Billion Dollar Limited

Crooks are stealing a shipment of a billion dollars worth of gold from a government train.

Lois Lane is on the train and she takes on the baddies with a machine gun.

Pretty soon Superman flies in and does battle. He faces machine gun fire and has bombs thrown at him as he needs to pull the train to safety.

A brisk cartoon. It is surprising that Clarke Kent did not suspect anything as the baddies rushed by as Clark was waving goodbye to Lois.

While all of the Fleischer/Famous Studios "Superman" cartoons are excellent, "Billion Dollar Limited," the third in the series, is probably the best of the lot in terms of overall animation, plot, and pacing. Why it wasn't even nominated for an Oscar as Best Animated Short for 1942 (Incredibly enough, only the first one was) in inexplicable.

Here, Lois Lane is assigned to cover the transfer of one billion dollars in gold to the U.S. Mint. Masked gangsters in their super-powered (for 1942) car take off after the train, determined to get that gold. Without giving too much away, what ensues is a thrill ride for both the characters and the audience, with truth, justice, and Superman triumphant at the end.

As they did in all the Fleischer/Famous Superman cartoons, Clayton "Bud" Collyer and Joan Alexander, who played Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane on radio, have the voice work honors here, and Fleischer perennial Jack Mercer gets a little to do as one of the bad guys, as well.

BILLION DOLLAR LIMITED is the third instalment in the Fleischer brothers' classic, animated SUPERMAN series. This time, Big Blue is up against a gang of train robbers, out to abscond with a shipment of gold.

Of course, Lois is aboard, holding her own for a while. Even brandishing a machine gun gangster style. When Superman arrives, he finds that these crooks are very insistent upon getting their loot!

Action-packed and full of thrills, this is an excellent addition to the serial, also showcasing Superman's impossible strength when the train hurtles toward a failed bridge!

Highly recommended...

If you enjoyed the numerous other "Superman" short animated stories from the 1940s, then you will definitely also like "Billion Dollar Limited".

Writers Seymour Kneitel and Izzy Sparber put together an enjoyable and entertaining script here, despite the fact that "Billion Dollar Limited" is only running at 9 minutes. It is a well-rounded script and story, and I definitely found it to be enjoyable, and very much in the spirit of "Superman".

The art and animation style in "Billion Dollar Limited" is similar to that in most of the other 1940s animated short "Superman" stories, for better or worse.

My rating of the 1942 animated short story "Billion Dollar Limited" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Millions in gold is traveling by train to the US treasury. Traveling along is Lois Lane to report on it. Along the way the train is attacked by masked thieves. They detach the car with the armed guards in it and attack the remaining ones. This leads to a vicious fight between the remaining guards and the thieves. The thieves overpower them but then Lois Lane jumps in. She beats the thieves off the train (at one point using a gun) but the train starts to careen out of control. Lois can't stop it and the thieves will stop at nothing to get the gold. Good thing Superman is on the way!

Fast, exciting, non-stop action. Probably one of the best of all the cartoons. Just great.