TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

mstomaso I rented this film from Netflix for two reasons - I was in the mood for what I thought would be a silly '50s sci-fi-asco and because it is the first feature-length Superman film. Needless to say, after about 15 minutes I found myself thoroughly engaged and very pleasantly surprised.An experimental oil well has penetrated about six miles into the earth and is being shut down by the sponsor. Lois and Clark show up to get the scoop but are disappointed that the deepest well ever drilled will no longer be in operation. A day later, strange events at the well make for a story more appropriate for Superman than Clark Kent. It seems that the radioactive Mole Men have invaded from their six-mile deep home near the earth's core.Supermen and the Mole Men is a simplistic but well-made piece of social realism. Released in 1951, starring a lead actor who served in World War II, the moral of the story seems to be that Americans are just as capable of becoming fascists as anybody else. To drive this point home in a typically straightforward Superman manner, Reeves even accuses the lynch mob hunting the Mole Men of being 'Nazis' at one point.Even in the 1950s, the science underlying this film was nonexistent. Six miles of drilling through continental crust would not have even penetrated the upper mantle, let alone the "hollow center of the earth" - which, in any case does not exist. Forgivable - keep in mind that this film is based on a golden age comic book.The film is a little unevenly paced. Although the Molemen are interesting, a bit creepy, and nicely portrayed, there are several Corman-esquire scenes which spend too much time redundantly showing us their odd behavior. The script is intelligent and economical. By today's standards, the costuming is poor to fair, but for its time, this film's special effects and costuming were quite good. The cinematography is also generally very good, and the acting is much better than one might expect. I was particularly impressed with Reeves, Jeff Corey and Walter Reed.

flapdoodle64 'Superman & the Mole Men,' was filmed immediately prior to 'The Adventures of Superman' TAS) weekly TV series. This film was then released into theaters so as to insure that the producers recouped at least some of their investment in the TV show: at the time season 1 was filmed, there wasn't a sponsor yet, and in fact it took 2 years before Kellogs Cereal Co. took on the role and the show was finally broadcast.'Mole Men' was filmed just 1 year after the movie serial 'Atom Man Vs. Superman,' but 'Atom Man' is so primitive by comparison that it could have been made 30 years prior.Besides being enjoyable as an atmospheric and suspenseful B/W cold war scifi/horror pic (a la the original 'The Thing'), this little film is interesting since it engages in a little social commentary. Almost without exception, TAS never touched any of the burning social issues (bigotry, war, pollution, etc.), but 'Superman & the Mole Men' is, very obviously an allegory about prejudice. This makes 'Mole Men' a kind of bridge between the Superman radio show, which, starting after WWII, did a long series of award-winning social message programs, directly addressing issues such as race prejudice, war-mongering, and social welfare, and TAS, which stayed completely clear of social relevancy. (The Superman radio show, which ended in 1950, was produced by Bob Maxwell, who also produced the 1st season of TAS. I've never read anything that explained why TAS dropped the social relevancy of the radio show, but one could speculate it had something to do with the impact of various 'witch hunts' on the political and media spheres...) 'Superman & the Mole Men,' is the story of about some funny-looking little men who emerge into view after the world's deepest oil well is dug. The funny-looking men, who are not evil and whose world has been invaded by oil exploration, become victims of prejudice and eventually a mob forms with the intent of killing the funny-looking men. If you think about it, this might remind you of a contemporary real-life situation.

maple_leafs_kickass My father grew grew up watching George Reeves as Superman and when I was a little kid he had episodes on VHS and let me view them including this movie (passing them down in the family if you will), and I loved it.Clark Kent and Lois Lane get sent to a small town with and oil mine and from the mine emerge mole men radioactive and targeted by the town assumed to be deadly and it's up to Superman to stop this mayhem.It's just so wonderful and fun to view. The old style special effects and sound - the crew pulled off such a beauty with such little technology. George Reeves was my hero when I was a little kid, and I'm 16 now, it just goes to show how timeless and classic these adventures are.

Chris Gaskin I have just watched Superman and the Mole Men recently for the first time and rather enjoyed it, despite reading bad reviews. This was also released as a two part programme in the TV series at the time. Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in Silsby to witness the drilling of the world's deepest oil well, but disturb an undiscovered race of strange furry creatures that live deep underground. These come to the surface at night to explore the area, but one of these gets shot and is taken to hospital by Superman to be treated. The other one continues exploring, but the local people lure him into a wooden shack and set it on fire to try to kill him. Luckily, he manages to escape alive and returns to his underground home and brings some more mole men with him armed with a ray gun. After shooting the man who shot the mole man, who is injured, Superman releases the injured mole man from hospital and all four return home to safety.Superman is played well by George Reeves, but we don't get to see him fly in this movie. Phyllis Coates plays Lois Lane.I found this movie rather enjoyable, despite the low budget.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.