Showdown (animated short)

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Showdown
series = Superman


caption = Title card from "Showdown".
director = I. Sparber
story_artist = Jay Morton
animator = Steve Muffati
Graham Place
voice_actor = Bud Collyer
Joan Alexander
Julian Noa
musician = Sammy Timberg
producer = Sam Buchwald
studio = Famous Studios
distributor = Paramount Pictures
release_date = October 16, 1942 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 9 min. (one reel)
preceded_by = "Japoteurs" (1942)
followed_by = "Eleventh Hour" (1942)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0035323

"Showdown" (1942) is the eleventh of seventeen animated Technicolor short films based upon the DC Comics character Superman.Produced by Famous Studios, the plot focuses on a criminal who impersonates Superman to commit crimes for a gangster. The short was released to theaters by Paramount Pictures on October 16, 1942.

Plot

The short starts off as a figure dressed as Superman breaks into a bank and later a diamond deposit to steal money and gems. He then reports back and delivers his findings to his boss, a mafia don. Every paper in the city runs the story that Superman has gone bad, but Lois Lane does not believe it to be true. As she and Clark Kent read the story at the Daily Planet, an office boy informs them that the editor, Perry White, wants them to cover the opera and gives them two tickets. That night, Clark and Lois are nearly asleep by the music, while the Superman impostor goes from booth to booth swiping people's jewellery, money, and personal belongings without anyone noticing. When one woman cries out in alarm, Lois ends up facing the impostor upon trying to alert the authorities. After a brief struggle, he runs off after she rips the "S" symbol off his chest. Not having seen his face in the darkness, Lois is convinced that Superman has really been responsible for all the crimes. She starts to call the police, and Clark leaves the booth to change....

On the roof, the impostor is confronted by the real Superman, and even shooting multiple rounds with a gun do not help matters. He becomes frightened by the police surrounding the opera house and ends up falling over the edge, but Superman swoops down to save him. In the glow of the search lights, the police realize that the impostor is the true criminal. Hoping for a lighter punishment, the impostor agrees to take Superman to his boss. After not realizing who he is talking to at first, the crime boss opens a trap door that sends Superman falling down a chasm, and he and the impostor seal the door off and hide in a vault. Superman breaks out and opens the safe, only to find that the duo have used a welding torch to escape. Unfortunately, they end up caught in the middle of two police cars arriving on the scene. Just in time, Superman steps in and stops the cars from crashing, and he leaves the two criminals for the police to handle. Back at the "Planet", Clark is dozing when Lois returns from the crime scene to start work on the story. He seems relieved to see that she does not consider Superman a criminal anymore, as well as the fact that she does not suspect a thing about his true identity.

Voice Actors

*Bud Collyer as Clark Kent/Superman "(uncredited)"
*Joan Alexander as Lois Lane "(uncredited)"
*Jack Mercer as Jimmy Olsen, Superman impostor "(uncredited)"
*Jackson Beck as The Boss "(uncredited)"
*Julian Noa as Narrator "(uncredited)"

External links

* [http://www.archive.org/details/showdown Showdown video]
* [http://cinemaniacal.com/video/superman-showdown Showdown] on Cinemaniacal, streaming and downloadable.
*imdb title|0035323