Superman on Television

Adventures of Superman: Episode Reviews

Season 2 - Episode 24: "Star of Fate"

Original Broadcast Date: February 22, 1954

Writers: Roy Hamilton and Leroy H. Zehran

Director: Thomas Carr

Guest Cast:
Lawrence Ryle as Doctor Gregory Barnak
Paul E. Burns as Mister Mattlen Whitlock
Jean Dean as Alma Dennis
Ted Hecht as Ahmed
Tony De Mario as March
Arthur Space as Doctor Wilson

"Star of Fate"

Ahmed, manservant of the late Doctor Pearson, has been instructed by his deceased mentor to auction off a mysterious box wrapped in lead foil to two bidders - Doctor Gregory Barnak and Mister Mattlen Whitlock. The two men were acquaintances of Doctor Pearson, and there seems to be some animosity between them from the start. Reporters Lois Lane and Clark are covering the event for the Daily Planet. Outrageous dollar amounts are bandied about leaving Clark to believe there is more to the package than meets the eye. He leaves to call the office to see if there is any information on Whitlock and Barnak. As he does this, Lois sees something in the room's mirror. Doctor Barnak points a gun at Whitlock's back. He will clearly stop at nothing to get the enigmatic parcel.

Doctor Barnak has paid ten thousand dollars for Doctor Pearson's box. Whitlock urges him not to open it because it contains evil that some consider a curse. Barnak's only response is to strike Whitlock. Whitlock's head makes contact with the nearby wall, causing him to fall. Clark returns to assist Lois in helping the injured man. However, all three people cannot help but be curious as to why Gregory Barnak wants the lead foil package so desperately.

Barnak and his secretary Alma Dennis have brought the strange package to his home. Even though the lead foil was removed, Barnak has ordered Ms. Dennis to not open the ornate box until he can do more research on it. Before he can do that, however, he must go to the bank to deposit the funds for the check he wrote to Ahmed. After Barnak leaves, Ms. Dennis is overcome with curiosity. She does the exact opposite of what her employer had instructed. She discovers a large sapphire within. Her joy is suddenly cut short. Alma Dennis clutches her throat and falls into a state of unconsciousness. What was inside the late Doctor Pearson's eerie parcel that is causing so many problems for her?

Clark Kent has escorted Mattlen Whitlock to his curio shop in Metropolis. In addition to seeing Whitlock's series of marionettes used to entertain the children, including one of Superman, Kent learns that the shopkeeper wishes for the box that Barnak purchased to be destroyed at all costs. Neither Clark nor Whitlock intend to give up on their quests for the parcel and the mystery surrounding it. The package discovered by the late Doctor Pearson could, perhaps, be the cause of a great peril from which even Superman cannot rescue its victims.

Lois and cub reporter Jimmy Olsen have found Ms. Dennis barely alive on Doctor Barnak's floor. As Jimmy is about to call an ambulance, Barnak enters to find out what happened. Plus, the box he bought is gone. Whitlock had taken it to lock it in his safe because he feels it is too dangerous. Barnak is so obsessed with getting the container back that he doesn't even care about his secretary's health. Jimmy is left behind to care for her while Lois returns to the Planet to convince Clark to help her follow Barnak. The case of the deadly parcel may be getting to be more intense for Superman and his friends.

Whitlock is studying hieroglyphics about the box while his employee March puts it in the curio shop owner's safe. March makes the lethal error of opening the package. He, like Alma Dennis, is unconscious. Now, two people have been stricken by the curse placed upon this ancient object. Nobody, even Superman, may be able to prevent a third fatality from occurring because of it.

Barnak has entered the curio shop. He holds Whitlock at gunpoint to take back the box. At the same time, Lois and Clark arrive to find the door locked. Whitlock must pretend to be busy. Otherwise, Barnak will kill him. Whitlock, in an effort to ask for help from the reporters, uses his Superman puppet to rescue another one. Unfortunately, they merely believe he is rehearsing for one of his shows for the children after school. Lois and Clark's leaving makes Whitlock understand that he might not be able to get out of the dangerous situation in which he finds himself.

Barnak has bound and gagged Whitlock. There is also a small bottle of nitroglycerin on a cuckoo clock. Should the bird strike it, the liquid will fall, and the impact will create an explosion destroying everything in the room, including Whitlock. Barnak has taken the box and ten thousand dollars in jewelry to compensate for Whitlock's theft of it. With Lois and Clark gone, it seems that nobody can make sure that Superman saves the shopkeeper.

Clark has suddenly realized that Whitlock was sending a message to him and Lois. While Lois goes back to the Planet, he returns to the curio shop as Superman. The Man of Steel unties Whitlock and shields him from the nitroglycerin explosion that now leaves only a hole in the wall. Whitlock then tells Superman that Barnak took a decoy of the box. The real one was hidden in Whitock's desk because he knew Barnak was coming for it. However, there is still the matter of the ancient curse that has claimed two victims. Superman must take them to Mercy General Hospital and hope doctors can discover its cause. If they can't, somebody else, perhaps even one of the Metropolis Marvel's friends, could be stricken by this ancient evil.

Mercy General's Doctor Wilson will do everything in his power to examine the mysterious jewel box. Neither he nor Lois believes in curses. To prove this, Lois opens the box only to suffer the same fate as Alma Dennis and March. Clark looks further to notice a needle in the opening mechanism which Clark's finger had broken. Its tip contained an unknown poison. Now more than ever, there's a race against time to find a cure. Without it, Lois, Ms Dennis and March will definitely perish.

Mister Whitlock has translated some hieroglyphics on the leaf-shaped base of the sapphire. A plant that only grows under the great pyramids of Egypt can cure the victims of the box's venom. Only Superman can get there fast enough to find it and cure the afflicted people. Can his great speed help him save everyone before it's too late?

Superman lifts a pyramid to get the plant needed for the anti-toxin and brings it to Mercy General. Meanwhile, Jimmy has confronted Whitlock. The shopkeeper didn't press charges against Barnak for the jewel robbery because the researcher threatened to turn him in for stealing the box from him. Now, Jimmy must contact the police. First, he must speak with Barnak. Little does young Mister Olsen realize that he may be walking into a trap.

With the antidote made and given to the poison victims, Superman can return to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent with the good news. He arrives to find editor Perry White and Mattlen Whitlock discussing the fact that Jimmy believes that Doctor Barnak should be in police custody. Neither man realizes that Barnak has trapped the young man in an Egyptian mummy case while he plans to leave Metropolis with the stolen jewels and the ancient sapphire. He originally wanted to buy the box to sell the gem on the black market. With Jimmy in trouble, even the powers of Superman might not be able to get him out of danger this time.

As Barnak is about to make his getaway, Jimmy screams for help. He shoots at the mummy case to find the bullet proof Superman inside it. He switched places with Jimmy while moving at superhuman velocities. With the cub reporter now rescued, Doctor Gregory Barnak will now go to prison for theft and attempted murder thanks to Superman and eyewitness testimony from Jimmy Olsen.

Lois and the others poisoned have been cured. Only one thing remains on the minds of Lois, Jimmy and Perry. How did the needle with the toxin break when Clark Kent opened the box? The answer comes in the form of an adhesive bandage on the mild mannered reporter's finger. In spite of this, Lois is not completely convinced. However, her suspicions that Kent is Superman will have to wait. Her first priority is her recovery. Both Clark and the Man of Steel can wait another day.

Rating - 4 (out of 5): Both Ted Hecht and Lawrence Ryle make their first appearances in The Adventures of Superman. They'll be back for season three's "The Magic Necklace", and Hecht will be in "Tomb of Zaharan".

Once again, Paul E. Burns plays the owner of a curio shop in The Adventures of Superman. He did so the first time as Lu Sung in season one's "The Riddle of the Chinese Jade".

Jean Dean played numerous parts in Dragnet and other television shows and films. Look for her as Mrs. Doris Perkins in 1957's Blood of Dracula.

Tony De Mario will be back in season four's "The Unlucky Number".

Arthur Space played Herbert Brown in the television series National Velvet. Look for him to return to Metropolis in the third season's "The Seven Souvenirs".

When Superman leaves the hospital to go to Egypt, footage of his takeoff is from the episode "Jet Ace". The film was flipped to appear as if he needs to fly to the east. However, the S on George Reeves' uniform is reversed. Plus, if you play his return flight to Metropolis in slow motion, you can see that the words on the billboards are backwards.

It's possible that Paul E. Burns made a mistake with his lines in the scene in which his character shows Clark Kent the marionettes. When Clark asks if he makes puppets, he replies, "No, it's a hobby of mine." Perhaps, he meant to say yes.

This episode is adapted from the story "Star of Fate" which appeared in Superboy #34, cover dated July 1954.

The story itself is a good one, but some unanswered questions and supposition on the part of the viewer prevents the episode from getting a perfect score. Beyond that, we have a great tale that feels like it could be from Robert Maxwell's days with season one and the radio show.

I mentioned that the audience must make an assumption while watching "Star of Fate". I say this because I did this very thing when writing the plot synopsis. I guessed that Doctor Gregory Barnak wanted to sell the Egyptian sapphire on the black market because nothing is ever mentioned in the episode about his reasons for wanting the box. This is an important detail that the writers should not have left out of the script. A villain needs motive if he isn't criminally insane like the Joker, and Barnak clearly wasn't. It was sloppy on the parts of Roy Hamilton and Leroy H. Zehran to forget about this important factor.

There's a lot going on in "Star of Fate", and much of it is exciting and interesting. However, it feels like the opening scene is in the middle of the story. Some more background on Ahmed and his dead employer Doctor Pearson would have been nice. How did Pearson die? Did the poison from the box's needle kill him? Out of all the newspapers in the world, why did Ahmed contact the Daily Planet? If it were to keep Doctor Pearson's memory alive, as the servant claims, any paper would suit his purposes. It would have made more sense if Pearson was a friend of Perry White or some other Planet staff member. As filmed, Ahmed's reasons were rather flimsy at best. Also, how did Whitlock and Barnak meet? Whitlock says that they knew each other, but only his tone implies that they do not like each other. More key points were forgotten in the final version.

One thing that struck me as a gaping plot hole was the decoy box. Just how exactly did Whitlock get it? Did he actually find time to make it himself, or did someone else create it? As it's shown in "Star of Fate", it just appears out of the blue, and Superman doesn't even question its origins. Again, the writers seemed to leave things out because they probably wanted to meet their deadline. This, unfortunately, makes the audience scratch their heads in confusion because Zehran and Hamilton didn't pay attention to necessary details.

Aside from those flaws, I really enjoyed "Star of Fate". The acting was top notch with an exciting story that puts the audience on the edges of their seats. George Reeves' scenes as Superman are really stupendously done as well. One really feels like he is the most powerful being on the planet in this entry, especially when he lifts the pyramid to get the plant. What more could any fan ask for in an episode of The Adventures of Superman?

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