Superman Movie Minute #20 – About Face

SUPERMAN MOVIE MINUTE #20 - About Face

Fire and Water Network All-Stars Chris Franklin and Rob Kelly bring you SUPERMAN MOVIE MINUTE, where they analyze, scrutinize, and you'll-believe-a-man-can-fly-ize the classic 1978 film starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, and Marlon Brando, five minutes at a time!

In minutes 96:00 - 100:00, Luthor sets his plan in motion, and Otis makes a big mistake. Special Guest: Michael Bailey!

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12 responses to “Superman Movie Minute #20 – About Face

  1. Chris & Rob,

    Thanks for another thrill-packed episode in the amazing adventures of the Superman Movie Minute. This is my favorite movie of all time (with the 1933 King Kong a close second) so your show has become EVENT listening for me every week.

    Thanks also for having Michael Bailey back on. I’m a regular listener to his podcasts, in fact it was FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS that first got me into listening to podcasts and eventually led me to this fine network. But the Fortress of Baileytude hasn’t been updated since the first of January and I’ve been going through withdrawal. Hey man, I need an Overlooked Dark Knight fix and I need it NOW!

    Back on topic…since you guys are heading for the finish line I’d like to cast my vote for the follow-up Superman II Movie Minute. Theatrical cut only Please!

    Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to next week’s show.

    “Groovy” Mike Decker

    1. You would deny Rob and I discussion of Perry White brushing his teeth? And I thought you liked us?!?

      If (and I’m leaving that as a big if, because I’m beaten on enough by ONE of my co-hosts) and when we do a Superman II Minute show, Rob and I agree, we would definitely cover the theatrical cut.

      Chris

          1. Don’t make me get out my cellophane “S”.

            But yeah, that’s a fantastic moment. Also, the Clark-to-Superman change in the alley is my favorite shirt rip/transformation of all time. In ALL media. LOVE it.

            Chris

  2. My Larry Hagman story: In the 1980’s, My family spent some time in Turkey. I lost count of how many Turks that told me once they heard I was from Texas that if they saw J.R., they would kill him. They are a passionate people. It is not just in America. All I can say is Larry Hagman deserves whatever credit he gets for his acting there as people can’t seem to separate him from his character.

    Great show as always.

    Brian Hughes
    3rd Degree Byrne Podcast at twotruefreaks.com.

    1. WOW. Maybe Turkish Superman should take care of that J.R. Ewing?

      I forgot to mention that Christopher Reeve himself often said he had much the same experience after playing a cad on the soap opera Love of Life. He actually had old women come up and slap him. They must have used a foot stool….

      Chris

  3. Enjoyed hearing Michael Bailey talk about Kryptonite in the radio show, having listened to ALMOST all of the episodes, myself (I’m a fan of Old Time Radio). Fun fact: While it is reasonably well-known that Kryptonite first appeared in the radio show before eventually coming to the comics, most people don’t know that (for all Superman’s fears of it… seriously, he panicked about Kryptonite in the radio show in a way I’ve seldom seen him panic in other media) Kryptonite actually could NOT kill him directly. All radio-Kryptonite could do was immobilize Superman, rendering him into a coma-like state. But the Kryptonite could actually be laying right on top of Superman’s comatose form for DAYS, and once the Kryptonite was removed, he’d be more or less fine. It WAS suggested that if Superman was immobilized by Kryptonite for long enough, he’s eventually starve to death, but that would be, at best, an indirect way for Kryptonite to kill him, and it certainly would have taken far longer to accomplish than is suggested for Kryptonite poisoning in the comics.

    1. Wow, now that’s interesting. I knew of the unpublished story Siegel wrote and Shuster (or his studio) partially drew in 1940 that introduced “K-Metal” that was essentially what Krytponite would become. But I didn’t know about Radio Kryptonite having such different properties. Of course, at first Radio’s Superman came to Earth as an adult from Krypton, so…

      I really do need to listen to all of Superman’s radio adventures. What I’ve heard is spotty at best.

      Chris

  4. Great to hear Michael on the program! re: kryptonite; This is another thing where the film-makers had an advantage with the audience. The audience already knew about kryptonite. If you had asked any movie-goer in 1976-77 what they knew about Superman, the overall general response would be ‘he can fly, he’s super-strong, he’s really Clark Kent, nothing can hurt him except kryptonite.’ The how and the why of kryptonite is immaterial. The villain having some is integral to the plot.
    Of course it annoys me.
    And you were right on about how much Lois blabs about Superman’s abilities in the paper! But that’s part of the common shared knowledge of the character, ‘has x-ray vision, can’t see through lead.’ When DC chose to “re-start” Superman in 1986, that sort of inherent knowledge, to the denizens of the DC Universe, should have been scrapped. Along with the idea that Superman had a secret identity. All the various crooks and schemers would have had no inkling that about what he could, or could not, do. Why would anyone think that this guy would disguise himself as someone else? I’m already irritating Michael. Sorry I’ll stop.
    If Larry Hagman had worn glasses and slumped as he walked through airports, I bet a lot fewer people would have recognized him. Oh, BTW, I was one of those people who thought to themselves, “Cool, that’s the guy from I Dream of Jeannie!” I was, and am still, unaware of any roles he had taken between “Jeannie” and “Superman.”

  5. Hey guys. The reason Miss Tessmacher isn’t changing the directional vectors is pretty obvious if you think about it. Do you really think a bunch of soldiers would be excited to do mouth to mouth and vigerous chest massages to OTIS?!?
    Keep up the great work!

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