Terror on the Midway

The band strikes up a march as playful kids wave pennants, Lois smiles and shifts her gaze lazily; clowns caper, elephants dance. It's a high moment of oblivion, humanity with its guard down. --The sort of scene Hitchcock laid out with such care, so that the mayhem, when it strikes suddenly, is fully felt.

Outside, a tiny monkey playing with a bright metal ring starts at a shadow. Jumping away, he doesn't release the ring in time; this pulls the cord that it's attached to, which springs open the latch on a circus wagon. Brief transition, and we hear a low growl at the entrance of the main tent, over the music and sounds of the crowd. We track reactions in montage as every person freezes in place. Then, only after we have been allowed take in the ripeness of the delicious moment of growing terror, are we shown what has paralyzed everyone.

The few minutes of this cartoon work exactly like prime early Hitchcock. It builds deliberately, lovingly toward a pivotal/revelatory brilliant set piece that is still exciting.

Before every large budget film tried to encompass the destruction of planet earth and the end of space time within its plot thread, choice nuggets of time-- like the one in this simple little cartoon-- were what cinema was all about. You'd wait for a moment. The moment built slowly and deliberately. Everything wasn't yielded at once. The experience was cumulative, not all sensory avalanche from first shot to last. Ultimately, the overdone-gasm sort of film doesn't last. It is seen through; the novelty, which is all it has, exhausts itself after a few viewings. Claptrap-- even well-mounted, noisy, big, breathless claptrap-- is still only that.

I see this great short as a wonderfully fresh, storyboard-like look at how feature films used to be put together. For that reason, I give it ten stars.

As is the case with the other Superman cartoons from the Fleischer Brothers, this cartoon can often be found in multi-cartoon packs for little money. However, you can also download them for free at archive.org--legally, since they are in the public domain.

The short begins with Lois and Clark at the circus. Lois is doing a story and taking photos and Clark decides to head back to work. However, just as he's about to enter the Daily Planet Building, he sees a commotion and rushes back to the circus. An enormous ape (Kong-sized) escaped and in the process freed a lot of other dangerous animals. So, it's up to Superman to round up the beasts and save Lois.

As usual, Superman saves Lois--though at least here she isn't being stupid but ends up in harm's way because she's trying to save a child. The plot is interesting and a bit atypical for the series. Worth a look.

This is the ninth, and final, Superman cartoon made by Max and Dave Fleischer. While the rest of these initial series of animated shorts are virtually made by the same crew, the Fleischer brothers are nowhere near them since they would get ousted by Paramount due to financial and personal troubles between them. In this one, Lois and Clark are assigned to cover the circus which isn't one of their more exciting projects...until a gorilla is inadvertently let loose by a monkey and causes havoc to his surroundings. As always, Lois is the damsel in distress and it's up to Superman to rescue her...Quite exciting seeing all the animals reacting to the gorilla's presence and Superman struggling to keep the simian at bay though, as always, it all ends a bit too soon. Still, Terror on the Midway is well worth a look.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent are sent to cover a circus (for some reason). They separate to cover more ground. While Lois is watching a show in the Big Top a HUGE (and very fierce-looking) gorilla (or ape) is accidentally let loose.

He proceeds to wreak havoc and, in the mayhem, other animals escape from their cages. Lois saves a little girl from the huge gorilla (or ape) but then it goes after her? Can Superman save her and the circus?

Very strange Superman cartoon. For once he isn't battling mad scientists or creatures--just animals. Also it seems kind of strange that he has trouble beating a large gorilla (even though it IS huge). And he doesn't even show up until 6 minutes in (this is only 8 minutes long). Still, it's pretty good.

This has always been one of my all-time favorites of the original SUPERMAN series, but also one of the most puzzling to me.

It is very different in tone, feel, design and execution from all the rest of the series. Most particularly because of its "darkness." I mean this both literally and figuratively.

While all the others are, for the most part, bright and cartoonish in their color design, TERROR is dark, gloomy, murky and downright sinister -even in the opening scenes of what should be a bright, cheerful circus setting.

The opening shots of the circus posters and scenes appear to me more to be still-frames, rather than intended snapshots, as though the original footage has been replaced with these artificial still shots. I am strongly tempted to believe that these particular shots were modern substitutions for the original footage.

Later, when the gorilla makes his appearance, it is plainly evident (from the excessive graininess) that the original image has been photographically enlarged to produce the close-ups of Lois Lane and the gorilla.

The unusual (and uncharacteristic) lack of detail in the close-up of Lois, combined with the strange quality of the speed at which she moves suggests that the close-up was manipulated from a much longer shot and perhaps slowed down somewhat.

The initial close-up of the gorilla is even more extreme (and highly effective as a terror shot) and suffers more from darkness and lack of detail.

A later shot of Superman wrestling with the ape also shows signs of tampering, like the poorly framed shot of Superman and the ape which, because of the clumsy re-framing of the image, results in an awkward and lengthy close-up of Superman's backside. Surely this was NOT the original intent of the film-makers.

Can anyone provide any insight?