Secret Agent

"Secret Agent" was the 17th and final Superman cartoon produced by Paramount Pictures. Made in 1943, it came at the end of a run that started with nine cartoons produced by the Fleischer brothers who left Paramount in 1942. In contrast with the other Superman cartoons, this one is essentially a straight-ahead action-crime thriller with less of an emphasis on Superman and more on a group of spies and saboteurs trying to stop a gorgeous blonde (an undercover Fed) from getting her list of names to Washington DC. There are high-speed car chases, shootouts with the police, and a climax on a moving bridge platform. Superman doesn't even show up until the last two minutes. Other than a relatively brief display of his powers, there are no science fiction elements. It all takes place at night in richly detailed urban settings. It's an astounding, breathtaking work and indicates a possible direction American animation could have taken had it followed the lead of American comic books the way the Superman cartoons did.

What if the filmmakers here had used this same style of animation to do a series of Batman cartoons in the 1940s, film noir style? What if an entire animated theatrical feature had been done in this style? Think of the possibilities. Perhaps American animation wouldn't have been stuck for decades in the Disney/Hanna-Barbera mold which ultimately dominated American animation. As it is, it took Japanese animators some 40 years after "Secret Agent" to show us how crime thrillers could be presented vividly in animation with THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13 and CRYING FREEMAN, although with considerably higher quotients of bloodshed and violence.

This is the final Superman cartoon from the Fleischer Brothers. It does seem odd that this extremely patriotic and propaganda-infused cartoon series would end mid-WWII. Perhaps they just weren't very popular. Or, perhaps the animators were needed for government work. Sadly, being the last, it's also among the least of the films in the series. Part of it is because Clark/Superman only utters one line! The film begins with Clark Kent on the phone. His boss insists he cover some boring event and Clark weakly protests with his only line. Suddenly, cars come crashing by--chasing another car and firing at it repeatedly. Clark jumps onto the back of the vehicle giving chase and follows them to their headquarters.

The lady in the other car escapes and soon you see her at police headquarters explaining that she needs help getting to Washington because she has a list of enemy spies in America. On the way, not surprisingly, they are attacked and this spunky lady escapes yet again. However, she is in serious danger so Clark somehow instinctively knows when and where to appear to save the day. Just how DID he know that?! The lack of dialog make this one strange as did one weird piece of dialog. When the lady leaves her car early in the cartoon, she explains to no one nearby that she needs to get to the police with the list. Just who is she talking to?! Overall, this one just seemed odd and a bit rushed compared to the average Superman short of the era.

Clark Kent has an argument on the phone with Perry White about what to cover as a reporter. Just as he hangs up, a couple of cars zoom by shooting at one another. Clark/Superman jumps on the back of one of the cars and is taken to the hideout of some German saboteurs. The police have been giving chase and have lost the trail. Out of the front car steps a beautiful blonde who demands to be taken to the police station where she tells the authorities that she is a secret agent and has infiltrated the organization and has a portfolio full of important documents that must be delivered to the proper people. She gets a a police escort but they are ambushed and she runs. What ensues is her admirable effort to hang on to the documents. Meanwhile, Clark is playing possum. By the way, this is the seventeenth and last of these Fleischer Superman cartoons.

Secret Agent (1943)

** (out of 4)

Seventeenth and final short in Paramount's series once again deals with WW2 issues as Clark Kent helps a female secret agent and allows himself to get kidnapped so that he can learn Nazi secrets. For the last Superman short they really decided to pretty much take him out of everything considering he has only one line of dialogue and doesn't show up until the final minute or two of the film. In reality this is a pretty straight WW2 action film as for the majority of the time we have the saboteurs constantly after the female secret agent and of course coming up just short. Once again we get some rather nice animation but all of that is lost with the rather weak story that never really pays off.

A beautiful blonde (who is never named) is running away from some men who are shooting at her. Clark Kent intervenes and is knocked out, captured and tied up by the men. It seems the woman is a secret agent--she has a list of saboteurs and their evil plans. She must get the list to Washington. The police try to escort her but they are also attacked by the saboteurs. The woman escapes but becomes trapped on a bridge about to be crushed. Will Superman find out and save her?

This is barely a Superman cartoon. Lois Lane is nowhere to be found (but that blonde sounds a LOT like her). It plays more like a WWII drama with plenty of violent shootouts (I was really surprised to see a cop shot down out of his motorcycle) and action. Superman only pops up at the last few minutes to save the day. But the action more than makes up for his absence. Pretty good. A 6.