Eleventh Hour

"Eleventh Hour" is an amazing Superman cartoon from 1942 that owes more to wartime espionage films than to the earlier sci-fi-themed Superman cartoons. Interestingly, it takes place in Japan, at Yokohama Harbor, where Clark Kent and Lois Lane have been "interned" (Lois's word) by the Japanese. (No explanation is given for this.) At night, Clark, as Superman, sneaks out to sabotage Japanese ships in the harbor. When the Japanese finally realize that Superman is responsible for the damage, they threaten Lois with execution and go so far as to blindfold her and put her in front of a firing squad. Most of the action takes place at night. It's all deadly serious and filled with powerful, dramatic imagery worthy of Hollywood's best wartime dramas. Directed by Dan Gordon, this eight-minute cartoon was made at the height of World War II and was the third Superman cartoon to be completed after the Fleischer brothers left Paramount.