Adventures of Superman (TV Series) Three in One (1958) User Reviews

Entertaining Episode With Lots Of Twists

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 8 March 2007]

A "Mr. Dawson," the owner of a big circus playing in Metropolis, is in Perry White's office explaining his tale of woe: the circus will have to close in a week if someone doesn't recover the stolen money from his business. The police haven't been able to solve the case....but Clark Kent is thinking, so you know he'll come up with some solution.

Meanwhile, we quickly see who the crooks are: a pair of "performers" in the circus: "the world's greatest escape artist" and "the world's greatest human fly," the idea being these two get go into the safe-cracking business when it involves more than robbing something on the first floor. With the money they've already stolen from Dawson's safe, they are ready to go into their own business, robbing safes that are 17 stories up and more.

Can Superman foil their plans and enable the circus to keep going? Well, en route to the end of this story we see a bunch of twists and turns - none of which are credible - but are fun to watch, such as Superman being arrested, Jimmy Olsen fitted for a straight-jacket and locked in a trunk, and the appearance of "Atlas, the world's strongest (and dumbest) person."

The crooks in these Superman shows were always entertaining. Most of the time they were really stupid but at least in this episode, the main thug was pretty smart. Ah, but "greed" is a dangerous sin.

A Quick Way to the Top

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 15 February 2015]

Two men are responsible for robbing a circus where they work. This leads to the closing of the circus. The men develop a new enterprise. One of them is a human fly, capable of climbing up the sides of steep buildings; the other is an escape artist, an expert at picking locks. They bring the circus strong man into the mix and begin to rob buildings by entering them on very high floors. Because the three are seen as one person, there is only one logical possibility. Superman is arrested and held in jail because the police are so desperate to have a suspect. Jimmy, of course, manages to get himself in hot water (well, actually it is probably room temperature) when he gets conned by the escape artist. A pretty decent episode with a few plot twists.

When The Final Product Is More Than The Sum Of The Parts

[redryan64 · 7/10 · 11 February 2015]

OF ALL THE episodes that came our way in the waning days of the series, this one is quite possibly our favourite. Whereas the story lines had become muddled in large doses of comic relief, this installment made a boldly refreshing break from this trend. In some respects, it is a sort of a throwback; hearkening toward the tone of the first two seasons of the series' product.

PERHAPS THE REASON that the episode is so received by us and stands out as a beacon of a story in an otherwise tepid array of juvie tales is its origin. It's an adaptation of a comic book story; a BATMAN installment, of the which title escapes us. It was conceived in and brought to fruition in the same spirit of an 8 or 12 page, four color tale of sequential art.

AS WITH SO many storyline that rise above the level of the pack, this episode is typically unpretentious in its inception, but relatively outstanding in the final analysis. Simply stated, the whole half hour is centered on a team of circus performers' pooling their talents in pulling off some capers; making it appear to having been perpetrated by one person. And that one person would have to be Superman.

THE ORIGIN OF the story may also owe its pedigree and family descent to the silver screen of Hollywood. It was the Lon Chaney starring vehicle, THE UNHOLY THREE (MGM, 1925); which was remade as a talkie in 1930, Mr. Chaney's only sound film.

WITH THE PRRESENTATIOON of Three In One, it would appear that the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN could indeed be returned to the spirit of those earlier years. Yet, it was not to be; for although no one knew it at that time, there would only be three more episodes ever made and Mr. Reeves would leave us the following year.