When Supergirl was Super Campy

Four decades before Milly Alcock donned the flowing red cape in “Supergirl,” Helen Slater tried it on for the 1984 version starring her and Faye Dunaway. That version of “Supergirl” flew into theaters the year after “Superman III” dented the box office armor of that Warner Bros. franchise. At least that film made money. Befitting its Thanksgiving week release, “Supergirl” was a huge turkey, grossing $14 million against a $35 million budget.

The prior two “Superman” movies were made by Warner Bros., which owned DC Comics. “Supergirl” was released by newbie studio Tri-Star Pictures. Two weeks prior, on Nov. 9, 1984, the studio with the slow motion flying Pegasus logo released “Silent Night, Deadly Night.” That’s the movie where a psychotic Santa Claus went on a killing spree, causing so much controversy that the studio pulled it from theaters the week after “Supergirl” opened.

At least Tri-Star had what might have been a family-friendly hit, a superhero movie whose rights were sold to it by father-son producing duo Alexander and Ilya Salkind. If you’ve seen any of the old “Superman” movies, you’ll remember their names flying across the screen in the opening credits. The Salkinds purchased the rights to “Superman” and “Supergirl” before the first Christopher Reeve “Superman” film was made in 1978. In fact, the original concept of the “Supergirl” film featured Supergirl saving Superman.

Get Starting Point

A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.

Enter Email

Unlike David Corenswet, whose Superman pops up intermittently in the new “Supergirl,” Christopher Reeve declined to participate in “Supergirl.” So, the movie was rewritten to feature a plot that was far less empowering to its hero. Out of the garish script by David Odell (“The Dark Crystal”), a camp classic was born. Reboots of camp classic movies written by David Odell are a trend in 2026 — he also wrote 1987’s “Masters of the Universe.”

I admit that “Supergirl” is not good. But I kind of liked it in 1984, and thought the critics were being a little too harsh on it. Roger Ebert and the Globe’s Michael Blowen panned the film but highlighted Slater’s performance. “Slater is the best thing in the film,” Ebert wrote in his two-star review. “She shares with Christopher Reeve the ability to wear a funny costume and not look ridiculous.”

In his one-star review, Blowen wrote, “[A]lthough Helen Slater accommodates the costume quite nicely, that’s about all that can be said for this stupor [sic] movie.” It’s telling that both critics focused on Slater’s attire, because her main superpower in “Supergirl” is to fly faster than a speeding bullet without her raggedy, ill-fitting blond wig falling off. The wigs in this movie are so cheap that you expect a “Hairstyles by the 99-cent store” credit to creep up the screen at the end.

I’ve hesitated to reveal the plot of “Supergirl” because you’re not going to believe me when I tell you. Though Supergirl was the first major female superhero to get her own big screen movie, women with superpowers were already familiar territory on television. Her DC Comics compatriot Wonder Woman had been seen in animated form (on the “Super Friends”) and in the live-action form of the great Lynda Carter. And though she wasn’t technically a superhero, Lindsay Wagner was Jaime Sommers, a.k.a. “The Bionic Woman,” on ABC and NBC.

None of these women were battling a villain who was angry because the hero, to use Salt ’n Pepa’s famous threat, took her man. But that is the plot of this version of “Supergirl.” Faye Dunaway’s villainous plans to take over the world get sidetracked because the man she’s interested in falls in love with Supergirl instead.

Before we get to that sticky subject, “Supergirl” opens with curious young Kara Zor-El (Slater) living in Argo City, that chunk of Krypton that survived the planet’s destruction. “Superman” got Marlon Brando to play Supergirl’s uncle (and Superman’s Dad), Jor-El. “Supergirl” gets Mia Farrow in a thankless cameo as Kara’s mother, and Peter O’Toole as Zaltar, the wizard Kara considers a mentor. Like Brando, O’Toole does not take this role seriously, which clashes with the film’s attempts to be taken seriously.

Zaltar kicks the plot in motion by stealing the Omegahedron, some kind of spinning orb that powers Argo City. When it is accidentally shot into space, Kara goes after it. Both she and the Omegahedron land on Earth. Kara takes the form of a high school student and becomes a classmate of Lois Lane’s kid sister, Lucy Lane (Maureen Teefy). Lucy knows Lois’s work pal, Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure). The filmmakers had to cram him into the story because McClure is the only actor from the prior “Superman” films to reprise a role.

The Omegahedron falls into the hands of Selena (Dunaway), a real witch who lives in a rundown amusement park funhouse with her snarky assistant, Bianca (Brenda Vaccaro). Selena is in some kind of relationship with a warlock. “Supergirl” works extra, extra hard to convince us that Bianca and Selena aren’t lesbian lovers, but Vaccaro clearly did not get that memo. Had the film just been Selena and Bianca bickering, it would have been a very funny comedy.

Unfortunately, Supergirl has to fit in here somewhere. Selena knows that the Omegahedron gives her the ultimate power (she puts a mountain in the middle of a city street, for Pete’s sake!), but Kara’s school groundskeeper, Ethan (Hart Bochner) catches her eye. She must have him!

The product placement in this movie is hilarious. After inviting Ethan to her lair, Selena drugs him with a can of Schlitz Malt Liquor spiked with a love potion that will make him fall for the first person he sees. Dunaway turns the can to the camera so we can see the Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull on the label clearly.

Later, Supergirl lands on the roof of a Popeye’s Chicken franchise before posing in front of it. But that’s only after enchanted Ethan sees Kara as “Linda Lee” and falls in love with her. Selena seethes as Ethan stalks Kara, offering her flowers and candy before making out with her. Eventually, Selena implicitly says “screw world domination, I gotta kill the girl who stole my man!” All hell breaks loose.

Did I mention that Kara is supposed to be a high school student? The Ethan scenes are really gross. Granted, he’s supposed to be enchanted, and Supergirl is technically an adult, but the logistics are truly skeevy and perverted. At least he’s not impregnating girls sold into sexual slavery like the villains in the new “Supergirl” movie.

“Supergirl” owes its camp status to Faye Dunaway. The film arrived smack dab in the middle of the period in her career where she was chewing scenery the way Cookie Monster eats a cookie. After “Mommie Dearest” and “The Wicked Lady,” “Supergirl” presented a “can you top those performances” challenge that Dunaway accepted with gusto. The movie is D.O.A. when she and Vaccaro are not onscreen.

I gave the new “Supergirl” two stars out of four. I once described the two star rating as a movie I’d watch at 2 a.m. on cable if I couldn’t sleep or if I was drunk. That describes my feelings about the 1984 version as well, even if it doesn’t have Krypto the dog.