"Eleventh Hour" is a very strange Superman cartoon from the Fleischer Brothers. It even begins strangely--with an odd variation from the usual 'Faster than a speeding bullet' introduction. What also is strange is that Lois and Clark are correspondents in Japan DURING the war! This is a nutty premise--especially because Clark/Superman spends his nights destroying the Japanese military machine. In fact, it makes you wonder why it took so long to end the war! But the story is so illogical that you just need to sit back and accept it for what it is--mindless WWII era propaganda. Enjoyable and well animated but also pretty silly. Not surprisingly, you don't see this one of TV any more though if you are curious, you can download it for free at archive.org.

The Superman theatrical shorts faced a noticeable dip in quality after the Fleischers were fired in 1942; the shorts became more overtly political and racist corresponding to America's then anti-Japanese sentiment following the attack on Pearl Harbor. And this short was the victim of that 'politicization' that many cartoons were going through at the time. They couldn't just be straight-up entertainment neutral to cultural ideologies; these shorts were propaganda showcases to fight against the Axis Powers during World War Two. And of course the animation wasn't as sharp without Dave Fleischer directing the films. And this short clearly shows these shortcomings: there's recycled shots of Superman from pre-existing shorts and Lois doesn't look nearly as refined as she does in 'The Mechanical Monsters'; production corners were cut because the Fleischers were too expensive to keep hiring for the job, but that's no excuse in the fudging of supposed cinematic art.

This short: Superman fights the Japanese; a little racist but Supes still kicks some ass like he ought to. The film hasn't aged all that well, but it's still got some nice little touches here and there.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent are in Yokohama. Why? We're never told. At 11:00 each night Clark changes into Superman and commits acts of sabotage against the Japanese. Why 11:00? We're not told. And isn't sabotage against the law? Would Superman really break the law? When it's discovered he is doing it Lois is kidnapped and posters are put up telling Superman if there is one more act of sabotage Lois will be killed. Somehow Superman misses the posters, commits an act of sabotage and is buried under a pile of steel bars. Lois is immediately bought out to be shot to death. Will Superman escape, find out and save her?

As you can see this story is slap-dash with no explanations for many events (including the title). The racism against the Japanese is in here--but it was done during WWII. What bothered me was Superman committing sabotage--and this was seen as a good thing! For that alone this cartoon is interesting. I give it a 6.