The cinema of spoofery had one of its highpoints in this 1981 dismantling of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (1978). A product of the Cal State University Long Beach Film Department, SUPERBMAN: THE OTHER MOVIE was an eight minute short that morphed into a 31 minute mini-epic.
No-budget spoofs of Hollywood blockbusters have been mainstays since the release of HARDWARE WARS (1978), CLOSET CASES OF THE NERD KIND and PORKLIPS NOW (both 1980). The first and last of those films were successful enough that their creator, the San Francisco based Ernie Fosselius, was employed by the makers of the movies he was spoofing (with Fosselius doing voice work on the George Lucas produced EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI, and assisting Francis Ford Coppola on Jerry Brown’s 1980 presidential campaign). Twenty years later the phenomenon repeated itself when director Joe Nussbaum’s short film GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE (1999), a spoof of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998), received a deluxe DVD release and led to a prolific episodic TV career, while Natalie Van Doren’s SHARKTANK REDEMPTION (2000) was included as an extra on the Blu-ray of its inspiration THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994).
SUPERBMAN didn’t enjoy the same level of success, but it was the most ambitious (and longest) of the parody films mentioned here, and received a fair amount of mainstream attention. The presence of sci fi legend David Gerrold in the cast ensured a write-up in STARLOG magazine, and director Dave Teubner also managed to enlist the services of Kirk Alyn (who played the title role in the 1948 SUPERMAN serial) and voice-over legend Gary Owens for the old school narration (Owens, FYI, also did the honors for the 1975 TVM IT’S A BIRD…IT’S A PLANE…IT’S SUPERMAN!).
It all begins on the planet Krapton. Jel-lo (Gerrold) is convinced Krapton will soon pop, but his fellows poo-poo the idea. He hands his infant son off to his relative Brand-O (Mark Rydzynski), who puts the kid in a spaceship and fires him off into space. The boy crash lands on Earth, where as a fully grown lad (Rydzynski) he meets the elderly Pa Cant (Kirk Alyn), who promptly drops dead, and then, bidding his farewells to Ma Cant (Bjo Trimble), makes his way to a big city.
There, in the guise of Clark Cant, he becomes a reporter for the DAILY CORNET, under the editorship of Perry Blight (Alvy Moore), and settles into his Superbman alter ego. Clark falls for Lois Lame (Tricia Matthews), a fetching fellow reporter, and befriends the nerdy Jiminy Olson (Dave Teubner), a photographer. But the evil Rex Ruthor (Dan Sanchez) intervenes, forcing Superbman to take on General Zit (Drex Reed), an evil refugee from Krapton, which involves what is said to be the most elaborate cream pie fight in cinema history.
I won’t argue that the preceding events have some kind of overarching significance, because they don’t. They are, however, well utilized: the ultra-low budget special effects, in which household appliances are used to represent spaceships and planets, recall those of HARDWARE WARS, and are imaginatively employed–more so, in fact, than those of the film’s more expensive inspiration. Even the score, comprised entirely of public domain (read: free) classical music drops, is well utilized.
Most importantly of all, the film is actually funny. It manages to incorporate most of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE’S iconic lines (such as “Do you like pink?” and “Can you read my mind?”), and offers some witty twists on them (Superbman to Lois Lame after saving her from being hit by a car: “I hope this hasn’t put you off crossing the street. Statistically speaking, it’s still the safest way to get to the other side”). The climactic pie fight could have been a bit stronger, but the mere fact that this comedy elicits laughs settles the argument about whether SUPERBMAN was a worthwhile endeavor.
Vital Statistics
SUPERBMAN: THE OTHER MOVIE
Paranoid Productions
Director: Dave Teubner
Producer: Vern Dietsche
Screenplay: John Ginn
Cinematography: Dave Teubner
Editing: Vern Dietsche, Drex Reed, Dave Teubner
Cast: Mark Rydzynski, Tricia Matthews, Dan Sanchez, Drex Reed, Alvy Moore, Kirk Alyn, Bjo Trimble, David Gerrold, Dave Teubner, M’Linda McGuire, Vern Dietsche, Mani Migliore, Mike Twitty, Nathan Douglas, Bob Burns, Gary Owens