Superman on Television

Adventures of Superman: Episode Reviews

Season 1 - Episode 24: "Crime Wave"

Original Broadcast Date: February 27, 1953

Writer: Ben Peter Freeman

Director: Tommy Carr

Guest Cast:
? as The Number One Man
John Eldredge as Walter Canby
Philip Van Zandt as Nick Marone
Al Eben as Big Ed Bullock
Joseph Mell as The Professor
Barbra Fuller as Sally
Bobby Barber as Tony the Masseur
Stephen Carr as the Voice of Murphy

"Crime Wave"

Crime is running rampant on the streets of Metropolis. The Daily Planet, with the aid of prominent attorney Walter Canby, Metropolis Police Inspector William J. "Bill" Henderson and Superman, has begun a crusade to rid the streets of the gangsters and racketeers that have turned the city into a bloodbath. Gradually, the public enemies of Metropolis are brought to justice, and Superman has pledged to wage war against all twelve crime bosses until the mysterious Number One Man is put behind bars for good. The Number One Man has one solution to his problem with the Man of Steel - use every means necessary to make things more difficult for Superman and the police.

Even though the gangs of Metropolis are giving everything they've got in their war with police and the Man of Tomorrow, Superman is fighting back even harder. The police have interrogated mobsters like Nick Marone and Big Ed Bullock. However, the identity of the Number One Man remains unknown. Superman still has a lot of work to do in order to find this enemy of the city and state.

In spite of all of the racketeers and hoodlums under his command being in prison, the Number One Man has a plan to kill Superman. Once his girl Sally gets all the information she can on Superman and those closest to him, the crime boss can contact the Man of Steel to get him to go to a place owned by the Number One Man. All he will have to do is wait for the right moment to strike.

Thanks to some film and information taken by Sally, the Number One Man can set his vicious plot against Superman into motion. There is even footage of Clark Kent entering an alley and Superman exiting from the same place. The Number One Man makes a telephone call to Clark Kent. When the villain knows that the Man of Steel won't make deals with criminals, he tells Kent that he will surrender to Superman, provided that he meet the Number One Man at a place on Dover's Cliff outside of Willow Falls at 11:00 PM tonight. Clark knows that the Number One Man has possibly set a trap for the Caped Wonder, but Superman must do whatever he can to put the Number One Man in prison for the rest of his life.

Editor Perry White and reporters Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are waiting on Clark Kent to bring them the page one exclusive on the Number One Man for the Daily Planet's bulldog edition. They may have quite some time to wait, for Superman has been trapped in a room with strange panels by Big Ed Bullock, Nick Marone and someone calling himself the Professor. The Professor's machines were designed to kill Superman by bombarding him with electricity. The Last Son of Krypton writhes in pain until he falls to the ground. The Professor, Marone and Bullock enter the chamber and learn something. The Number One Man's plan has worked. Superman is dead.

The Number One Man has come out of hiding to celebrate his enemy's death. He is none other than Walter Canby, the lawyer who had told the press that he intended to clean up Metropolis. Now that his foe has revealed himself, Superman can stop his pretense. He knocks Canby and his gang around and says, "I'm amazed that any of you thought that display of fireworks bothered me, or that I couldn't get out of this room if I wanted to."

The Man of Steel has destroyed the professor's machines and dealt with Canby's men. Now he is delivering a package to Perry White as he, Lois and Jimmy prepare to go home. It's Clark Kent's page one headline. It's Walter Canby, the Number One Man, battered and defeated.

"Now, you can print that statement Canby wanted you to print," Superman says with determination. "There is no Number One Crime Boss in Metropolis anymore."

Rating - 4.5 (out of 5): John Eldredge has played a vast array of parts in his career. Look for him in three more episodes of The Adventures of Superman, including "Superman's Wife".

Philip Van Zandt can be spotted as Muller in 1944's House of Frankenstein. Look for him to return in "Superman in Exile" and "King For a Day".

Like Joe Kirk, Bobby Barber played various roles in Abbott and Costello's films and television show. "Crime Wave" marked the only appearance for him, Al Eben, Joseph Mell and Barbra Fuller in The Adventures of Superman. However, Mell has had parts in Star Trek: The Original Series and the Michael Landon film I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

Zoom lenses did not come out for movie cameras in 1953. Therefore, it is impossible for Sally to have taken the footage she had filmed without being next to the person in the movie.

To ease budget constraints, footage from previous episodes can be seen throughout the montages of Superman's war against the mob.

This could not be seen well in televisions of 1953. DVD transfers show the identity of the Number One Man before he watches Sally's movies even though his face is still in the shadows somewhat.

Chuck Harter's commentary on this episode for the DVDs contains an error. He says that Inspector Henderson was created exclusively for The Adventures of Superman TV series and eventually showed up in the comic books later on. Henderson, in fact, first appeared in the radio show.

Yet again, we have another episode that deserves a five. However, I have to wonder about the intelligence of the Number One Man. Sally gives him film that shows proof that Clark Kent is Superman. And what does he do with the world's greatest secret? Absolutely nothing. It was sufficient for his dialogue in the telephone conversation with Clark be heard. Something like this should have been said: "If Superman don't come to my place on Dover's Cliff outside of Willow Falls at 11:00 tonight, I will reveal his true identity to the entire world." This is why I knocked half a point off my score for "Crime Wave".

That was my only problem with "Crime Wave" as a whole. The rest of it was an exiting thirty minutes guaranteed to thrill people of all ages. Stupendous acting and a superb story combined with great visual effects and camera work make this one a pure delight to watch. No wonder this episode is a favorite among fans. It's downright, if you'll pardon the pun, super.

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