Great Moments in Bad Movies

Superman III is a horrendous movie. I can’t think of too many ideas that have been worse than “Hey movie studio executive, let’s take Richard Pryor and team him up with the greatest superhero of all-time!” I blame the rampant eighties cocaine pandemic in Hollywood for that brainwave.

Now, Richard Lester, the director of Superman III, and the Superman series have had a troubled history. Brought on to replace Richard Donner during Superman II (even though Donner had shot a lot of the movie already), Lester infused the movie with one slapstick joke after another, often tossing them right into the middle of serious scenes.

Superman III takes the comedy to a painful new level, and our great scene is easy to overlook (mostly because you’re trying to read the credits at the same time).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUWRwqz4OQ4 – the first five minutes of this is the scene I’m talking about.

I’ll admit that I hated this sequence the first time I saw it; flat out hated it because it had no right being in a Superman movie. After the epic credit sequences of parts one and two, with John Williams’ great Superman theme song thumping away, why are we watching some forties’ slapstick scene with jaunty, wacky music?

In the context of a Superman movie it’s a terrible, terrible decision that hints at the inane movie that will follow. On its own however; it’s actually an ambitiously staged piece of silent comedy that works like a Rube Goldberg machine in order to re-introduce us to our hero.

A beautiful woman (one of the movie’s villains) walks down Main Street Metropolis and inadvertently proceeds to wreak havoc on the city folk as they turn to catch a look. As one little thing leads to another, Superman must casually try to put everything back together.

The scene is remarkably inventive (the photo booth gag is great) and expertly staged. While the rest of the movie is visually bland, in this scene Lester fills up the frame with multiple jokes, always making sure that his canvas is never too busy. While one joke is wrapping up in the background a new one begins in the foreground.

Also, unlike the bland action scenes that follow, there’s a rhythm and sense of pacing here. Ken Thorne’s score comes to life ever so briefly to provide a propulsive beat.

This scene is more alive than anything in this movie and you can feel the energy that was used to envision it and enact it.