"Sometimes brains are better than brawn." Superman proves that in "The Mysterious Cube when he must use his brain to fully solve a two-part problem that his brawn alone could only partly solve. (The Mysterious Cube, ep #95, 1957.)
I'm 78 now! In 1955, I was ten years old watching all of Super Man's escapades, and nowadays in 2Q23, I never Get tired of watching the one and only real Super Man.....
When I was a kid, I watched this show very weekday afternoon (followed by The Munsters) on WPIX-TV channel 11 in New York. George Reeves was my hero - after my father, of course.
Shooting the latter seasons of this in colour so that they could be rerun when colour TV became a thing was a stroke of foresighted genius. They laughed at Gerry Anderson making _Stingray_ in colour, too, and that was in the early 60s. _Superman_ had already done it five or six years earlier!
It's also what saved "Bonanza" from cancellation. NBC was heavily invested in expensive color film to shoot Bonanza (not to mention RCA, its parent company, manufacturing color sets), and when low ratings threatened it, the decision was made, as the industry moved closer and closer to color, to keep it on.
Born in 1953, I grew up watching Superman! I’ve seen every episode many times and to this day they still fascinate me. However many of the regular bad guys and the cars seen over several episodes betray budget limitations!
@@knerduno5942 HEY BOZO! You had better hope you make it to my age, but that’s not guaranteed, not looking good for you, because having a functional brain kind of helps the survival of the fittest…
Grandpa Jones: "Roast beef simmering in the crock pot with brown gravy and fresh cut carrots. Hand picked string beans and a big scoop of mashed potatoes covered with a dab of butter! Hot corn bread right out of the oven, and piled high on the platter. For dessert, we'll have the homemade cinnamon apple pie that's cooling on the window sill!" Hee-Haw audience: "Yuuum yum!!" 😂🤣
I agree with you, those three episodes Plus, the one where he gets his costume stolen, and the memory erase spray, where he has to reveal his true identity to Lois, Jimmy and Perry, just to name a few.
Ok. Yeah.. Superman had the Navy adjust the clocks. But what did "Jimmy Olsen" mean when he said Superman "pulled that timetable trick" to free him & "Lois" from the house without "Jody Malone" knowing.
I loved this episode. Also loved the episodes when he split in two, “Mrs Superman” Supes marries Joi Lansing who wouldn’t she was beautiful. And the Atomic Spies episode. I mean Superman implodes an A bomb how cool is that
Great acting!Imaginative stories for the young an young at heart!Used to rush home after school an watch superman save the day!Sad he shot himself but sure he is flying somewhere in the multiverse!!R.I.P George
This is one of the episodes that shows that Superman has other powers than the ones he uses so much. Superb that he can manage to dematerialize and walk through walls.
Yes, this was a very interesting episode, especially from that time. If my memory serves me correctly, the way Superman was able to walk through the wall was by vibrating his body to a point that his molicules could pass through the walls, a scientic fact reasonly descovered.
Or most Long Island co-ops. At least my living room has a vaulted ceiling. My plan was to retire to NM or another western state, as I love the same kind of landscapes often used in Superman outdoor scenes, climate change and less than reliable health care quality killed that dream.
This was one of my favorite episodes, but, my ALL TIME FAVORITE was the two part episode with the creatures from the center of the earth. Scared the crap out of me when I was a little kid
Even as an 8 year old boy, I was fascinated at this- I was saying to myself, " he's going through solid matter." That was way before I ever read that neutrinos were capable of passing through a solid, a liquid, or a gas at 65,000,000,000 once every 2 square centimeters. WHEW!
….I know, right. Still, seven years alone in a cube? Don’t know why he didn’t just go to Mexico, way more safe and fun at that time. Could have lived like a king down there, think no extradition policy with the U.S. at that time. And Superman couldn’t kidnap him down there, would have been illegal. But then, logically there would have been no story either….
I remember watching this particular episode on a B&W television set back in the early 1970s. I remember the bad guy was watching the calendar for 7 years. At the 7 year mark the bad guy would pop open the door and be declared legally dead, his past crimes couldn't be used against him in a court of law. Keith Richards/Steve Barton (the bad guy) left the cube too early because Superman had the radio altered so 7 years hadn't quite elapsed.
Keith Richards!? I guess he didn't get no satisfaction! The plot does not make a lot of sense. "Scram else he will pull the string then Jimmy & Lois will get it!" Heat ray eyes to the the rescue to burn the string.
I saw this episode many years ago... one of my favorites. I seem to recall that Superman went partially into the wall, and turned the clock ahead. The smug criminal inside stepped out (an hour?) too early... into the arms of the law.
Same here. When I was a little kid of 5 or 6 back in the early 60s, I didn't think about all the bloopers until I got older. But I do remember questioning my brother, " where does Clark Kent put his clothes when he changes into Superman "? LOL.
Love how the Flash used this in the newer show. Superman vibrated himself so fast he was able to pass through the wall. I wonder why they never used it again for Superman.
This was a great episode up to the point Lois and Jimmy are kidnapped and held hostage. Besides that the bad guys tell Superman exactly where they are, Superman could have wrapped this case up without getting involved without the clock business.
The two, being tied up for who knows how long, has still to be tied up until noon the next day... needs to go to the bathroom as well. A pair of pissed off crappy pants they should have been. LOL 😂😂😂
How? What was "that timetable trick" to which Jimmy Olsen was referring? As a Superman devotee, I still don't get how Superman got them out of the house.
of course superman could have used his superfast speed to go over and snap the string out of guys hand of knock him out etc. or he could have burned throught the sting in fraction of second too
This story has all the signs of being put together in a hurry and wasn't well thought out. But the idea of Superman "oozing through" the wall is interesting enough to keep me watching even after all these years.
Paul could have stayed in that Cube a little longer just to be safe, but then again, I didn't notice a sink or a shower or a washer and dryer in that Cube. Must have gotten a little "ripe" in there after 7 years!. I think that's the real reason Superman backed out of there.
@@jimnolt-TAC Oh, c'mon. They likely rubbed out the person who had the knowledge--"splendid mind"--of making the special cube. Did you set this up for a comment?
@@macy-gu6vl First of all, Superman _was_ able to pass through the wall. He just stopped to save Lois and Jimmy. He ended up causing the clock inside the cube to speed up, thereby tricking the bad guy into coming out too soon. But he could have incinerated the guy inside if if weren't for that rule he had about not killing. I was making a joke.
That guy whose brother is in the cube until his 7 years hiding in it was dumb when he told Superman how the clock inside there is working and where its power is cnming from gave Superman an idea, which is to seek help from the U.S. Navy. Even the Man of Steel sometimes needs help from ordinary people.
The guy spent 7 years in solitary confinement in a small space with no human contact other than speaking through the wall occasionally. Keeps his appearance up. Shaves, nice haircut. Clothes ironed and clean.
Cause' it was a solid square, 6-sided cube of totally indestructible, molecularly hyper-dense collapsed impregnable matter ya big silly. Don't ya know?
He's probably doing Matt Damon's The Martian movie survival mode. He must have nuclear power source for the lights, air purifier, water recycling (pee back to water), and everything else. Could have used his own crap as fertilizer.
Good that Superman was using his super-hearing when he heard that Los & Jimmy were being held captive. The brother of the man was stupid to tell him about the clock inside and how it's getting its power from, hence Superman found a solution to save his friends.
The character was a scientist who was a recurring character who would advise Superman on things that he might be able to do, typically because of his dense molecular structure. There was another episode where the same character advised Superman how to split in to two versions of himself, each with half of his normal powers.
Superman sure had some weird powers in those days. That is, I assume today's Supes can't make himself immaterial enough to walk through walls or hypnotise and levitate someone with a wave of his hand? And those are just from the first two clips I have watched of thos series!
Pretty sure he can pass through walls. Flash does it all the time by vibrating so fast his molecules somehow pass through solid objects. And depending which comic you read sometimes he's faster than the flash. He's at least close enough there's multiple times they had a race to see who was faster.
The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid, made in the 1950s when nearly all TV was broadcast in black-and-white, were also filmed in color with an eye to future syndication sales.
The first two seasons were filmed in black and white. Seasons 3-6 were shot in color, but broadcast in black and white. Ten years later, when home color TV started catching on, the color version were released in syndication and a whole new generation of fans was created.
For any of your that care about Mr. Reeves Superman, he's on Heros and Icons TV on Sundays. This was a really cool one showing he had great mental abilities beyond mortal men. I think it does it by vibration which is why he is somewhat fatiqued at the end. The other interesting one is where he splits himself into two Supermen, neither being the full powered Superman but was neccesary to stay in jail and solve the crime at the same time. Don't know what that one is but it's really good. I thinkit's a professor who explains how to do it. Anyway you look at it, this is great fantasy and we need get-a- ways that show us how to be our best selves and watch the best Superman actor, George Reeves. Daper and that smile were fantastic qualities. I really hate the way his legacy was tarnished by, in my opinion after reading so much about it, his untimely death. He was such a good guy.
I have this series complete on DVD, Love it. I always laughed though, he's stand there and let a crook empty a gun at him, then the crook would throw the empty gun, and Superman would duck. George Reeves hated the show, and at the end of every season, believing [hoping] the show would be cancelled, he'd burn the super suit. THEN it would get picked up again, and he was contractually stuck with it, and the studio would have to make a new suit.
Thanks for posting your thoughts. Some of what you say is inaccurate though or misleading. It's true that Superman ducked the gun, but that happened only one time (The Mind Machine), and (not that it really matters) it wasn't George who ducked, but rather stand in Dale Van Sickel. I'm not sure why they filmed it that way though as it would have been better to have the gun bounce off of him. Regardless, they never made the same mistake again. And George never burned the costume, because it wasn't his to burn. Besides the production company had several costumes for each season. George's "relationship" with the character was complex. He didn't hate it, but it was not in the direction he hoped his career would take.
His appearance seen here is partially due to the overabundance of that "greasy kid stuff" used in the 50s. And I have no idea why so much of that was used, especially in the final season. But if you check out "The Last Knight," you'll see him without it... and he looks much better. Also, a series of pictures were taken just days before he died. There too, he looks much better than he did in some of these episodes.
This show may have had its corny moments (it was aimed at a children's audience) but there were many clever, inventive & cool moments too. I still find George Reeves superior to all Superman actors. The "speed" & sound that was captured as he flew was quite convincing for the era -- instead of that ballet in the sky, they did for Christopher Reeve that signified little. This episode was ingenious. Some big TV stars made appearances in episodes: Chuck Connors, Russell Johnson (the Professor from Gilligan's Island), John Doucette (several John Wayne films including "True Grit" & "The Sons of Katie Elder"), Jeff Corey (also "True Grit"), Sterling Holloway (many Disney films), Claude Akins, Hugh Beaumont, Jimmy Dodd (Disney's head of the Mickey Mouse Club), Paul Fix (many John Wayne films) & Dabbs Greer (who later became the old man in The Green Mile). They kept it interesting. At the time (1950s) this show was on, George Reeves' Superman was second only to Elvis Presley in fandom & popularity. With lunch boxes, toys, pens, trading cards, posters & other memorabilia. Considering that it ran from 1951-1958 (actually 6 TV seasons from 1952 with one early film "Superman and the Mole Men" - 1951) it was highly successful. It was supposed to continue for two more years: 1959 & 1960. But John Hamilton (Perry White) & George Reeves had died. So the series never ended because of poor ratings.
Good words there, @lastrada52. For many of us George Reeves was and will always be the best Superman. He brought a certain sincerity to the role ... a sincerity that gave us comfort, perhaps. Thanks for your thoughts and have a Happy 2024.
Of course, Superman should be able to lift the cube and fly away with it without any problem. "There's nobody hiding inside the cube? Well, I guess you wouldn't mind me dropping it off on the moon then?"
I've often felt that 7 years in prison would be better than 7 years in the cube. He could have gotten into the exercise yard each day. And how did he eliminate bodily waste?
You have things a little mixed up. This is George Reeves, not Christopher Reeve. But it is true that George Reeves is in the opening scenes to Gone With The Wind.