Retro Review – Fleischer Superman – “Billion Dollar Limited”

Fleischer Superman

Superman Homepage reviewer Micah Pickering reviews the Fleischer Superman animated shorts for those nostalgic for the 1940s.

Check out his review of the cartoon titled “The Mechanical Monsters!”.

A runaway train, a billion dollars worth of gold, and Lois Lane with a machine gun are just some of the things that make Billion Dollar Limited a cool installment of a classic series.

Now on with the review!

3Rating – 3 (out of 5): This is a shorter cartoon than its two predecessors, and there’s slightly less Superman in it than I would have hoped. However, what we do get is a pretty cool story where Superman gets to show that he truly is “more powerful than a locomotive.”

Our story begins with Lois boarding a train transporting a billion dollars worth of gold to the U.S. mint. Clark wishes her luck, as he can’t board the train with her because he has another assignment.

Masked hijackers are watching the train in their special getaway car. I’d like to take a minute to talk about the villains in this cartoon. Much like the previous villains in this series, they are unnamed. I think that’s a strange trend, that I’ve probably thought too much about. I mean, they could give them names or at least a group name. I mean, I could at least call the villain from the first cartoon

Here are some potential names I thought of for this ragtag group of train robbers:
– The Men in Black (they wear all black costumes)
– The Gold Grabbers
– The Cry Babies (at one point in this cartoon, they try to use tear gas on Superman)

Okay, maybe those aren’t good names, but I think it’s better than no names at all! Our nameless hijackers also have a cool transforming car that they use to chase the train. In an instant it becomes a sleek armored assault vehicle.

The hijackers disconnect the car with all of the guards in it from the rest of the train. Now totally defenseless the hijackers make their move for the gold.

In the midst of this chaos comes my favorite moment from this cartoon. When the hijackers shoot at the train from their armored car, Lois takes matters into her own hands. She grabs a machine gun, and opens fire on the hijackers.

The car is armored so nobody got hurt, but it’s a great example of Lois Lane being more than a damsel in distress. Superman fans know that Lois is capable of taking care of herself, but it’s really cool to see this character have these traits this early in her creation. Lois had only been around for four years at this point, and we’ve already seen the formation of her strength and independence.

When word gets out about the hijackers attempting to rob the train. Superman springs into action. I think Clark was a bit careless with his identity in this one. Instead of changing in a storage room, or a phone booth, he chose to simply jump behind a randomly stacked pile of wooden crates. I guess even Superman has to make due with what he has in an emergency.

The hijackers attempt to send the train into a pile of explosives. Superman averts disaster by redirecting the tracks, causing the train to miss the explosives entirely. The climax of this episode comes when Superman grabs the train and begins to pull it down the tracks. As Superman proves that he is more powerful than a locomotive, the hijackers attempt to slow him down with gunfire and tear gas grenades.

While the bullets bounced off Superman, the tear gas actually caused him to stumble a little bit. I only mention it here because I was surprised when I saw it. It puts into perspective the limits of Superman’s power at the time. In a modern story (or even a Silver Age story), Superman would have puffed away the tear gas as if he was the Big Bad Wolf. However, in this story even Superman needs to breathe.

The story concludes with Superman dragging the train all the way to the U.S. Mint, successfully delivering the billion dollar cargo. Back at the Daily Planet office. Lois remarks to Clark about how she wishes Superman stayed around long enough for her to thank him. Clark smiles at the audience, as we fade to black.