Superman Chapter 2 – Depths of the Earth (1948) – Blue Towel Productions

This is the first ever live action (mostly) adaption of Superman, long one of my favorite characters–a 15 chapter serial (serialized films that were released in cinema matinée screenings over successive weeks) from Columbia pictures in 1948. It starred Kirk Alyn, Noel Neill, Tommy Bond, and Carol Foreman. I’m going through it (and its sequel) chapter by chapter. Read here for where it all starts.

Depths of the Earth (Chapter 2)

Directed by Spencer Bennett and Thomas Carr
Runtime: 16 minutes

Spoilers!

Super-feats: Superman saves the train that was in danger last episode by bending the rail back in place. Later, he uses his X-Ray vision to see a woman trapped in a fire, and then flies up and saves her. At the end, he uses his vision to see that Lois is trapped in a mine, and races to save her. He also uses his super-hearing to hear what Lois and Jimmy are saying to Perry White over the phone.

Super-Lore introduced (in the context of these serials, I’m not warranting this is true for the character overall): Perry White is introduced as the managing editor of the Daily Planet. Superman’s X-Ray vision is named this explicitly in the narration.

Comments: I thought we were all done with setting up Superman’s backstory but I was wrong, because this episode deals with his arrival at the Daily Planet. We are introduced to Perry White (Pierre Watkin) and thus completing the four-person band that audiences became used to seeing in the subsequent TV show (Clark, Lois, Jimmy and Perry). Watkin’s Perry White is full of all the bluster and outbursts that the character became known for.

Clark arrives in Metropolis completely unprepared to get a job as a reporter. He’s put so little effort into this thing that he doesn’t even know the name of the paper he should try to get a job at! He only finds out from a cab driver. When he gets to the Daily Planet, he just strolls in, and announces he wants to be a reporter even though he doesn’t have any writing experience. Then he cuts Perry a deal that if he can get the inside story on the mining disaster that has stymied Lois and Jimmy, he’ll have a job.

And so off he zips to the mine, where Lois has just managed to get a tip from an old drunk of a miner. There are men trapped inside the mine and this guy knows how to reach them, but nobody will listen to him except Lois. Of course she gets stuck there for her troubles, but luckily Superman is on his way.

This makes, incidentally, the second episode in a row that ends with Lois in danger, although in fairness to her the first time (last episode) it wasn’t really her fault. This time around she willingly just walks inside a clearly dangerous mine, intrepid ace reporter that she is.

At this point in the serial there still is no sign of any overarching plot, except for the general story of Superman establishing himself. Indeed the first part of the episode features two daring rescues (one with the train from the previous cliffhanger, and another involving a woman in a burning building) which seem to be there to put Superman on the map for the local citizenry. So far, whenever anyone sees him they are amazed—how long will it be before the idea of Superman is common knowledge? It didn’t take long in the ’78 feature film; I can’t imagine them spending a lot of time on it here.

One thing that hasn’t happened yet is the first meeting between Lois and Superman. Clark meets Jimmy in this episode, but Lois is already off on her misadventures by then. My guess is that that will happen in Chapter 3, and then after that the idea of Superman being around will become “status quo.”

In general, Depths of the Earth has got a lot going on in its 16 minute runtime and maintains the reasonably high quality of this serial. Kirk Alyn shows a fair amount of twinkling charm in both of his personas. Noel Neill as Lois demonstrates the gutsy commitment to get a story regardless of how much danger she gets into that has made her so enduring as a character. And Pierre Watkin as Perry White is full of bluster and snark that is really amusing.

Classically, one of the biggest problems with this form of media, as best I can tell with my limited viewing, is terrible pacing and a sense of repetition or even monotony to the drama, but so far Superman has managed to keep things interesting.

Of course, we’re only two chapters out of 15 into this thing so far!

Cliffhanger ending: Lois collapses in a gas-filled mine as Superman races to save her and the miners trapped with her. However, apparently this wasn’t meant to be much of a concern to the audience because the action questions posed by the narrator are:

What terrific force is this that Superman is fighting? What sinister danger menaces Clark Kent? Don’t fail to see The Reducer Ray, the third thrill-packed chapter of Superman, at this theatre next week!

Both refer to events that haven’t even begun to happen in this episode.

Other Thoughts:

• When Superman rescues the person from the fire, we get our first glimpse of Superman being animated so he can fly . We’d had animation with his rocket in the last episode, but this is quite different.

It’s definitely jarring to see the transition, but I guess they felt it was the best they could do at the time. If the alternative would have been to not show Superman using his powers, this is definitely better.
• There’s a montage of newspaper headlines about Superman and the fire before we get to the Daily Planet. Apparently, the other newspapers covering the story are called The Daily Chronicle, Gazette Journal, The Star Dispatch, and The Evening News.
• At the end, when Clark uses his X-Ray vision to see that Lois Lane is indeed in trouble in the mine, there is a pretty dramatic close up of Kirk Alyn staring through the rocks, accompanied by a dramatic musical sting.