There’s more Lyle Talbot dealing with bad employees than anything approaching universe-saving in Superman Saves the Universe. There’s another earthquake sequence, with Kirk Alyn actually on a disaster set saving people, but it’s midway through the chapter and the finale doesn’t top that sequence.

Talbot has decided to destroy the planet Earth from his space ship–mass earthquakes–and takes Noel Neill prisoner. She’s going to be Eve, apparently. Will Superman be able to stop Talbot? Given it’s one of Talbot’s weakest schemes in the serial….

The biggest gaffe–at least in terms of a narrative one–comes at the end, when Neill’s sure she’s figured out Alyn’s secret. There’s a drawing of Clark Kent without glasses–because he’s wearing a tie, not a big red S–and Neill draws glasses on him.

It’s like there was an idea and no one–not the screenwriters, not director Bennet–knew how to pull it off. It’s not hard thing to pull off either, it just needs to make visual sense.

Overall, Universe isn’t a good chapter for anyone. Neill’s material is awful. Talbot’s is a little better but not much. Alyn’s kind of got some good material but Bennet’s direction is weak.

Superman Saves the Universe isn’t just not a satisfying finish to Atom Man vs. Superman, it’s not even a satisfying serial chapter.

CREDITS

Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet; screenplay by George H. Plympton, Joseph F. Poland, and David Matthews, based on characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; director of photography, Ira H. Morgan; edited by Earl Turner; produced by Sam Katzman; released by Columbia Pictures.

Starring Kirk Alyn (Superman / Clark Kent), Noel Neill (Lois Lane), Lyle Talbot (Luthor), Tommy Bond (Jimmy Olsen), Pierre Watkin (Perry White), Jack Ingram (Foster), Don C. Harvey (Albor), Paul Stader (Lawson), George Robotham (Earl), and Fred Kelsey (Police Chief Forman).