Silly Saucer

For some of you the image of the cute cartoon flying saucer above looks familiar. I previously wrote about a movie serial from the 1950s based on the comic book character Blackhawk. The hero is in his plane when the bad guys attack with a remote-controlled flying saucer.

The “Blackhawk” serial was made in 1952 with Kirk Alyn as “the fearless champion of justice.” Back in 1950 Alyn starred as the hero in a different serial based on Superman. I didn’t see “Atom Man vs. Superman” until recently and was surprised to spot a familiar cartoon flying saucer making its appearance, this time under the control of Supe’s arch enemy Lex Luthor. At one point newspaper reporter Clark Kent (Superman’s secret identity) and his co-worker Lois Lane are in the Daily Planet airplane when they encounter the animated weapon. Fortunately Lois faints so that Clark can change into Superman and save the day.

The “Blackhawk” movie serial two years later did some recycling from this movie. It used the same airplane, the same lead actor, and the same cartoon saucer.

If you think the saucer looks bad in my screencap image, you should see how they did some of the flying shots in the Superman serials. Clark Kent would run behind a tree and then a cartoon Superman would fly up, up, and away.