Produced by Barney A. Sarecky and directed by Lee Sholem, it stars George Reeves as Superman and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane.

[1] The film's story centers on reporters Clark Kent (George Reeves) and Lois Lane (Phyllis Coates) arriving in the small town of Silsby to witness the drilling of the world's deepest oil well.

The drill however has penetrated the underground home of a race of small, bald humanoids who, out of curiosity, climb to the surface at night.

Meanwhile, the two Mole Men explore the town, but the residents become terrified because of their peculiar appearance and the fact that everything they touch glows in the dark due to phosphorescence.

Superman (George Reeves) stops Benson and the mob and saves one of the creatures in mid-air after it is shot from the top of a dam.

The feature runs just 58 minutes and originally served as a trial balloon release for the syndicated Adventures of Superman TV series, for which it became the only two-part episode, titled "The Unknown People".

[3] Some elements of the original film were trimmed when converted for television, including some portions of a lengthy chase scene and all references to "Mole Men".

The original film score by Darrell Calker was also removed, replaced with production library music also used in the first season of the series.

The laser-like weapon of the Mole Men, which they retrieve from their subterranean home in order to defend themselves and rescue their injured comrade, was a prop made by adding metal shoulder braces to one end of an Electrolux vacuum cleaner body; for the ray's "gun barrel" a standard metal funnel was attached to the other.