as
Superman Republic Pictures tried twice to produce a Superman serial. The first attempt was replaced by
Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940), when licensing negotiations with Superman publisher
National Comics failed. A second attempt was advertised for a 1941 release, but this time, two obstacles doomed production. National Comics insisted on absolute control of the script and production, and the rights to Superman were already committed to the
Paramount cartoon series.
Sam Katzman acquired the
live-action rights in 1947. He tried to sell them to
Universal, but they no longer made serials by then. He also tried to sell to Republic, but they claimed that "a superpowerful flying hero would be impossible to adapt"—despite having already successfully done just that with
Adventures of Captain Marvel in 1941. Also, Republic was no longer buying properties for adaptation by 1947. Columbia accepted the offer. Sam Katzman found
Kirk Alyn after looking through photographs, but had a hard time selling the idea of casting Alyn to
Whitney Ellsworth, National Comics' representative on the project. This was made even worse when Alyn came in for a screen test, sporting a goatee and moustache (as he was also shooting another project, a historical film). These initial reservations were eventually overcome, and Alyn got the part. Columbia's advertising claimed that it could not get an actor to fill the role, so it had "hired Superman himself", and Kirk Alyn was merely playing Clark Kent.
George Plympton added a joke to the script, substituting the
Lone Ranger's "Hi-Yo Silver!" for the traditional "Up, up, and away". This did not survive in the script long enough to actually be filmed. The Superman costume was grey and brown, instead of blue and red, because those colors photographed better on black and white film. It was never explained why his costume is shown as red and green on the one-sheet posters.
Special effects For Superman's flight sequences, Kirk Alyn spent an entire day painfully suspended by wires in front of a rear projection of moving clouds. Displeased with the results, Katzman fired the entire flight sequence production staff and used an animated method to create Superman's flight sequences instead. Due to the mix of animated and live-action footage, Superman's take-offs are almost always visible in the foreground, while his landings almost always occur behind objects, such as parked cars, rocks, and buildings. It was easier to shift from live footage of Kirk Alyn starting to take off to animated footage than it was to shift from an animated landing to live footage of the actor. As a consequence of the need to hide Superman's landings, Superman frequently lands at some distance from where he wants to be, and must run to arrive on-scene. Budget limitations also dictated the frequent re-use of film footage, especially scenes of Superman flying. For example, a sequence showing Superman flying over a rocky hill (a shot of
Stoney Point in Southern California's
San Fernando Valley) was used at least once in almost every episode of the first serial.
Stunts Kirk Alyn's stunt double was
Paul Stader. He had to perform only one stunt in the entire serial, leaping from the back of a truck. He almost broke his leg during this stunt and had to leave the production. Stader returned in the 1950 sequel serial
Atom Man vs. Superman with screen credit as "Killer Lawson.” ==Reception==