Adventures of Superman - The Deserted Village

episode 1.12

USA 1952
produced by
Bernard Luber, Robert Maxwell, Barney Sarecky (associate) for Motion Pictures for Television
directed by Thomas Carr
starring George Reeves, Phyllis Coates, Fred Sherman, Maudie Prickett, Edmund Cobb, Malcolm Mealey, Ann Tyrrell
screenplay by Ben Peter Freeman, Dick Hamilton, based on the comicbook created by Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, published by DC Comics

TV-series
Superman, Superman (George Reeves), Adventures of Superman

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Clark Kent (George Reeves) and Lois Lane (Phyllis Coates) are investigating the curious case of a village that's almost completely deserted, and the few locals who stayed behind are rather hesitant to tell the two reporters anything at all, try to pretend that everything's alright as it is, and suggest that Lois and Clark should leave as soon as possible ... so eventually, Lois does a bit of investigating on her own, and stumbles upon a mine, that despite the lack of locals is still operating ... and she is attacked by a monster that tries to kill her with poisonous gas ... enter Superman (of course also George Reeves), who beats up the monster and reveals it to be one of the locals, Alvin (Malcolm Mealey), still in the village, then he relates the whole story to the others: Alvin and his father (Edmund Cobb) learned about a rich mine in the vicinity of the village and thus tried to scare off and/or kill all the locals using the monster outfit and poisonous gas - which almost worked safe for a few locals who had gasmasks. For some reason though, these locals did not report the whole thing to the authorities but tried to handle the whole affair themselves - which I have to admit is the aspect of the story I didn't get.

A great set-up - a deserted village, a monster, poisonous gas, a creepy mine - amounts to surprisingly little thanks to overly clichéd storytelling, a lack of atmospheric sets (especially the cardboard mine sets are pathetic), and a very disappointing climax and solution of the whole case. A pity.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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