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet[1]). The serial features several elements re-used in later Superman features: the Man of Steel is exposed to synthetic Kryptonite during a public function, as he is in the motion picture Superman III. When he escapes from "The Empty Doom", the headline of the Daily Planet proclaims: Superman Returns, the title of the 2006 Superman movie.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 29.970
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages:English
RunTime 252 mins
Subtitles: ENGLISH, SPANISH, FRENCH
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 252 mins