Clive Mantle Speaks Out! - SUPERMAN IV Interview At HooFest 2019

British actor Clive Mantle gives a rare insight into the making of Superman IV - and his feelings over 30 years later about his part as Nuclearman Mark I being left on the cutting room floor.
Join Martin Lakin of SUPERMANIA78.com as he speaks to Clive during a charity event at Hoofest this past August for a series of revelations about his time onset. (Please excuse the sound quality in some of the footage). Special thanks to Mike Fryer for the edit.

[@dbreiden83080]

Recently bought the comic adaption of this and it is really cool. So sad they did NOT stick to that concept or just the original cut of the movie..

[@paradisecaregiving7126]

Ahhhh, bless Him. Clive is a true Gentle, Compassionate Man. He hasn't changed, in that regard, since working with Him on Superman IV. And, yes, he was gutted at the time, when all His footage was ditched. I remember being told the reason, then. Not to be spoken of here. 🙏🌈

[@grandoldteam1878]

Lets hope a directors cut gets released

[@GinolasSon]

Clive really did give you his time and patiently explained what happened and how it affected him.

[@rockys201]

Fantastic video. Maybe someday we can see Superman 4 as it was truly intended to be

[@joseespinosa6167]

There are rumors it's being discussed at Warners.

[@markleneker9923]

He was really good in The Vicar of Dibley. Here's hoping the extended, remastered cut can happen. He deserves it. We all deserve it.

[@joseespinosa6167]

It's being considered currently at Warners.

[@retrobrahhh]

I'd like to see a full cut of Superman IV with the Metro Club scene. Clive had to shoot a scene there he's on that call sheet.

[@marcwaters2600]

if richard donner was left to it all 4 films and more would have been a master piece

[@dbreiden83080]

I don't know about that?? The 4 Lethal Weapon movies certainly vary in quality.. He shot some wanky stuff for Superman 2.. Lois throwing herself out a window. A toilet being flushed in the FOS. The whole opening of the theatrical cut of Superman 2 is epic with the Eifel Tower rescue, far superior to TDC opening where the villains are just released by the missile.. The Brando footage is good, however Chris Reeve seems a tad off in some of the scenes with Brando likely because he was so early into his performance and was still finding it.. Brando famously only shot for like 2 weeks of production and was paid 3.7 million bucks plus a back end.. To me Superman 2 theatrical cut is the definitive and superior version. You have to understand in June on 81 on release Superman 2 was NOT just another smash hit at the box office it was extremely well received by critics. Only over time with news coming out about Donner being fired after shooting much of Superman 2 did fans start bashing it and demanding to see his version. Such as it was obviously unfinished. Donner kind of removed himself from the process admittedly forgetting much of what he shot.. IMO once he saw the footage he should have advised WB NOT to proceed. He had too much left that needed to be shot, and a great deal of the footage they had was kind of in bad shape..

[@FilmThePoliceFTP]

Yeah I'm torn. I like the theatrical version a lot and always have loved superman II. Honestly, the definitive version for me would be the theatrical version but with the Brando footage and the DC version of the white house takeover. Including the original ending just because 2 movies with he same ending, not to mention the issue with Clark being a bully to a guy he never met.

[@artdematteis471]

So what can we do in order to start a petition to finally get this complete cut released from Warner Bros.? It’s been too long and this footage needs to be seen.

[@johna.7362]

Have you seen this deleted scene? kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqrWgYJtmLyFpMk

[@mikeshirleyforever]

What an amazing find and one of the best interviews for Superman IV I have ever come across. I've been waiting decades for Clive to reveal his experiences of playing the Nuclear Man Prototype in an interview and thank you so much for sharing this with the fans. This is amazing and I honestly wish Warner Archive would be able to give us the original version that apparently California had the fortune of seeing in a test screening. Clive always seems such a gentleman and seeing him here talking about the film really shows how much it meant to him and nearly didn't give us so many wonderful roles since because of his scenes getting cut. I loved the introduction with the comic book and as a hardcore fan, I practically kept nodding as all the information was spot on and this really needs to be shared for all fans of IV. One of the greatest discoveries I have seen. I loved that still of Clive on the backlot in the car scene. I have never ever seen it before and such a wonderful look. I enjoyed how Clive even mentioned the skip throws before you guys asked him. Years later and he still remembers so much. I can't believe Cannon cut such an expensive scene and so wished they had given IV all the attention and held fire with their other films. Such a shame as I will always love IV as my favourite Superman film and the production problems i still find incredibly interesting to this day. Thank you so much for this wonderful video. Absolutely loved it. 👏

[@CliveAustin]

Clive is a lovely, kind fellow and extremely generous at conventions. I was lucky to meet him last year and chatted to him at length about this very subject, Alien 3 and meant to bring up GoT but forgot to!. Great interview!

[@enjoyyoursleep1]

Fantastic!! - Keep up your hard work! One day it will pay off I'm sure. all 134 minutes of it. :)

[@johnpanter9714]

Fantastic insightful vid. And what a gentleman Clive is. Thank you.

[@jedijones]

It's revealing what Clive says here about the scene not representing all the coverage that they shot. A lot of the movie was ruined in editing, and I'm talking about in the full-length version. Just look at how bad the cuts are when Nuclear Man is "hurting people" outside the Daily Planet. Lots of other cuts don't match or are poorly timed. We don't even have any idea how bad the editors' decisions were in terms of what camera angles they left out of the movie that might have been better. The editors didn't know what they were doing, or they were rushed. But that 134-minute cut is what was given to the composer to score, so it was considered the final cut. The deleted scenes match the score, so, although the effects weren't finished, those were the camera angles that were locked into the final film. To truly "save" the movie you'd need to go back to the raw footage and re-edit it from scratch, to get better camera angles and close-ups and such. But then you couldn't use the score as is, because the timing wouldn't fit anymore.

[@OliverHarper]

Great video, Martin!

[@mx472000]

Excellent video!

[@richardwilkinson1396]

Clive mantle superman

[@brendancaldwell7755]

Terrible feeling for Clive to have worked on the movie and filmed so many scenes, only to have them all removed. Would make anyone feel inferior.

[@FuriousGibbon]

Great actor, Clive. My two favourite series are Robin of Sherwood and Game of Thrones and he's the only person that's been in both.

[@wolverstevetattooedwolveri8874]

Great video guys 👏🏻

[@pinkspider28]

Great stuff this feel just like everything that happened with Justice League. Hope your subscribers pics up.

[@patrickkavanagh7371]

Great Superman 4 crew jacket you have there. I have a crew hat that goes along with it from the set.

[@joseespinosa6167]

You UK folks get all the great shows.

[@jimdigitalvideo]

I have that Superman IV comic. I noticed it put an emphasis on the scenes that were deleted from the movie. I guess the writer wasn't happy that the movie got severely truncated so he compensated with this comic book.

[@jedijones]

No, the script would've been given to the comic book writer long before the cuts were made.

[@darryllharden9141]

Also Clive has been in The first episode of Bottom and the Dempsey and Makepeace episode Extreme Prejudice.

[@danieldalton6544]

Warner Bros. really should release the original 134 min. "producer's cut" already. You know people would buy it, if only for their love of Christopher Reeve. With the understanding that it will still be an illogical trainwreck of a film and a franchise that at least will have it's proper narrative structure and original intent restored and make more sense.

[@jedijones]

Remember, Superman 1 when he turns back the world is not logical, but it works. If you clean up the effects and make a movie that looks good, people will look past the logic gaps.

[@joseespinosa6167]

They could do the film Justice with a major rework. Warners needs to redo the vfx --CGI rebuilds of glimpses of the characters here and there. Some shots need to be reworked from the ground up. Do some touch ups on the picture grading to look more dramatic etc. All said and done the film could have a second life.

[@derekhart3308]

What interesting video, I've never knew Clive was in Superman IV 🦸‍♂️ like you would like see full version of the movie! Also I've rep costume made for me ironically seen in another video that part of the Superman IV was filmed in Milton Keynes ...fast forward to 2012 or 13 I didn't get time to change back after doing cosplay at MK Don's Stadium get dropped off the bus/train stations going to travel lodge hotel in my Superman costume like history repeating though might not be a movie but Superman was back

[@chrisk5204]

Interesting stuff!

[@pobstrel]

What I wondered was how they attached the metal thing that covered his crotch! I liked his costume as it was quite glam rock inspired with the sequins and the gold boots. The hairstyle was very seventies David Bowie.

[@reactions5783]

Clive Mantle is the prototype clone of Colin Firth

[@Corbomite-ei1ty]

I don’t believe that scene cost $6 million. Don’t forget Cannon films were basically stealing from the S4 pot into their Masters of the Universe pot. Looks like they cooked the books. It’s a bit like a loo seat on the Space Shuttle costing $30,000!

[@jedijones]

Right. That would be a third of the budget for scenes that didn't even involve flying. Maybe he forgot to carry the zero and meant $600,000.

[@DiverBand]

@@jedijones You have to see what a guy named Aron Price has done with a number of scenes from Superman. He has upgraded and fixed a number of effects to make it look significantly better, watch his opening scene of the film where he omits all the reused flying scenes of Reeve flying toward the camera. He also does a newer version of Superman beating Nuke 1 at the end, where he corrects the whole Lacy in space issue. Sheer brilliance! His work is on KZbin.

[@scottmarsh3058]

He seemingly had a better experience on White Hunter, Black Heart where he played a nasty character but got to beat Clint Eastwood up.

[@4thecollectors]

My brother drew a picture of this guy he is on my page to come take a look let's not forget nuclear man can beat most of marvel and DC characters