VHS : Superman & Mole Men

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- Definately try before you buy- Another dissenter
I was really disappointed in this but I didn't realize why until I read the review that pointed out the music shift when they recut it for TV. I own the Music CD from the series (also available on Amazon), and when I compared the music on the movie- sure enough- that is definately the missing element. If you are interested in the CD, search "popular music" for the title: "The Adventures of Superman: Original Television Soundtrack (1950s TV Series)"

I strongly suggest anyone wanting this to first take a look at a copy from a video rental house.

I much prefer Phyllis Coates as Lois. She was ok in this, a little snippy and bitchy, but my opinion is that the more classic scenes of her were in the tv episodes, not this movie.

Rating:

- Refreshing!!!!!
George Reeves and Phyllis Coates at their best! Superman at his most assertive, seldom smiling as he to often did in later episodes.Clark Kent proving he is as good a detective as he is a reporter. Lois Lane at her very best...Phyllis Coates projecting her fear and wonder very convincingly. And the Mole Men...you`ll feel compassion for them. With an excellent supporting cast and the ooh so beautiful automobiles....Superman and the Mole Men is a must see !!! Highly entertaining!!!!

Rating:

- Better as "Edited for Television"
Sorry, but this has to be a dissenting opinion. As some of the other reviewers have noted, "Superman and the Mole Men" was later edited into a two-part episode for the George Reeves TV program, now rechristened as "The Unknown People." Sorry, folks, but in this case the "edited for TV" version is a distinct improvement and for one reason: THE MUSIC! The score used in the original movie is a pallid, third-rate job that does nothing to advance the action or to support the eerie, "film noir" feel of the camera work. But when the film was mixed down for presentation on TV, the show's producers had the genius to replace the film's soundtrack with some of the scariest, most vivid background scores then available. (As a matter of fact, this weird and wonderful music - used over and over again as background music throughout the first, black-and -white season of the 1950's "Adventures of Superman" TV show - has been helpfully collected on CD by the Varese-Sarabande label. You can order it right here, at Amazon.com!) I only wish the edited TV version was made commercially available; anyone who gets to know "Superman and the Mole Men" only through this original theatrical release will have no idea of how good it really is, or understand how the effective use of great background music can turn a third-rate movie into a very good film.

Rating:

- A classic look at 1950's America
A must see film. George Reeves and Phyllis Coates do an excellent job. This is the springboard for the series. The mole men come out of the ground and have to be protected. this is more of a film about the attitudes of 1950 USA. During that time, America was threatened by communism and anything 'different' was automatically branded as bad. The director and the cast did a great job of trying to educate the small town (while really meaning America) that tolerance is a virtue everyone can live together despite their apparent diffences. A much deeper and thought provoking film than it appears.

Rating:

- The pilot that lauched the Superman craze of the 1950's.
This 1951 feature served as the pilot for the series that lives on today in syndication. Shot in just eleven days in July of 1951, this low budget film introduced George Reeves as the Man of Steel, fighting small town intolerance when Mole Men from the center of the Earth arrive in Silsby through an oil well drilled to the core of the planet. Fans of the series will enjoy the different music used to cue the flying sequences, and the standing take off Superman employs in one scene. (It was one of two times wire take offs were used, and both times Superman wound up on his Superrump on the cutting room floor. Later Reeves would use a spring board to achieve the effect.) This 58 minute feature was later cut into a two part episode called The Unknown People. The no nonsense approach by George Reeves in the title role will fascinate fans of the series, watching to see how the character would later evole in the TV format. The film noir tone serves as a time capsule of 1951. A must see for the diehard Superman fan.

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