The Adventures Continue

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The Killer Mountain

I've been interested in and involved with the Adventures of Superman for more than fifty years now. And during most of those years I heard rumors of scripts that were never filmed. Two titles that are frequently mentioned are Superman and the Secret Planet and Superman on Mystery Mountain, sometimes also called Superman On Killer Mountain. After much searching, Superman and the Secret Planet surfaced a few years ago, and Randy Garrett used his many artistic skills to bring it to life on the pages of The Adventures Continue.

But no matter how many leads I've gotten regarding Superman on Mystery (or Killer) Mountain, they always led up that well-known blind alley. Some people with whom I spoke said it was a movie script that was never produced, as was the case with Secret Planet. Others claimed it was a half-hour television script... a backup for "Panic In The Sky" should that episode have proved too costly to film. Yet although theories abounded, no one could ever produce any hard evidence that a script of that title even existed, or was ever really written... until last month.

One afternoon I got an e-mail from Larry Ward telling me of a photo that appears in Truth, Justice, and the American Way, his biography of Noel Neill. Larry had been taking a closer look at one photo in particular, and decided to blow up so he could read the title of a script Noel held in her hands.


Noel Neill reads "The Killer Mountain."

 And lo and behold, what should his super eyes see? The title on the script is "The Killer Mountain." And judging from its thickness, the script is most likely that of a half-hour episode.

So now we have some hard evidence that the story existed. But why was it never filmed? What was it about? That we may never know. Then again... it took fifty years to determine this much, so perhaps sometime in the next fifty we'll find out even more.

I asked Larry if Noel remembers where she put it after the photo was taken. Maybe it's still there!! Larry answered that it's entirely possible the script is still in Noel's mountain of files and that someday, as he's sorting through it all, we just might get the answer to the mystery of "Killer Mountain."

Jim
October 2, 2007


And now, this just in from Michael Hayde (April 7, 2008)

I finally got to read through this script at the Library of Congress. Because it's still under copyright (D.C. renewed it "before the time limit was up"), I couldn't copy or transcribe the entire thing. But I took copious notes, and I will include a detailed synopsis of this and another unfilmed script, "Death Rides the Sky Chaser," in my book, "Flights of Fantasy." I don't think it would violate anything, however, by providing the brief plot description printed on the first page of Jackson Gillis' script:

"Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are assigned to cover the human
interest story of an Alpinist who plans climbing the same mountain
which he first conquered thirty years earlier. But a crooked guide,
seeking a million dollars in diamonds lost on the peak in an airplane
crash, makes every attempt to thwart the climb. In the excitement of
perilous ascents and avalanches, Kent's true identity as Superman is
revealed to Lois and Jimmy, and only fast thinking and faster action
can re-establish his secret."

As we all know, the script had been a rumor for years, until that 1953 photo of Noel reading it beside her new husband turned up. The teleplay was submitted to the LoC with four others, all on August 18, 1953. Each script was numbered, as follows:

S-43: The Boy Who Hated Superman
S-44: The Clown Who Cried
S-45: The Killer Mountain
S-46: Perry White's Scoop
S-47: Semi-Private Eye

One of the rumors surrounding this script is that it was written as a "back-up," in case "Panic in the Sky" proved too expensive to film. I believe that rumor can be laid to rest. For one thing, "Panic" had already been shot by August 18 (and submitted for copyright registration on July 2). Yet even if the registration-submission dates had nothing to do with it, after reading "The Killer Mountain" I truly believe, if anything, the opposite is true!

Even with its intricate flying shots, "Panic" had about half its scenes set in two locations that were used in other episodes: the Planet building and Kent's apartment, whereas 100% of "Mountain" takes place either on the mountain, or in a 'Swiss chalet' set. Perhaps the set used as "the Blue Mountains" from "Superman in Exile" could have been redressed with snow, but that was just a mountainTOP - this episode also required a mountainSIDE, with ledges of specific widths. Yes, these sets didn't necessarily have to be built, just rented - but it still would have involved a good amount of extra effort, what with the "snow" and "ice" required.

The costume budget would also have been taxed, as seven characters wear heavy parkas. And then there's the stock footage, although Gillis seems to have anticipated that. The script close to the chalet and already viewed from there in long shot, this mountain is big enough that all the stock shots of it needn't match; several different views of alpine peaks could be used." Finally, the story also called for an extraordinary prop - something that would convince Lois that Clark wasn't Superman.

All-in-all, it was a good story - and Gillis would draw on a bit of it two years later for "The Wedding of Superman."

Jim, you've mentioned many times that one of the most impressive things about the series is that (except for one unfortunate moment in "Shot in the Dark"), Clark never tells an out-and-out LIE while trying to protect his identity. There's a moment in the script where Kent let's everyone know "There's something else. Superman is... close-by - he's watching out for us." This dialogue is preceded in the script by the notation "Careful not to lie." So this was something that Gillis, if not everyone, strove to accomplish.

Michael Hayde

 

(Jim - April 7, 2008)

 


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