Genre:
Action + Sci-Fi

Synopsis:
Columbia's 43rd serial finds Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot), secretly the Atom Man, blackmailing the city of Metropolis by threatening to destroy the entire community. Perry White (Pierre Watkin), editor of "The Daily Planet", assigns Lois Lane (Noel Neill), Jimmy Olson (Tommy Bond) and Clark Kent/Superman (Kirk Alyn)to cover the story. Luthor invents a number of deadly devices to plague the city, including a disintegrating machine which can reduce people to their basic atoms and reassemble them in another place. But Superman manages to thwart each scheme. Since Kryptonite can rob Superman of his powers, Luthor decides to create a synthetic Kryptonite and putters about obtaining the necessary ingredients: plutonium, radium and the undefined 'etc.'(in order to keep viewers from trying this at home.) Luthor places the Kryptonite at the launching of a ship, with Superman in attendance. He is exposed to the Kryptonite and passes out. Superman is taken off in an ambulance driven by Luthor's henchmen, and he is now under the control of Luthor. Superman is placed in a device, a lever is pulled, and the Man of Steel vanishes into "The Empty Doom." With eight chapters remaining, the odds are high he will return. Most of chapter 7 is a repeat of the origin story from chapter 1 of Columbia's first "Superman" serial, and this serial also finds a way to work in stock footage from Ken Maynard's 1936 "Avenging Waters," minus ol' Ken and his hoss Tarzan.
(from IMDb.com)

Casts:
Kirk Alyn ... Superman / Clark Kent
Noel Neill ... Lois Lane
Lyle Talbot ... Lex Luthor / The Atom Man
Tommy Bond ... Jimmy Olsen
Pierre Watkin ... Perry White
Don C. Harvey ... Albor, lab henchman
Terry Frost ... Baer, medium henchman
Rusty Wescoatt ... Carl, beefy henchman
Jack Ingram ... Foster, dapper henchman
Fred Kelsey ... Police Chief Forman
Paul Stader ... 'Killer' Lawson
George Robotham ... Earl, TV Truck Cameraman...Driver
John Zaremba ... Mr. Taylor

Runtime:
252 min (15 chapters)

Superheroes:
Superman (more)

Villains:
Lex Luthor (more)

Based on the comic book:
"Superman" © DC Comics

Internal links:
Superman (1948) (movie serial)

External links:
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