Superhero Film Week: Superman

Howdy readers and welcome to a glimpse into my childhood movie days.  While it is not in Technicolor you will see these films are of yesteryear.  I feel we should kick out the jams with my first superhero film I encountered on the big screen.  Yes he stands for truth, justice and the American way.  So by that he agrees with big oil and Christian fundamentalists?    Maybe not but I am keeping an eye on this fly boy.  So grab your tights, enjoy that flight harness and hope the swimmers’ cup block some of the view from your undies.   This is Superman the Movie.

 

I told you refractive gray suits would be all the rage this season.

  SPOILERSSBURGG??!!!

This vision of Superman was conceived by Illya Salkind (executive producer of Bluebeard, The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge, The Twist, Superman II, Superman III, Supergirl and The Adventures of Superboy) with screen writers Mario Puzo (The Godfather, Earthquake, Superman II, A Time to Die, The Cotton Club and The Last Don), David Newman (Bonnie and Clyde, Bad Company, Superman II and Jinxed!), Leslie Newman (Superman, Superman II, Superman III, Santa Claus and Takedown) and Robert Benton (Bonnie and Clyde, What’s Up, Doc?, Kramer vs. Kramer, Still of the Night and Places in the Heart).   This was to be the end all Hollywood production for a superhero film.  In 1973 the first write up was considered too campy so it got pushed back by director Richard Donner , a TV and TV movie director primarily but had finished the horror film The Omen when he was given the helm for Superman after Guy Hamilton bowed out.

Batman's guide on how to pick up chicks is paying off.

He found the script to be hokey and demanded a script doctor to nurse this film back to health.   The film depicts Kal-El (Superman) as an infant in Krypton being sent away from his doomed home world and jettisoned to Earth landing in a farmer’s field of Kansas.  Being his biological makeup differs from ours he developed amazing powers and his adopted parents strive to teach him to use them only for good.  

With a budget of $55 million on the table tensions were pretty high between Donner and his producers.   Initially it was decided to film both the first and its sequel alongside one another but Donner finished ¾ of the principal photography of the second film then devoted all his time into the first.   Box office earnings fell under $300 million worldwide and Warner Brothers knew they had a cash cow to rake it in for years to come…if they knew how to manage and recapture the same genie in the bottle.

At least I don't have an annoying nephew...yet.

Yeah a few comments to be had now.  With a series of accomplished actors to the caliber of Glenn Ford, Jackie Cooper, Gene Hackman, Phyllis Thaxter and Ned Beatty, numerous actors were considered for the part of Superman/Clark Kent: Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Ryan O’Neal and even Robert Wagner. Ultimately producer Ilya Salkind cast a unknown actor at the time who had only done a soap opera TV credit and one movie called Gray Lady Down.  This movie truly launched not only Superman but Christopher Reeves (Somewhere in Time, Deathtrap, Monsignor, The Aviator,Street Smart and The Rose and the Jackal)onto a TV and film career.