Superman contra los hombres ratones

"Superman & The Mole Men" tells a story that's way ahead of it's time for 1951. Clark Kent & Lois Lane go to the small town Silsby to do a story on "The World's Largest Oil Well". When they arrive they find out the well is being shut down due to complications that have come about. They had drilled 6 miles down, & realized the earth's center is hollow, & there may be life down there. Their suspicions are correct when small (possibly radioactive) "mole men" start coming up & roaming around the town. (They aren't very frightening, but may have been by 1951 standards). One old man, at the well, sees them & has a heart attack & dies. Lois sees them too & describes them as having, "the bodies of moles with big human heads". A child encounters them in her bedroom & plays ball with them. She demonstrates the innocence of unjaded youth who sees someone without prejudice. The majority of the small town goes ballistic & wants to destroy the unknown "visitors". This is an excellent portrayal of small town ignorance ready to snuff out something that they don't understand, is different, out of the ordinary, or "strange" in their opinion(s). These "mole men" not only signify 'out of this world' beings, but people in one's own society as well (ridiculed for one's race, sexuality, etc.) The movie "Powder" represented the same premise in 1995! I can't write this review without mentioning that Phyllis Coates was the BEST actress to play Lois Lane! She portrayed her as feisty, sassy, independent, & resilient.

Considering it was shot in 11 days; considering its "special effects" are something less than primitive, George Reeves and this film still pack a Kryptonite-sized wallop.

Mysterious Mole-Men emerge from "the world's deepest oil well," and scare the inhabitants of the nearby town of Silsby. Despite pleas for tolerance and patience, Superman must disarm the town and protect the aliens while hard-headed Luke Benson repeatedly tries to kill them.

FACTOID #1: Despite other accounts, this film was NOT a "pilot" for the eventual series. In fact, there WAS no pilot. The day after shooting wrapped, the company spent another 12 weeks shooting 24 half-hour episodes. The comic book company decided to include a feature film as part of the schedule, so they'd be sure to recoup their investment at the box office in case no one bought the series. Lucky for us, that didn't come to pass.

FACTOID #2: Although the two-part TV version, "Unknown People," had been edited and packaged with the other 24 half-hours, it had to be withheld during the series' original run. It had been produced in 1951, and SAG rules forbade films copyrighted after 9/48 to air on TV without residuals. Not until 1960, when the rules were revised, did "Unknown People" appear.

It must have been several years after it was released, so don't know why it was at the movies. But as a kid I enjoyed it. I just found a VHS tape of Superman and the Mole Men at the flea market and decided to watch it again (it's been a lot of years). I wasn't expecting much, now knowing how the B movies were made at that time. But I was pleasantly surprised to find the movie very watchable and the acting by all outstanding. Usual acting in these type movies leaves a lot to be desired. Surprisingly, the writing wasn't bad either. Forget the fact that Superman went from sequence to sequence and could have kicked all their butts in the beginning, because then the story would have ended, right?! OK, the mole men costumes were hokey and not very scary (they didn't even scare me as a kid). However, making allowances for the probable low budget for background and costumes, it was a job well done by all. I recognized the sheriff right away as The Old Ranger from Death Valley Days and plenty of supporting roles in TV westerns. J. Farrell MacDonald played old Pop and was always a great supporting actor in more movies than I can count. Walter Reed and Jeff Corey were familiar faces as well from other movies. Did you recognize the old doctor as the captain of the ship that went to get King Kong? Did you recognize the little girl rolling the ball to the mole men as Lisbeth Searcy in Old Yeller? Some of the mole men were famous too. Jerry Maren has played Mayor McCheese for McDonalds, Little Oscar Mayer, was the Munchkin that handed Dorothy the lollipop, was on a Seifeld episode and a wealth of other work. Billy Curtis played an unforgettable part with Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter, was one of the friends met by the star in Incredible Shrinking Man, he had a part in a movie I just luckily grabbed at a flea market titled My Gal Sal with Rita Hayworth, Wizard of Oz and plenty of other parts - great actor. John Brambury was also a Munchkin. Phillis Coates, who played Lois Lane in this movie, was without question wonderful in the part and George Reeves as Superman/Clark Kent WAS Superman. He did a great job of playing the strong man. Bottom line to all I've said is that this movie is worth watching because of the cast and writing in dealing with a pretty flimsy idea for a movie. But it was the 50's and anything was possible from intruders from outer space to mole men from inner space. It is definitely worth seeing, there isn't a bad actor in the group. Whomever put the cast together was very, very fortunate to get so many gifted actors into a B type film. Some already had a wealth of experience and some were about to obtain a wealth of experience - but all were gifted. So if you get a chance to see the film, forget the dopey costumes and just enjoy the excitement and acting. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, just a good, old fashioned movie to enjoy!

We got our first television in 1951, the year that this movie "Superman and the Mole Men" came out. I was 7 years old at the time and of course we were always glued to the kids programs especially all the cartoons etc on Saturday morning.

One of my favorite programs that aired every Wednesday night at 7:00PM, sponsored by Kelloggs cereals, was Superman. We watched every episode religiously.

At the end of each episode there were a few scenes from what was going to be shown the following week. A few times they had some scenes from this movie, "Superman and the Mole Men" but for some reason it was never shown. Reading some of the other people's comments about this movie explained to me what the reason was.

However, the scenes that were shown really had me interested in seeing this movie. One of the scenes that was shown was the little girl in bed reading her book and then all of a sudden the two mole men peer in through the window and she eventually starts to play ball with them.

Another scene was the two mole men on top of the dam and Luke Benson and his cohorts trying to shoot them.

The third scene really scared me. It was when the mole men had that weapon (looks like a modified vacuum cleaner) and were firing it at Luke Benson.

This movie reminds me quite a bit of when "War of the Worlds" was aired on radio in the 1930's. Everybody was scared out of their wits because they couldn't understand anything else except the human race. Well this movie basically reveals the same message. People are afraid of the unknown.

I have always associated George Reeves with Superman. It bothered me when Christopher Reeve was give that honorary position in his full length features of Superman. I didn't even know, until 4 or 5 years ago that Kirk Alyn was really the very first Superman, even before George Reeves.

As has been said, this movie is in its own way is a classic and will be forever etched in movie history as ONE G-R-E-A-T MOVIE!

Superman and his supporting cast of characters have been portrayed on the silver screen, the small screen and the stage by a number of actors and actresses. However somehow no one can play the man of steel and the Daily Planets star female reporter Lois Lane quite like George Reeves and Phyllis Coates. Certainly no one can portray Superman's alter ego Clark Kent like Reeves did. This film has probably been seen by many as the two part "Unknown People" episode on the classic TV series but if you haven't seen the feature film of this story do so. Coates gives a great performance as Lois Lane and seems to come the closest of any actress who has portrayed this character to being the Lois that was depicted in the comics. (When she called Clark Kent a Pantywaist she meant it!) During one scene Clark almost gives away his true identity when he advises terrified townsfolk about the subterranean visitors "Go to your homes lock your doors and windows let me handle this". He then bolts away and Lois turns to the Oil well boss and exclaims "He always does that, gets himself into a jam and then runs away" Classic Lois Lane! While the effects by today's standards seem antiquated and the Mole Men/Unknown People aren't as scary as alien characters that frequent TV shows today they aren't to be missed.