Superman and the Mole Men

Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in the small town of Silsby to report on the world's deepest oil well. That night two small, furry, bald-headed humanoids come up through the shaft and scare the elderly night watchman to death. Lois and Clark arrive at the oil well and find the dead watchman. Clark and the foreman explore the surrounding area for signs of foul play when Lois glimpses one of the creatures and screams. No one believes her when she tells them what she saw.

The medical examiner is summoned, and he later leaves with Lois. Clark stays behind to confront the foreman, who confesses that the well was closed for fear that they had struck radium and not oil. The foreman proceeds to show Clark ore samples that were collected during different stages of drilling; all of them glow brightly.

Meanwhile the two Mole Men innocently explore the town. The residents become terrified because of their peculiar appearance and because everything that they touch glows in the dark (due to simple phosphorescence). Soon an angry mob forms, led by the violent Luke Benson, in order to kill the "monsters". Superman stops Benson and the mob and saves one of the creatures after it has been shot. He takes it to the hospital. The second creature returns to the well head and disappears down its shaft.

A doctor announces that the injured creature will die unless he has surgery to remove the bullet. When a nurse refuses to do so out of fear, Clark volunteers to assist. Benson's mob arrives at the hospital demanding that the creature be turned over to them. Superman stands guard outside the hospital. Lois stands at his side, but a shot is fired from the mob, narrowly missing her. Superman sends her inside and relieves the mob of their rifles and pistols.

Three more Mole Men emerge from the drill shaft, this time bearing a strange weapon. They make their way to the hospital. Benson and his mob see the creatures, and Benson goes after them alone. The creatures fire their laser-like weapon at him. Superman jumps in front of the pulsating ray, saving Benson's life, which Superman says "is more than you deserve!". Superman fetches the wounded creature from the hospital and carries him as his companions return to the well head. Soon after, from deep underground, the Mole Men destroy the drill shaft, making certain that no one can come up or go down it ever again. Lois observes, "It's almost as if they were saying, 'You live your lives ... and we'll live ours'".

The sympathetic treatment of the strangers in the film, and the unreasoning fear on the part of the townspeople, has been compared by author Gary Grossman to the panicked public reaction to the peaceful alien Klaatu in the science fiction film The Day The Earth Stood Still, which was released the same year. Both have been considered retrospectively as the product of (and a reaction to) the "Red Scare" of post-World War II era. Grossman also cites the later film The Mole People (1956).

Superman and the Mole Men was the first theatrical feature film based on any DC Comics character.

Superman and the Mole Men is the first theatrical feature film based on any DC Comics character. Previously, two live-action, multiple chapter movie serials were made by Columbia Pictures Inc., based on the Superman comics feature and radio program, featuring Kirk Alyn as Superman and Noel Neill as Lois Lane, had been shown in weekly installments in movie theaters. Two additional serials based on DC's Batman, the first featuring Lewis Wilson as Batman and Douglas Croft as Robin/Dick Grayson, and the second featuring Robert Lowery as Batman and Johnny Duncan as Robin/Dick Grayson, were also made by Columbia (1943 and 1949).

The original screenplay was by "Richard Fielding", a pseudonym for Robert Maxwell and Whitney Ellsworth.

Superman and the Mole Men was filmed in a little more than 12 days starting on July 10, 1951[2] at RKO-Pathe Studios. The feature runs just 58 minutes and originally served as a trial balloon release for the syndicated Adventures of Superman TV series, for which it became the only two-part episode, "The Unknown People".[3] Some elements of the original film were trimmed when converted for television, including some portions of a lengthy chase scene and all references to "Mole Men".

The theme music used for the film had a generic "science fiction sound", with nothing suggesting a specific Superman theme. The title cards were similarly generic, with low-grade animation of comets sailing by Saturn-like ringed planets. The original film score by Darrell Calker was removed when Superman and the Mole Men was re-cut into the two-part Superman TV episode and replaced with the "canned" production library music used in the first season of the series.

The laser-like weapon of the Mole Men, which they retrieve from their subterranean home in order to defend themselves and rescue their injured comrade, was a prop made by adding metal shoulder braces to one end of an Electrolux vacuum cleaner body; for the ray's "gun barrel" a standard metal funnel was attached to the other.

The image of actors Reeves and Coates on the theatrical release poster is a painting derived by reversing ("flopping") a publicity photograph image of the two actors, with Superman's "S shield" emblem then reversed in order for it to read correctly.

• Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009 (First Edition 1982). ISBN 0-89950-032-3.

• Superman and the Mole Men at IMDb
• "The Unknown People: Part I" at IMDb
• "The Unknown People: Part II" at IMDb
• Superman and the Mole Men at Rotten Tomatoes