Superman (serial)

Superman 1948 is a 15part blackandwhite Columbia film serial based on the comic book character Superman starring an uncredited Kirk Alyn billed only by his character name, Superman but credited on the promotional posters and Noel Neill as Lois Lane. Like Batman, it is notable as the first liveaction appearance of Superman on film and for the longevity of its distribution. The serial was directed by Thomas Carr, who later directed many early episodes of the Adventures of Superman television show, and Spencer Gordon Bennet, produced by Sam Katzman and shot in and around Los Angeles, California. It was originally screened at movie matines and after the first three scenesetting chapters, every episode ends in a cliffhanger. The Supermaninflight scenes are animations, in part due to the small production budget.

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 later called DC 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 liveaction 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 in 1940 with The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Also, Republic was no longer buying properties for adaptation by 1947. Columbia accepted.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. Columbias 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 just Clark Kent. ........

Source: Wikipedia