By Movie StarAlfred HitchcockAudrey HepburnAva GardnerBarbara StanwyckBasil RathboneBette DavisBilly WilderBob HopeBoris KarloffBurt LancasterBuster KeatonCarole LombardCary GrantCharlie ChaplinClara BowClark GableClaudette ColbertDana AndrewsDeanna DurbinDebbie ReynoldsDoris DayEleanor ParkerElizabeth TaylorErnst LubitschErrol FlynnEsther WilliamsFranchot ToneFred AstaireFred MacMurrayGary CooperGene KellyGeorge CukorGinger RogersGloria SwansonGrace KellyGreer GarsonGregory PeckGreta GarboHarold LloydHedy LamarrHenry FondaHoward HawksHumphrey BogartIda LupinoIngrid BergmanIrene DunneJack BennyJack LemmonJames CagneyJames StewartJane RussellJean ArthurJean HarlowJeanette MacDonaldJeanne CrainJoan CrawfordJoan FontaineJohn FordJohn WayneJudy GarlandKatharine HepburnKay FrancisKirk DouglasLana TurnerLauren BacallLillian GishLon ChaneyLoretta YoungLouise BrooksMae WestMarilyn MonroeMarion DaviesMarlene DietrichMary AstorMary PickfordMickey RooneyMiriam HopkinsMyrna LoyNatalie WoodNorma ShearerOlivia de HavillandOrson WellesPaul NewmanPreston SturgesRichard WidmarkRita HayworthRobert MitchumRudolph ValentinoShirley TempleSidney PoitierSpencer TracySteve McQueenTeresa WrightTyrone PowerVincent PriceVivien LeighWilliam HoldenWilliam PowellWilliam WylerWoody Allen By HolidayNew Year's DayPresident's DayValentine's DayEasterMother's DayFather's DayMemorial DayJuly 4thLabor DayColumbus DayHalloweenThanksgivingChristmasBlack History MonthWomen's History Month All Blogs4 Star Films (3439)50 Most Influential Disney Animators (58)A Person in the Dark (360)All Good Things (815)Backlots (410)Caf? Muscato (572)Caftan Woman (904)Carole & Co. (3081)Cary Grant Won't Eat You (477)Christy Putnam (76)Cinema Crossroads (42)Cinematic Catharsis (851)Cinematically Insane (268)CineMaven's Essays from the Couch (152)Classic Cinema Gold (319)Classic Film & TV Cafe (1235)Classic Film Freak (367)Classic Film Review (14)Classic Horror Campaign (257)Classic Movie Hub Blog (1821)Classic Movie Man (874)Classic Movies (3247)Classic Reel Girl (95)Comet Over Hollywood (1230)Creme de la Creme (31)Criterion Blues (770)Critica Retro (1392)Curtains (58)Durnmoose Movie Musings (1105)Film Reviews and Anything Else I Get Inspired by (5)Finding Franchot: Exploring the Life and Career of Franchot Tone (161)Flickers in Time (2195)GlamAmor (585)Hitchcock Master (128)Hollywood Revue (532)Hometowns to Hollywood (699)How Sweet It Was (86)In The Good Old Days Of Classic Hollywood (154)Journeys in Classic Film (1765)Lady Eve's Reel Life (731)Le Mot du Cinephiliaque (945)Love Letters to Old Hollywood (150)MacGuffin Movies (362)Margaret Perry (165)Mildred's Fatburgers (201)Movie Classics (287)Movies Silently (1029)Noir and Chick Flicks (1998)Noirish (1273)Old Hollywood Films (651)Once Upon a Screen (420)Out of the Past - A Classic Film Blog (2142)Outspoken and Freckled (140)Phantom Empires (60)Please Go Away: A Katharine Hepburn Blog (456)Pop Culture ImagineMDD (103)Pretty Clever Films (1413)Reel Distracted (20)ScribeHard on Film (162)Serendipitous Anachronisms (82)Shadows and Satin (827)Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers (1796)Smitten Kitten Vintage (48)Smum County (115)Stardust and Shadows (120)Studies in Cinema (118)Sunset Blvd (39)The Baz (155)The Best Picture Project (905)The Blonde At The Film (319)The Bogie Film Blog (147)The Cinema Dilettante (110)The Giddy Blog (152)The Great Katharine Hepburn (240)The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog (1565)The Jeanette MacDonald Blog (94)The Man on the Flying Trapeze (643)The Motion Pictures (791)The Movie Rat (746)The Old Hollywood Garden (424)The Stop Button (3203)The Timothy Carey Experience (1181)The Vintage Cameo (134)The Wonderful World of Cinema (562)Timeless Hollywood (73)True Classics (573)Virtual Virago (1611)Where Danger Lives (136)Wolffianclassicmoviesdigest (631)

Lyle Talbot is the best thing about Atom Man vs. Superman. Overall, he might even give the best performance–he flubs some material, but it’s better material than his only serious competitor, Noel Neill, ever gets. There aren’t great performances in Atom Man vs. Superman. The serial wouldn’t read more

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. read more

Rocket of Vengeance is all filler. It opens with Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill trying to find Lyle Talbot’s base. Talbot’s trying to stop the intruding cops and reporters–though he never attacks the (off-screen) coppers–with his various bits of technological terror. One such terror hits Alyn and read more

All throughout Atom Man’s Flying Saucers, I was waiting for the flying saucers. Why would Atom Man–Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot)–have flying saucers? Because, as Talbot explains at one point, the final phase of his plan is to go up in his spaceship and attack Earth. He’ll be taking some of his goons read more

Most of Atom Man Strikes! is Noel Neill’s. After an awesome cliffhanger resolution–awesome in terms of the Superman special effects (easily the best in the serial thus far)–Neill starts secretly investigating her coworkers. Kirk Alyn finds the secret compartment in the TV van, where the bad guys read more

About the last third of Luthor’s Strategy is Superman trying to save people during a big flood. The sequence is a mix of composite shots, flying shots, newsreel footage of actual floods, and then some connective shots. Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill, separately, driving to the flood location. They just read more

Atom Man’s Heat Ray does not feature a heat ray. Unless it’s the machine Luthor (Lyle Talbot) uses the pump smoke into the room where he’s trapped Noel Neill, Kirk Alyn, and Tommy Bond. Now, it turns out Neill is only working for Talbot’s TV station to get the goods on him for Superman (and read more

There’s a lot going on in Superman Crashes Through, starting with some power company guys beating up on the Atom Man’s thugs. The power company guys are out on a call about an explosion in the cave base. But when the cops get there (again), it’s empty (again). It seems like another of the serial’s read more

Maybe I was wrong about the desk swapping in the earlier chapters. Into the Empty Doom! is mostly a Daily Planet chapter–mostly Noel Neill’s chapter too–and she looks very comfortable at the desk I was sure used to be Kirk Alyn’s. Both Clark Kent and Superman have disappeared–though Superman read more

At the Mercy of Atom Man! has one of the serial’s laziest cliffhanger resolutions so far. And Atom Man vs. Superman, now seven chapters in, has had some really lazy resolutions. This one has the added bonus of Kirk Alyn not using his superspeed to catch the bad guy. Because of course not. Later it read more

Wait a minute, why does Lex Luthor (Lyle Talbot) still have a secret base? The cops found it last chapter and Talbot and company had cleared out. Does he keep remaking the same evil laboratory in a different cave? Atom Man’s Challenge does not answer this question. Sadly, I don’t think it’ll ever read more

Atom Man Tricks Superman disappoints in just about every possible way. It doesn’t have a good cliffhanger resolution–it might even be a cheat from the footage shown last chapter–and no one is at all surprised Kirk Alyn didn’t vaporize. Well, almost no one. Noel Neill is surprised until Alyn read more

Superman Meets Atom Man! has what ought to be a big scene–Lyle Talbot’s Lex Luthor (in his Atom Man disguise) vanquishing Kirk Alyn to oblivion. Only it’s not a big scene, not even in the moment. Obviously Superman’s not going to be vanquished in the fourth chapter, but still. They could have read more

Ablaze in the Sky! has got a bunch of action. Kirk Alyn is in his tights for some of it, but not all of it. Not even most of it. Instead, he gets to duke it out–twice–as Clark Kent. Alyn’s willingness to put himself in danger makes Noel Neill’s accusations of cowardice incongruous. Especially read more

Atom Man, complete with his sparkling bucket helmet, does indeed appear in Atom Man Appears!. He and his goons kidnap Tommy Bond (pretty much by accident) and Atom Man gives Bond a villain speech before sending him back to the Daily Planet. The Daily Planet where boss Pierre Watkin doesn’t believe read more

Superman Flies Again establishes a few things I’m very curious to see if Atom Man vs. Superman keeps going with over the course of the serial. Firstly, is Pierre Watkin always completely wrong about everything. Playing newspaper editor Perry White, Watkin calls his staff–Kirk Alyn, Noel Neill, Tomm read more