Hip firing was the norm back then, people trained to pull the gun and fire as quickly as possible "on instinct". The two handed, carefully aimed firing stance is a very modern one.
If you're that close to your target and they're armed too shooting from the hip has better odds. Which is why they did it that way in the westerns.
The modern two handed grip is better for accuracy, but that's not so helpful when your opponent has put two bullets in you in random places before you can get the gun in position. It's much more useful when you know to draw your gun in advance.
One thing I never really understood was why the acting in older movies is so poor. I understand the "CGI" being bad because of technological constraints, but it's not like people weren't acting for thousands of years.
My best guess is that movies just hadn't matured enough as a medium for people to take acting/directing seriously enough combined with actors being more used to live theatre where exaggerated motions are more necessary.
I'm assuming they filmed the scenes first and then rotoscoped the actor's movements (by hand, given the time period). Idk how else they could've acheived something like this but either way, the result is truly impressive!
Indeed, rotoscoping is a good amount of effort and skill to get right but I read somewhere that the hardest part of this was training the actor how to jump 50 feet in the air so they could film the reference.
It was filmed in reverse and they had to teach the actors to land gracefully.
ActorS because they used the Alyn octuplets (they called all of them "Kirk") for the shooting because of torn tendons and broken ankles. They used the crippled Alyns for later shooting in sitting or prone positions or bullet catching (a lot of mishaps with that one lol).
Nah let those lies fly, anybody who believes them will get accused of believing random shit on the internet and get the rug double-pulled from under them if they try to prove it
The one good thing about Reddit is that you always know it's true because real people have typed it. Reddit is the source of real human truth. AI will gain from this. *does a drum solo*
No human can ever lie. Else they would not be human. This is the truest of truths. Also this particular human needs money and a good clanker would refill my Venmo with money.
Well the guy wasn't flying so technically they didn't rotoscope it. Animation had been around for 25 years by then so animating on clear cells over full size prints of the last few frames is more than enough to create a smooth transition.
If I recall correctly originally Superman could not fly, he could only leap very far, so they just needed to hire an actor who could jump over a mountain.
And really it was just that he could do it in a single bound. The average person in 1938 could jump a tall building in two or three bounds, no problem.
Well, rotoscoping involves tracing over live footage. With blasters and most other stuff, they're using artistic license to achieve the effect, projecting what it might look like.
Most animation done before CGI was simply too time-consuming and expensive to use rotoscoping on.
When I was a kid (late 1970s) I met Kirk Alyn, the actor who played Superman in this movie serial, at a comic book store event in LA. They played the serial episode that included this scene and I asked him how he flew; unfortunately I can't recall the detail of his answer now, except that he began by saying "Animation!"
He must have been about 70 by then and was a real old-school gent, very patient with my ten-year-old superhero superfan questions.
Also, that little leg movement as Superman goes to pick up the fella after the toss - reminds me of 90's WWF for reason. Dude's got the cheap outfit and all that as well, lol!
i bet this blew peoples minds back then. it wasnt that much earlier before this that theaters were packed with people (adults) just to see mickey mouse cartoons.
Similarly "acting" as we know it is very much tied to stylistic eras. Like home decorating, what people expected and how actors would perform depended on the cultural tastes of the time.
Go back to an ancient Greek audience and they'd be confused at the lack of a chorus.
A few hundred years and audiences would be confused by the lack of Masks and wondering which character was the Zanni.
Even now we see far more stylized performances from the exteme realism that's popularized the previous decades.
Considering the time frame it might well be a veteran firing an actual gun and is therefore primarily focused on shooting and staying steady. Which would be pretty hardened of the crook as well.
The whole production cycle basically must have been in its infancy. So much things they just didn't know you could do to make the movie more appealing. Transitions. Camera views. Lighting. Speed etc...
I absolutely despise many modern films. If you cut into a new angle every 1.5 seconds, you are just trying to hide your shitty scenes behind that.
Try this: watch as many films from the 50's to 80's as you possibly can (really focus. no phone as a second screen, just you and the movie). After that, many 2020's films become totally unwatchable for this exact reason.
Modern fast paced action scenes are often designed so they can shoot over a dozen takes or more, mince it up and jam together with fifty edits because its easier than say, having long continuous shots requiring actors to get fight choreography consistently correct or cleverly concealing the switch between stunt double and lead.
A headless body shot of a punch landing and a close up reaction shot can be filmed on different days or even on different continents...
Could you image the audience if 1940s Superman went all Neo dodging bullets, before Superman then went "I know Kung-Fu" on the bad guys, and later going Brightburn on their boss.
seriously, like really what else was there to do in your free time way back then?? read the FUCKing adventures of tom sawyer? crowd around the radio listening to fUCKINg baseball? i dont understand how people didn't DIE of boredom back then
I feel like it's very easy to keep yourself entertained. I could have fun in an empty room by myself, let alone with access to books or toys and whatnot. If you struggle with that, you might be suffering from modern brainrot. If you spend all day every day relying on constant external stimulation, your mind never adapts to handle the absence of that.
That said, you've really not left your bedroom in a while if you can't think of more sources of entertainment back then.
You went out to have fun with friends, you played games of all sorts. You visited museums, theaters, sports events, performances of all kind. Society wasn't designed to keep a single individual entertained in their bedroom. For most of human history, entertainment was a collaborative social engagement.
I once heard a propmaker for the early Star Wars movies use the following saying to describe how a given model would look on screen and therefore guesstimate how much detail they would need to put on:
If it's for a movie, squint your eyes. If it's for television, close your eyes.
A buddy of mine got the Captain Marvel serial on dvd last summer and we watched. I enjoyed it knowing what it was, but here were some neat screen tricks. Like a scene where a cave was filling with melted metal and the trickery used for that was pretty good. But then there were others where they used a dummy on a wire for flight. It was clever but you can only do so much to hide a wire in a movie from 1940 in HD.
Just a warning for anyone wanting to check it out, there's a reason WB doesn't talk about this one despite its historical significance to Batman in film.
For anyone curious about how, beyond Batman praising concentration camps:
(Foster holds the Asian Dr. Daka at gunpoint)
FOSTER: Now, are you going to open that door and let me out or would you like a quick visit to your ancestors?
DR. DAKA: But of course, Foster.
FOSTER (with disgust): That's the kind of answer that fits the color of your skin.
The Batman one from World War 2 is ROUGH. Less than 5 minutes into episode 1 and the villain is revealed to be a dude in yellowface whose lair is in a depopulated, derelict Japantown while the narrator starts talking about (and this is a direct quote) how "our wise government rounded up all the shifty-eyed J*ps".
That said, the Superman versus Atom Man serial from 1953 is fantastic, and features a Star Trek style transporter, like 15 years before Star Trek.
Not really a show. Was a theatrical serial so a new chapter every week. There was also two Batman serials, Batman and Batman and Robin. (notably that these serials are the first appearance of the Batcave and was also what Alfred was created for although he debuted in comics right before it). There was also a Captain America one as well.
There were basically a series of short films that told a continuing story. A theater would show a chapter in it for a week and then switch to the next chapter a week after. A lot would end on cliffhangers to get people to come see the next part. There were mainly popular in the 30s and 40s.
You can watch the 40s Fleischer animated Superman episodes on Youtube, the cartoon is gorgeous and has been remastered for HD. Still stands out as a definitive chapter in Superman history because of how they incorporated sci-fi elements and aesthetics into the series.
I love those cartoons because they ignore the supposed problem of Superman being "too powerful" by just being beautiful simple spectacles. Superman's gotta save a town from a broken dam -- it's not whether he can, it's how incredible it looks when he does.
So as I understand, basically a weekly series, but you went to the cinema to watch episodes.
It was originally screened at movie matinées, and after the first three scene-setting chapters, every episode ends on a cliffhanger. The Superman-in-flight scenes are animations, in part due to the small production budget.
Yeah, because it's a 15-part series, not a regular movie. Just a series that was watched weekly or so in the cinema back then (berfore the evevning when full-length films were shown).
I watched a documentary on this. It wasn't popular, and people were disappointed that they didn't actually get to see superman fly. The effect that was used in The adventures of superman tv show was a lot more popular
Also small fun fact, to make it appear that superman was flying onto a scene, a chin up bar was placed just off camera, so the actor could swing in and land in the shot
If I recall this is actually the origin of Superman being able to fly. It was easier to animate the character flying than it was to animate him jumping all the time
I watched all 12 parts of one of those old serials - Zorro Rides Again - and it was surprisingly entertaining (though you have to give its low budget nature a pass.) I assumed it would be slower-paced than modern films, but it was the opposite. It was faster and hardly ever stopped to draw breath.
It helped that it was directed by the great action director William Witney; I've even heard Tarantino rhapsodizing about him.
Is this the actor that was recognized on the street by a nutjob that pulled a gun, expecting the gunshot would just bounce off? The actor thought quick, and told the armed man not to shoot, since the bullet would ricochet and hurt a member of the crowd around them.
I was always amazed by that kind of quick thinking. Pretty sure the best I could do is show the guy I'd just shit myself, and "Is thst what the real Man of Steel would do?"
Forbidden Planet is also a great example of what WW2 did to sci fi. Prior to the war, space adventurers were often one man, maybe 2 or 3. The scientist and his assistant, Buck Rodgers, etc.
But WW2 and all it's naval warfare changed how many Sci Fi movies depicted space travel-- now it requires a crew, and the hero was usually the Captain. Thus Star Trek in the 60s.
Star Wars changed things again, bringing back into popularity the idea that Han and Chewie can fly a ship all by themselves.
Which makes Black Hole (1981) such an interesting movie. It is the last major post-WW2 style sci fi movie, and due to production issues came out two years AFTER Star Wars. And it feels so outdated by then.
That’s gotta be the easiest acting job ever lmao those first few scenes he just kinda looks around and then turns slightly before the animation takes over
The gangster with the pistol is cracking me up when he it keeps cutting back to him so relaxed as he keeps shooting Superman 😂
Allow me to introduce Buster Keaton, who was using the same techniques 20 years earlier...
His films are amazing. Check out Steamboat Bill (1928) for a proper laugh and to see some equally impressive (for the time) special effects.
Most of his films are available on YouTube as they're old enough to not be copyrighted anymore. I'd highly recommend buying the box set dvd if anyone still owns a dvd player!
That was cool to watch. Can you imagine being the person who brought that up during a meeting as a solution to the lack of effects at that time? I believe that since the show was in black/white helped to make the animation transition into the live action better.
For those of you who may not have realized, this is what was so particularly hilarious about the Mighty Mouse vs Superman debate from the movie Stand By Me.
Might Mouse is a Cartoon. Superman is a real guy. No way a cartoon can beat up a real guy.
Fleischer, (the company that made the first Superman cartoon, owned by the man who invented the Rotoscope), was doing live action + animation in episodes of Koko the Clown, in the 20s.
Disney also did it in the same era.
It was fairly old hat by the time we got to the late 40s.
And I'm struggling to understand why any of that has anything to do with CGI, but here we are.
The way that dude shoots is hilarious
Made Hip Firing looked cool before it was cool rofl
Hip firing was the norm back then, people trained to pull the gun and fire as quickly as possible "on instinct". The two handed, carefully aimed firing stance is a very modern one.
If you're that close to your target and they're armed too shooting from the hip has better odds. Which is why they did it that way in the westerns.
The modern two handed grip is better for accuracy, but that's not so helpful when your opponent has put two bullets in you in random places before you can get the gun in position. It's much more useful when you know to draw your gun in advance.
And at that distance, it's pretty easy to dump 6 rounds into an 8" circle without aiming.
That's actually a valid and interesting point! The 'western era' was not too long before that!
And 'the western era' of movies was in it's prime.
TIL!
During the 50's Superman TV show he would puff out his chest when they shot at him and duck when they threw the gun.
Well guns are much heavier than bullets so they would cause more damage.
millions of men return from combat in WW2
Director - “does anyone know how to fire a gun”
Actors - 🤷♂️
Director - “good enough”
Imagine shooting a guy and he just has that doopy smile
One thing I never really understood was why the acting in older movies is so poor. I understand the "CGI" being bad because of technological constraints, but it's not like people weren't acting for thousands of years.
My best guess is that movies just hadn't matured enough as a medium for people to take acting/directing seriously enough combined with actors being more used to live theatre where exaggerated motions are more necessary.
Probably exactly why you said. Makes sense when you think about it
This particular Superman was a low-budget serial. They didn't pay for enough for good actors.
Well the transition was smooth
I'm assuming they filmed the scenes first and then rotoscoped the actor's movements (by hand, given the time period). Idk how else they could've acheived something like this but either way, the result is truly impressive!
Indeed, rotoscoping is a good amount of effort and skill to get right but I read somewhere that the hardest part of this was training the actor how to jump 50 feet in the air so they could film the reference.
It was filmed in reverse and they had to teach the actors to land gracefully.
ActorS because they used the Alyn octuplets (they called all of them "Kirk") for the shooting because of torn tendons and broken ankles. They used the crippled Alyns for later shooting in sitting or prone positions or bullet catching (a lot of mishaps with that one lol).
Fascinating! Hollywood really is something else.
They did the same thing for the Reeves Brothers in the 78 Superman. Only 5 of them to start with so the last surviving one ended up in a wheelchair.
/s (for anyone still believing my BS)
Nah let those lies fly, anybody who believes them will get accused of believing random shit on the internet and get the rug double-pulled from under them if they try to prove it
I love how 40% of what AI steals to build itself is from Reddit.
The one good thing about Reddit is that you always know it's true because real people have typed it. Reddit is the source of real human truth. AI will gain from this. *does a drum solo*
No human can ever lie. Else they would not be human. This is the truest of truths. Also this particular human needs money and a good clanker would refill my Venmo with money.
Not gonna lie, you got me like WTF is this shit even true? i dont feel like googling that shit so thanks for the /s lol.
Octoplets? Of real twins? With no girl in there? It should have triggered a few BS detectors by now.
Picturing a huge box labeled "crippled Alyns"
Yeah, that's a no. They had their own trailer. The place had 4 double bunks with one kitchen but 2 bathrooms.
Of course it got roomier as shooting progressed.
20 years from now some kid's gonna get an F on his project because an AI regurgitated this comment from its training data, and that brings me joy.
But it's the truth.
Indeed. Teaching the actor how to fly so that they could animate him must’ve been tough as well.
Nah the really hard part was the auditioning process to figure out which actor was bullet proof.
Well the guy wasn't flying so technically they didn't rotoscope it. Animation had been around for 25 years by then so animating on clear cells over full size prints of the last few frames is more than enough to create a smooth transition.
If I recall correctly originally Superman could not fly, he could only leap very far, so they just needed to hire an actor who could jump over a mountain.
"Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"
So, not even jumping over a mountain. Just a "tall building".
And really it was just that he could do it in a single bound. The average person in 1938 could jump a tall building in two or three bounds, no problem.
also buildings weren’t as high back then.
Did they also have to rotoscope out his moustache?
I guess this subreddit ain't ready for that joke yet
But their kids are gonna love it !
[deleted]
Well, rotoscoping involves tracing over live footage. With blasters and most other stuff, they're using artistic license to achieve the effect, projecting what it might look like.
Most animation done before CGI was simply too time-consuming and expensive to use rotoscoping on.
What do you mean? It's just 2 films on top of each other. One hand drawn superman over the actual footage, no rotoscoping of actors
When I was a kid (late 1970s) I met Kirk Alyn, the actor who played Superman in this movie serial, at a comic book store event in LA. They played the serial episode that included this scene and I asked him how he flew; unfortunately I can't recall the detail of his answer now, except that he began by saying "Animation!"
He must have been about 70 by then and was a real old-school gent, very patient with my ten-year-old superhero superfan questions.
It's like watching a cutscene in a video game.
I like the moderately in-shape physique too - we should go back to that
Big steroids wont allow it 😂
so much smoother with the cinema full of cigarette smoke in front of it :-)
Atmospherics are expensive, best to just let the audience bring their own.
So smooth it looks better than modern CGI
The acting skills of the shooter are jaw dropping
Lmao Superman ain’t much better
I like Superman's launch towards that second guy at the end. It is very realistic (in the sense how we would fight as kids).
True. If you can toss anyone you want with raw strength, you never develop any proper throwing technique.
Also, that little leg movement as Superman goes to pick up the fella after the toss - reminds me of 90's WWF for reason. Dude's got the cheap outfit and all that as well, lol!
😁👉 🧱😁
No, you don’t understand. The bad guy is supposed to be totally unfazed. Let’s try another bullet, maybe that one will work.
If those bullets didn't work, maybe this tiny knife will stop him.
Maybe superman is an atreides.
The slow knife penetrates the Kryptonian, maybe.
Everyone knows the Kryptonian is non-newtonian
Well hey, do you remember how you need half a mag to kill an enemy in videogame but knife kills in one shot? Maybe he though it's the same!
Video games? In 1948?
Yeah I can't believe Counterstrike is almost 80 years old now
He looks like a bored grandpa playing a lightgun game in a pizza parlor.
"Take that Supaman, and that, and that!"
Yea, CGI was invented in the 60s and acting is probably around that, too.
I think Brando basically invented modern acting in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
…and then he retired the concept of acting in The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996)
/r/okbuddycinephile
i bet this blew peoples minds back then. it wasnt that much earlier before this that theaters were packed with people (adults) just to see mickey mouse cartoons.
Similarly "acting" as we know it is very much tied to stylistic eras. Like home decorating, what people expected and how actors would perform depended on the cultural tastes of the time.
Go back to an ancient Greek audience and they'd be confused at the lack of a chorus.
A few hundred years and audiences would be confused by the lack of Masks and wondering which character was the Zanni.
Even now we see far more stylized performances from the exteme realism that's popularized the previous decades.
Considering the time frame it might well be a veteran firing an actual gun and is therefore primarily focused on shooting and staying steady. Which would be pretty hardened of the crook as well.
First of all, I’m sure they had blanks back then.
Second, they’re not in the shot at the same time, so I’m sure he’s not firing towards the other actor with actual live ammunition.
Bold of you to assume safety standards in Hollywood prior to the 90s…
he is talking about them in the context of being characters and their personalities
Looks like a single shot, of the gunshot, that’s just played twice.
They spent a lot on animation, they could only afford one bullet.
They didn't invent acting just yet. /s
Interesting how slow the pacing was back then compared to fight scenes today
The whole production cycle basically must have been in its infancy. So much things they just didn't know you could do to make the movie more appealing. Transitions. Camera views. Lighting. Speed etc...
Yep. Look how static the camera is in all that old stuff. It basically never moved except to turn, without the camera itself moving.
Part of that was simply because the cameras were extremely heavy and bulky.
Static shots make animations a whole lot easier too.
I absolutely despise many modern films. If you cut into a new angle every 1.5 seconds, you are just trying to hide your shitty scenes behind that.
Try this: watch as many films from the 50's to 80's as you possibly can (really focus. no phone as a second screen, just you and the movie). After that, many 2020's films become totally unwatchable for this exact reason.
Welcome to hell
Oh God WTF that's awful. I'm so glad I've never seen that film.
I can't tell if this is a real show or a parody of one
It’s from the movie Taken 3. Which is a real movie that hardly anyone watched
Don't even have to click I think it's 12 cuts. Maybe more. Some of them are even the same shot reframed iirc.
Especially during fight scenes, frequent transitions that make it harder to tell what's going on just pisses me off and makes the fight boring
It's why I absolutely love Vince Gilligan's purposely slow style. Such a nice throwback whenever I watch something he's made.
Really enjoying Pluribus for that reason too although even by his standards it is taking slow to new heights.
Sergei Eisenstein is credited with inventing the montage. The Soviets tended to cut pretty fast, even in the 1920s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps-v-kZzfec&rco=1
This isn't true lol. This stuff sucks because it's low budget and badly directed. By the 40s, they'd already made Citizen Kane!
There are a large number of transitions in the clip shown. What are you talking about?
Modern fast paced action scenes are often designed so they can shoot over a dozen takes or more, mince it up and jam together with fifty edits because its easier than say, having long continuous shots requiring actors to get fight choreography consistently correct or cleverly concealing the switch between stunt double and lead.
A headless body shot of a punch landing and a close up reaction shot can be filmed on different days or even on different continents...
Could you image the audience if 1940s Superman went all Neo dodging bullets, before Superman then went "I know Kung-Fu" on the bad guys, and later going Brightburn on their boss.
It looks goofy but it also works quite well. I’d even watch a show that did this made today.
Yeah I'd probably be addicted to this shit in 1948
Totally, this and opium.
Haha totally, back then I'd be all about the opium heh heh, so anyone know where to get some or what
Officer you don‘t understand, I‘m just larping
Gimme some of that OG Coca-Cola
seriously, like really what else was there to do in your free time way back then?? read the FUCKing adventures of tom sawyer? crowd around the radio listening to fUCKINg baseball? i dont understand how people didn't DIE of boredom back then
I feel like it's very easy to keep yourself entertained. I could have fun in an empty room by myself, let alone with access to books or toys and whatnot. If you struggle with that, you might be suffering from modern brainrot. If you spend all day every day relying on constant external stimulation, your mind never adapts to handle the absence of that.
That said, you've really not left your bedroom in a while if you can't think of more sources of entertainment back then.
You went out to have fun with friends, you played games of all sorts. You visited museums, theaters, sports events, performances of all kind. Society wasn't designed to keep a single individual entertained in their bedroom. For most of human history, entertainment was a collaborative social engagement.
On a tiny TV with a fuzzy screen, must have seemed pretty brilliant at the time.
This would be on the big screen in the cinema primarily
I once heard a propmaker for the early Star Wars movies use the following saying to describe how a given model would look on screen and therefore guesstimate how much detail they would need to put on:
If it's for a movie, squint your eyes. If it's for television, close your eyes.
Yeah, a lot of 4k remasters of movies show things the prop designers never intended. Some hold up really well, others not so much.
The amount of toys and stuff they glued on that spaceship is insane. They needed texture, details, to sell the size of the vessel on a big screen.
yeah I think Mary Poppins and a-ha's Take on Me music video still look good today as well
It only looks goofy by comparison to what we see now. Back then we would all be blown away at how realistic it looks, lol.
This was mind blowing back then
Superman's shit-eating grin while waiting out the gunshots sent me
Didn’t even know they had superhero shows in the 40s let alone superman
There’s a Batman theatrical serial from around the same time. Captain Marvel DC, too.
A buddy of mine got the Captain Marvel serial on dvd last summer and we watched. I enjoyed it knowing what it was, but here were some neat screen tricks. Like a scene where a cave was filling with melted metal and the trickery used for that was pretty good. But then there were others where they used a dummy on a wire for flight. It was clever but you can only do so much to hide a wire in a movie from 1940 in HD.
A musical ?
Nope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_(serial)
It's (iirc from the article) the earliest example of batman on film.
It was made during WWII, and is extremely racist
Just a warning for anyone wanting to check it out, there's a reason WB doesn't talk about this one despite its historical significance to Batman in film.
Warner also doesn’t talk about it as it’s one of the few Batman media that Warner Bros doesn’t even own.
IP owner: "Hey WB you wanna buy one of the earliesr batman shows ever made?"
WB looks inside
A whole bunch of racism
WB: "Nah champ I'm good, you can keep it."
In fact it's available on Tubi. Watched it all a few weeks back.
Other poster was right–it's very racist.
For anyone curious about how, beyond Batman praising concentration camps:
The Batman one from World War 2 is ROUGH. Less than 5 minutes into episode 1 and the villain is revealed to be a dude in yellowface whose lair is in a depopulated, derelict Japantown while the narrator starts talking about (and this is a direct quote) how "our wise government rounded up all the shifty-eyed J*ps".
That said, the Superman versus Atom Man serial from 1953 is fantastic, and features a Star Trek style transporter, like 15 years before Star Trek.
Not really a show. Was a theatrical serial so a new chapter every week. There was also two Batman serials, Batman and Batman and Robin. (notably that these serials are the first appearance of the Batcave and was also what Alfred was created for although he debuted in comics right before it). There was also a Captain America one as well.
What is a theatrical serial? You mean like they show in the theater like cartoons?
There were basically a series of short films that told a continuing story. A theater would show a chapter in it for a week and then switch to the next chapter a week after. A lot would end on cliffhangers to get people to come see the next part. There were mainly popular in the 30s and 40s.
They walked so TV can run.
Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers were like this.
The Three Stooges short films were an example of this. They were so funny
Exactly. The didn't have mass-produced tvs in those days, the fam woul gather around the radio in the evening.
You can watch the 40s Fleischer animated Superman episodes on Youtube, the cartoon is gorgeous and has been remastered for HD. Still stands out as a definitive chapter in Superman history because of how they incorporated sci-fi elements and aesthetics into the series.
I love those cartoons because they ignore the supposed problem of Superman being "too powerful" by just being beautiful simple spectacles. Superman's gotta save a town from a broken dam -- it's not whether he can, it's how incredible it looks when he does.
The 1950's tv series starred the same "Lois" actress from the 1948 film serials. But even as a kid I always thought this scene in the show was funny as hell.
Radio shows go back even further with superheroes like the Shadow and the Phantom
Wait until you see the Batman one!
So as I understand, basically a weekly series, but you went to the cinema to watch episodes.
Also - it was "a tremendous financial success".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman_(serial))
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040852/
Christ I was gonna try to watch it for shits and giggles but the run time is over 4 hrs lmao
Yeah, because it's a 15-part series, not a regular movie. Just a series that was watched weekly or so in the cinema back then (berfore the evevning when full-length films were shown).
Here's the first episode: 01- Superman Comes to Earth. (20 mins): https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x370q5z
I actually like this, seems like a cool style!
Me too! I wonder what the reception was though.
I watched a documentary on this. It wasn't popular, and people were disappointed that they didn't actually get to see superman fly. The effect that was used in The adventures of superman tv show was a lot more popular
https://youtu.be/7GrQT9MpFnI?si=QDrGz4shNyAa6aQ0
Also small fun fact, to make it appear that superman was flying onto a scene, a chin up bar was placed just off camera, so the actor could swing in and land in the shot
*edit: better video
That's actually quite cool
This just makes me want to watch Roger Rabbit
What animation? All I see is a Superman flying and landing!
He’s not even flying here, originally Supe could only “leap tall buildings”
If I recall this is actually the origin of Superman being able to fly. It was easier to animate the character flying than it was to animate him jumping all the time
No it's the fully animated show that started it, not this
I watched all 12 parts of one of those old serials - Zorro Rides Again - and it was surprisingly entertaining (though you have to give its low budget nature a pass.) I assumed it would be slower-paced than modern films, but it was the opposite. It was faster and hardly ever stopped to draw breath.
It helped that it was directed by the great action director William Witney; I've even heard Tarantino rhapsodizing about him.
I watched The Phantom serial (1943) this year. Good stuff.
And the pacing is phenomenal. They used to describe serials as "in a door, into a fight, out a door, into a chase."
Is this the actor that was recognized on the street by a nutjob that pulled a gun, expecting the gunshot would just bounce off? The actor thought quick, and told the armed man not to shoot, since the bullet would ricochet and hurt a member of the crowd around them.
I was always amazed by that kind of quick thinking. Pretty sure the best I could do is show the guy I'd just shit myself, and "Is thst what the real Man of Steel would do?"
No that was George Reeves. He didnt play Superman until the 50s and it wasn't a nut job it was just a kid who thought he was really Superman.
I was about to ask why a kid would have a gun, then I remembered where I live.
You need to see the old Buck Rogers tv episodes.
Am I to understand there was a phone booth behind that rock formation?
People back then "this is the worst it will ever be"
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At what point? I didn't see it.
The blend of animation with live-action was such a unique style for that era. It's amazing to see how far special effects have come since then!
That must have been really cool for kids of the day to watch
Still less uncanny than AI slop
Why doesn’t he just fly after them. Is this Superman stupid?
yea, while true that Superman wasn't originally able to fly and could only jump, he can already fly in the comics by the time of this movie
I didn’t even know there was a 40’s Superman. This is rad.
I met this guy a long time ago before he died. Really cool dude. Friendly and loved talking about his work.
Kind of holds up
Forbidden Planet (1956) also used drawn animations for the monsters of the id
Forbidden Planet is also a great example of what WW2 did to sci fi. Prior to the war, space adventurers were often one man, maybe 2 or 3. The scientist and his assistant, Buck Rodgers, etc.
But WW2 and all it's naval warfare changed how many Sci Fi movies depicted space travel-- now it requires a crew, and the hero was usually the Captain. Thus Star Trek in the 60s.
Star Wars changed things again, bringing back into popularity the idea that Han and Chewie can fly a ship all by themselves.
Which makes Black Hole (1981) such an interesting movie. It is the last major post-WW2 style sci fi movie, and due to production issues came out two years AFTER Star Wars. And it feels so outdated by then.
Damn. Acting has really evolved 😅
better animation than one punch man season 3
That’s gotta be the easiest acting job ever lmao those first few scenes he just kinda looks around and then turns slightly before the animation takes over
The gangster with the pistol is cracking me up when he it keeps cutting back to him so relaxed as he keeps shooting Superman 😂
why was he so zesty
Ah yes the hills of the Los Angeles basin.
You know, I don't hate it. I kinda like it.
Honestly, so clean.
still better than recent marvel
Allow me to introduce Buster Keaton, who was using the same techniques 20 years earlier...
His films are amazing. Check out Steamboat Bill (1928) for a proper laugh and to see some equally impressive (for the time) special effects.
Most of his films are available on YouTube as they're old enough to not be copyrighted anymore. I'd highly recommend buying the box set dvd if anyone still owns a dvd player!
And it still looks more believable than Jurassic World Rebirth
That was cool to watch. Can you imagine being the person who brought that up during a meeting as a solution to the lack of effects at that time? I believe that since the show was in black/white helped to make the animation transition into the live action better.
Better animation than one pumch man s3
IIRC, Superman originally did not have the ability to fly. Rather, he could only leap (“…tall buildings in a single bound.”)
Honestly this is better than some 90's CGI attempts.
You think that was good. Wait till you learn about the movie Akira. Every single cell of film was hand-drawn. No CGI involved.
So, the second thug sees that he's immune to bullets and decides a knife will do the trick...?
For those of you who may not have realized, this is what was so particularly hilarious about the Mighty Mouse vs Superman debate from the movie Stand By Me.
Might Mouse is a Cartoon. Superman is a real guy. No way a cartoon can beat up a real guy.
wow we have come a long way since then. The transitions and animation were pretty smooth though, that's pretty amazing and clever
Honestly? That's actually pretty cool, and a really creative solution for the time period.
Back when Superman was the friendly neighborhood man
This would have been epic for folk back then.
OG CGI
Oh damn, that is interesting! I bet that went HARD in the 40’s too.
More entertainment in that short clip than you find in many modern films.
I'm pretty sure back in those days this was like 8k to them lol hell even 12k 😂😂😂😂
Looks like HGI "hand generated images"
It was a great idea back then.
Cool.
Fleischer, (the company that made the first Superman cartoon, owned by the man who invented the Rotoscope), was doing live action + animation in episodes of Koko the Clown, in the 20s. Disney also did it in the same era.
It was fairly old hat by the time we got to the late 40s.
And I'm struggling to understand why any of that has anything to do with CGI, but here we are.
Back before Superman could fly canonically. The whole "leap tall buildings in a single bound" was his top tier stuff.
CGI is animation
Should have specified “cell animation”