November 1951: The Unknown People

The man from the sky versus the men from the center of the Earth.

Well, not “versus,” exactly. Superman would end up protecting the small strangers from the violent, unreasoning prejudices of we surface dwellers.

Bill Schelly noted that in 1951, “…near the year’s end, an event occurred that would soon have major ramifications for National. Superman and the Mole Men, a low-budget movie, was released on Nov. 23. The black-and-white film was the first feature film based on National characters… It was also the first time George Reeves played the Man of Steel.”

When the luminous but harmless Mole Men emerge from a deep oil well at night, they terrify townspeople. Superman must first protect the Mole Men from an ugly mob whipped up by the fanatical Luke Benson, and then Benson himself from a ray gun that the Mole Men wield in self-defense.

As in 1938’s Action Comics 1, Superman faces down a lynch mob.

“The sympathetic view of the aliens in this film, and the unreasoning fear on the part of the citizenry, has been compared by author Gary Grossman to the panicked public reaction to the peaceful alien Klaatu in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still, which was released the same year,” noted the Superman Wiki. “Both films have been seen retrospectively as a product of (and a reaction to) the ‘Red Scare’ of post-World War II.”

Jeff Corey played the heavy. “His portrayal of a xenophobic vigilante coincidentally reflected what was about to happen to him,” Wikipedia notes.

Blacklisted after he refused to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Corey eventually became known as one of the foremost acting teachers in the U.S. 

The theatrical film was retooled into a two-part episode of The Adventures of Superman TV series, retitled The Unknown People. 

Superhero comic books were dying out in 1951, but the popularity of the Superman TV show rescued the genre for a whole new generation.