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Recap / The Adventures Of Superman Stamp Day For Superman

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Series: The Adventures of Superman
Episode: Special Production, 1954
Title: Stamp Day For Superman
Recapper: Scooter007

NOTE: This is not an actual episode of the television series per se; rather, it was commissioned by the U.S. Government for purposes of promoting the sale of savings bonds and stamps, and was distributed and shown in schools. As such, the events depicted herein do not really fit into the overall continuity of the series proper.

We open with Clark Kent and Lois Lane walking home and window-shopping after work, when they hear the burglar alarm in a nearby jewelry store go off. While Lois runs off to call the police, Clark ducks away, becomes Superman, and enters the rear of the jewelry store where he confronts the burglar. Well, one of them, anyway; the man's partner done made good his escape, but this guy just froze up when the alarm went off, making him realize the huge steaming pile he just stepped into. With Superman lending a friendly ear, the fellow laments how he never learned to save or manage his money as a youth (no really, he does), and now he's reduced to crime to get by. But now that he's helped underscore the episode's basic moral, Superman can leave the reformed crook in the hands of the cops. Changing back into Clark, he meets back up with Lois only to learn that she actually bumped into the second burglar whilst returning from calling the police. "I hope you don't bump into him again!" Clark opines. Yeah, we'll see how that works out.

Next day, Jimmy Olsen is showing off his brand new portable typewriter, telling Lois and Clark how he was able to save up to purchase it. He explains that his high school had sponsored an annual "Stamp Day" wherein students could buy savings bonds/stamps for themselves, then allow the bonds to mature over time. Clark decides that this would make for a good feature article in today's paper, and so he and Jimmy head down to the school. Lois, however, will have to catch up to them later, because she has to detour to the police station to look at mug shots and see if she can identify her errant burglar. But first she asks Jimmy to lend her his little typewriter, for no obvious reason other than because the plot requires her to have it later.

As it turns out, there's no need to go look at mug shots. Just before she leaves, Lois gets a call from one "Blinky" who fesses up to being the second burglar. Figuring that he'll get caught soon enough, Blinky says he wants to surrender peacefully — but wants to do so through Lois, and suggests she meet him on a street corner, alone. Seeing absolutely nothing at all suspicious about this setup, Lois dials up the police, tells them she'll "have a surprise" for them when she gets there, and heads out. I think we know who's getting the surprise here.

Down at the high school, Clark and Jimmy are interviewing the principal about Stamp Day (even getting cajoled into sorta-promising that Superman himself might stop by later). Jimmy proudly notes that the students handle all aspects of Stamp Day themselves, from acquiring the stamps to selling them, handling the money etc. The three sit around and gush on about stamps and saving for a minute, until Clark starts to notice that maybe Lois should have been here by now. Calling into the office, Clark is told (off) by Perry White that Lois said she "had a date with a Heisman to wrap him up and put him on ice!" Clark quickly does the math: Lois was talking about the burglar, and has clearly been lured into (all together now) IT'S A TRAP!

We catch up with Blinky in his downtown apartment, where he has Lois all tied up. When she rightly points out that Blinky's partner (the reformed burglar who got arrested) can identify him just as easily as she can, Blinky tells her that he "was in on the job; his testimony don't mean nothin'!" Yes, which is why there is no such thing as a "plea bargan". Point being, Blinky has to "get rid" of Lois — but not before he hears from the guy he's fencing the stolen jewelry to (thus introducing the time factor), and using Lois as a human shield in the meantime. Also in the meantime, he talks Lois into teaching him how to type. Since she has Jimmy's little typewriter and all.

While Clark goes to interview the reformed burglar in jail re: his partner Blinky, Lois and Blinky are making "fine" progress on the typing lessons — enough so that Lois shows Blinky how to make an ASCII portrait. "If you look too close, it doesn't look like a picture anymore; you have to look far away, and then the letters sort of blend together!" While Blinky tries one, Lois takes her paper, folds it into an airplane and goes to stand very obviously in front of the open window. Rather stupidly, Blinky doesn't object to this, even when she throws her paper airplane straight out the window. Nice to see that, for all her situational dumbness, Lois remains adept at handing off the Idiot Ball.

Meantime, Clark returns from talking to the reformed burglar. It was a non-starter; the guy knows who Blinky is but not where to find him. White, meanwhile, shows Clark a paper airplane that had been brought into the newspaper office (as opposed to, say, the police station). It's Lois' ASCII portrait, but Clark's super vision quickly zeroes in on a grouping of bold faced letters spelling out the word "PRISONER" and the address. With not a moment to lose, White calls the police while Clark runs off to become Superman.

Just at that moment, Blinky gets the expected call concerning his jewelry fence. And that means that Lois' time has run out. (Um, how exactly does Blinky's knowing the jewelry's net worth remove his need for a human shield? Wouldn't it make more sense for him to keep Lois hostage until after, you know, he has actually made his escape??) In any case, Superman bursts in at the last second, disarms Blinky and ties him up with a lampstand. He then hilariously blows off Lois, saying he has a prior engagement, and quickly departs. Supes' engagement, needless to say, is the high school "Stamp Day", wherein he gives a lecture about students saving their monies by buying bonds and stamps.

At the end of the day, Lois teases Clark for being stuck covering Stamp Day while "Superman and I were cleaning up the [burglary] case!" Way to steal the credit, Lois. Finally, just to drive home the point of the episode, Clark reveals that he has purchased savings bonds in each of their names... with a fourth one "for a friend of mine." Wink wink.

Tropes peculiar to this episode include:

  • Aside Glance: Clark gives one in the closing shot.
  • Barrier-Busting Blow: Superman crashes through the wall of Blinky's apartment. Sure There Was a Door, but this is so much more in tune with his particular... idiom.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Jimmy's typewriter provides the means for Lois to get out a call for help. Lois even lampshades it in the last scene. "Gosh, Jimmy, it's a good thing you saved your money for that typewriter; otherwise, I would have never gotten that message out!"
  • Cuteness Proximity: Lois coos over a passel of puppies in a store window and wishes the store were open so she could hold one. Clark agrees that they're adorable, as puppies always are.
  • Damsel in Distress: Lois, who's been taken captive by Blinky and tied to a chair.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Jimmy isn't happy when Lois considers his portable typewriter "cute", saying that he doesn't want to be known as the boy with the cute typewriter.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus / Rewatch Bonus: It's nearly impossible to discern due to a combination of film quality, camera angle and distance (and because it's not boldfaced, as it is when Clark sees it); but when Lois first shows Blinky her ASCII portrait, the S.O.S. she secreted therein can be seen.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Invoked on a minute scale; Lois points out that Blinky is risking much more jail time for a potential murder conviction than he would see for a burglary charge, but Blinky feels it's a risk he has to take.
  • Idiot Ball:
    • Lois cheerfully walks straight into Blinky's trap without a second thought.
    • Blinky too; it never seems to occur to him that Lois could have embedded an S.O.S. in that ASCII portrait she just tossed out the window.
  • Race Against the Clock: Superman is never actually aware of it, but he has to save Lois from Blinky before Blinky learns what his loot is worth; because, once he has this figure, he's going to immediately shoot Lois.
  • Stealing the Credit: Lois gives herself partial credit for apprehending Blinky. To be entirely fair, he might very well have made a clean getaway if she hadn't gotten herself kidnapped by him.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Lampshaded by Lois herself: "The things I can walk into with my eyes wide open!"
  • Verbal Backspace: As Jimmy is going on about his own saving habits, Clark notes that it sounds similar to something he'd heard the evening before (referring to Superman's talk with the reformed burglar). Lois wonders when Clark could have heard such a thing since she "was with you the whole time!" and he not-so-smoothly corrects himself, saying it was "some other evening when you weren't with me!"
  • Villain Ball: The only possible explanation for why Blinky has to kill Lois after hearing from his fence but before making his getaway. They might have at least mentioned that he can't exactly take her onto a plane/train/bus to Mexico with him.

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