American Cinematographer - November 1991 - 73

Reeves takes

Judy Ann
Nugent "Around
the World with

Superman" in
front of a
process screen.
Note leg stirrups
on

the pole,

which is bolted
to the body pan
under Reeves'

uniform.

Jack Glass, ASC, who worked out of the Hal Roach
Studio. Glass' work there included trick shots for the

Rocky Jones series and the "talking portraits" opening
of My Little Margie. On Superman, he received billing for
photographic effects.
First in line was the long shot of Superman
flying across Metropolis and rural America. A back¬
ground plate panning across Los Angeles was secured,
along with a mountain vista moving in the same di¬
rection. The scenes were tied with dissolves, creating
a continuous moving background. Reeves, who
rocked and banked on the pipe rig, was matted onto
the scenery. The urban/rural sections were generally
slugged into each episode.
Superman's night flight in "The Clown Who
Cried"

was

nicknamed "the Texaco shot," a nod to the

sign on the Hollywood street. The bugaboo of
printing Reeves onto a dark sky was that his matte line
looked like glowing Kryptonite. Still, pains were taken
to heighten the shot's dramatic possibilities. The street
scene had been filmed static, so an
optical zoom was
made. It kept the city moving in perspective as Reeves'
trolleyed image soared over the camera. A Manhattan
night scene was used for a reverse angle.
The best shot of 1953 had him glide amiably
over Metropolis and dip out of frame. Reeves had been
filmed at a three-quarter angle on the trolley. For his
exit, his leg wires were pulled upward and the trolley
action pushed him out of frame. Jack Glass printed him
neon

November 1991

optically-joined camera pans made across
Angeles. Reeves' cape tangled in the piano wires,
but the overall result was stunning. Editor Harry
Gerstad cut it into the episodes "Shot In The Dark" and
"Star of Fate." In an outtake circulating today, Reeves
can be seen
talking in mid-air to the crew.
Other composites didn't fare so well. Some
were
grossly overexposed, and one of him catching a
model airplane in "The Wrecker" looked almost so¬
larized. The budget precluded optical remakes.
Rear projection, on the other hand, high¬
lighted the '53 season. Scenes of Superman soaring
endlessly toward an asteroid in "Panic in the Sky" were
exciting to behold. And in "Around the World,"
Reeves took Judy Ann Nugent on a global tour of rearprojected backgrounds. It was every kid's dream but
a technical
nightmare, requiring a grueling day of stopstart process work and the constant repositioning of
Nugent to take the load off George, whose legs had to
be strapped to a horizontal beam for the duration of
over

two

Los

the cuts.

Improvements were made to propel Reeves
dramatically for his takeoffs. His window exit in
"Panic in the Sky" is stunning, and his hghtning-streak
takeoff through a broken wall, right before your eyes
more

in "The Machine that Could Plot Crimes," was the best

done.
"We experimented," Simonson said humbly.
"We tried a trampoline. We tried the catapulting foot-

ever

American

Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - November 1991

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