URSA

EVIL URSA – A LOOK INTO

 SUPERMAN’S SADISTIC

 VILLAINESS 

***This essay was updated and revised with additional photos, screenshots and analysis 1/2/26.

When the Theatrical Cut of Superman II was released in the Winter of 1980, first in Australia, and ultimately in the US in June of 1981 the world had finally gotten to know the mysterious female villainess of General Zod’s trio – Ursa – who was banished to the Phantom Zone in the opening scene of Superman: The Movie in 1978. Described by Jor-El (Marlon Brando) as a woman, “whose perversions and unreasoning hatred of all mankind have threatened even the children of the planet Krypton,” her screen time in the titular superhero film was brief, only a promise of crimes to come. She, Non and Zod were immediately sentenced to the eternal prison and it left audiences to wonder when and if she may return and engage in her evil deeds. With Jor-El’s formidable description came the deliverance of her character in Superman II and Ursa triumphed, becoming the premier female villainess of the Christopher Reeve Superman films. Ursa is an archetype for the modern super-powered female villainess – one who is equally strong and intelligent, with Amazonian qualities and a streak of feminism, but in the end sadistic, yet with an engaging and graceful quality. Ursa was brilliantly realized by actress Sarah Douglas in a role she beat out 600 other actresses for and it became a career-defining role for her.

There are several versions of Superman II that are available – The Theatrical Cut released in 1980 (in the US in 1981), the 2006 Richard Donner Cut (both of which have been released in 4K by Warner Brothers in 2023), and extended Television Cuts from the 1980s that circulate on the underground online market. With all of the alternate versions of the same film, that’s a lot of material to sift through and this essay essentially is a study of the character of Ursa from her origins to how she was realized in all of these versions of the same film. We'll delve into the psychological make-up of the character, including motivations and strategies as she is an unusually evil and cunning villainess. She is an attention-grabbing secondary villain, a mysterious force to be reckoned with; sort-of like a Boba Fett for the Reeve Superman series. Ursa is also a character who was nearly-universally praised upon the film’s release and who has built a respectable cult following in the years since. There are numerous drawings, memorabilia, photos and designs of her character constantly circulating; various appearances of her in DC comic books since 2006; fan sites like www.Ursasworld.evilsupergirls.com; tributes on Facebook and numerous websites; she has appeared in the 'DC Super Hero Girls' cartoon in 2019 and in 'Scooby Doo! and Krypto Too!' in 2023; and, even has a song dedicated to her - “Ursa, Queen of the Universe” by Gareth Rhodes on YouTube.

 

Ursa is standing tall (and flying high) and perhaps stronger than ever. Yvonne Blake’s costume for Ursa worn by Sarah Douglas recently sold for over $43,000 in a November 2022 Propstore UK auction. Nevertheless, especially as she is the pioneer female comic book super-villainess in modern film, Ursa is terribly underrated as the Reeve films are essentially the starting point for when superhero movies became more than cheap B-serials and pure children’s material. There was never a female villainess in a comic book serial, show or film with powers like hers before she first came on the screen in 1978. As Sarah Douglas said about Ursa, in an interview with the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle in 1981, "I stand for nothing but evil."

CREATION OF CHARACTER 

Ursa (which is Latin for ‘She-Bear’) was co-created at the same time as the Faora Hu-Ul character from Action Comics #471- #473, who debuted in May 1977 in a story by Cary Bates. A little over a month before that, Sarah Douglas was cast and started filming as Ursa for Superman: The Movie and Superman II. In the comics, Faora is a criminal sentenced to the Phantom Zone for running a private concentration camp for males on Alezar. Faora wears a green and white spandex outfit with blue boots and is an expert in the Kryptonian Martial Art Horu Kanu – something that may have also been in the early development for Ursa as her previous crimes are vaguely defined by Jor-El in the original film.

 

As Ursa was present in the Superman film scripts at least a year before Faora’s debut, it seems that when Mario Puzo met with Action Comics writers Cary Bates and Elliot S. Maggin in 1975 during the writing phase of the first two films, it’s possible to assume they exchanged ideas about creating a female Phantom Zone villain. That being said, as Puzo’s scripts have become available online for the first time in January of 2023, Ursa is completely absent. Puzo has four Kryptonian villains (all male) and Zod plays a minor role compared to what he does in the finished product. As the film naturally went through its own developmental phases separate of Action Comics, it appears logical there was no true plan by the writers of the comics and the subsequent writers of the first two films (Leslie Newman, David Newman, Robert Benton and Tom Mankiewicz) to match these characters. Ursa shows up first in the Newman, Newman and Benton script dated July 1976, however there was a Norman Enfield draft done in late 1975 in between when Mario Puzo left and the Newmans took over where she possibly could have originated. Ursa and Faora, however, seem to grow out of the same basic concept. The Tom Mankiewicz shooting script from early 1977 describes Ursa as “a strikingly beautiful, but cruel woman obsessed by an all-consuming hatred of the male sex.” Ursa is also described as “a languorous, undulating Rhine Maiden, floating down through the darkness… a smiling magical apparition.” In the 1976 Newman, Newman and Benton script she is described as “A woman whose beauty makes strong men weak.”

 

Ursa’s hatred for men is present in these early scripts, but was toned down in the editing rooms of both Superman: The Movie and Superman II. This defining mantra of Ursa is explicit in a deleted scene on the moon (present in the Television Cut), when Zod plans to go to Earth to rule – “finally, to rule.” Zod then turns to his female enforcer and tells her, “And you will have everything you want,” to which Ursa responds with pure hate, “Men, to kill!”  Sarah Douglas delivers the line with great intensity.  It’s a rather chilling moment and one suspects it was deleted as this was a family film and Ursa’s declaration is quite harsh. Ultimately, though, Ursa was more deadly than her comic book counterpart Faora was in her 1977 DC debut. In the comics, Faora repeatedly describes her hatred of men, but she didn’t actually kill any men until a brutal killing in Phantom Zone #4 in 1982.  It almost seems the comics got their approval for Faora to kill from the film.  In all versions of Superman II, the characters of the three super-villains very nicely contrast one another and Sarah Douglas had great onscreen chemistry with her co-stars Terence Stamp and Jack O'Halloran. Zod is totally consumed by power – a megalomaniac. His only objective is the subjugation of all he surveys which makes him especially arrogant. Killing was secondary to his lust for power. Non is a hulk and doesn’t exemplify intelligence which sometimes makes him appear child-like, but he is loyal to Zod and unleashes his brute force and destruction with Zod’s direction. Ursa is also loyal to Zod, but is a curious character and only seems to enjoy seeking debauchery. Ursa is in many ways a more vicious and sadistic villain than Zod or Non for this reason. Zod clearly understands Ursa’s need for violence and he uses that by letting her do what she wishes under the tolerance of his rule. This trade off sees her serve Zod so she can revel in her evil ways without consequence which one would assume was their relationship on Krypton. 

THE MOON 

If one is to understand the character of Ursa, one should go no further than the moon scene which really serves as her true introduction in the Superman films. Her sequences are perfectly shot and are a study on how to economically and effectively define a character in a single scene. Ursa never shines brighter in the spotlight than here, where she displays all of her signature characteristics. It is for that reason this scene will be thoroughly broken down here as it is the centerpiece for all aspects of her character and it’s also one of the only scenes Ursa has in which she does not share the screen with Zod and Non. At this point in Superman II, of the three villains, Ursa is the one we know least about. Zod was well-featured in the first film in his memorable scene facing off against Jor-El. When the second film begins, in the prologue of the Theatrical Cut, Non gets to show his character's strength by breaking the neck of a Kryptonian guard right before the three villains are captured. By the time the villains escape the Phantom Zone and get to the moon, Ursa is still something of a mystery to audiences. Will she just be a pretty face at General Zod's side like many passive female villains from 1970s who tend to stand next to the male villains and look sinful? From the three villains’ point of view, they have just been freed from their intergalactic prison and do not know who the white-suited humanoids on the moon are. Zod, being the General, does not approach first nor does he send Non first; instead, he sends Ursa, which is a bit of a surprise to the audience as Non is clearly the strongest. As Ursa is the last whose villainous deeds the audience is introduced to, it is here on the moon that Sarah Douglas gets the opportunity to steal the show! 

Ursa first flies past the lunar capsule allowing herself to be seen as she scouts out the ship. She makes eye contact with Nate, who is inside the capsule, and after listening in on his conversation with “Houston” she chooses to fly past him and pursue Andy who is heading away from the ship. Ursa is a perceptive and intelligent character and chooses to confront and surprise the outlier enemy (Andy) who does not have the protection of his ship, which is what you would expect from a soldier working for a General. She always puts herself in a position to give herself full advantage over the human men she faces throughout the film and this scene establishes that. The most impressive characteristic of Ursa in this scene is her fearlessness. Ursa performs the most courageous act of any character in the entire film as the villains, having just been freed from the Phantom Zone, do not know if they are stronger than the astronauts or not. The viewer must remember that from her standpoint, Ursa is risking her life if she is wrong. Ursa wisely chooses not to fly, as Nate had seen her do, and instead chooses to boldly walk directly up to Andy's face to intimidate him. She clearly picked this spot in front of him and must have been walking for some distance as he doesn't look up and see her until she is a relatively short distance from him. She does this while also trapping him between two large sets of moon boulders on each side, leaving him only his reverse for possible escape as she essentially ambushes his position. By hiding her ability to fly from him, if he was a formidable foe, she could use that power to her advantage if needed. This strategy works as Andy’s eyes pop open and he comes to a dead stop from his moon trot at the sight of her walking with fluid gait as if she were on Earth, and amazingly without a spacesuit! “You,” she demands of him. He can only mutter, “uh,” as she continues, “What kind of a creature are you?” Ursa’s strength is measured by her statuesque posture and stare, and with her right hand on her hip. When he meekly responds, “Just a man,” she amusedly replies, “A man?” Finding out that this creature before her is “just” a man underneath the suit, she is clearly pleased and senses her upper hand. And the way that she says, "A man?" is condescending, almost as if she's laughing at him.

For the first time, Ursa indulges in her curiosity for badges as she fixates on and reaches for the space insignia on his chest. It isn’t clear if she wants to immediately kill him as she casually reaches for it, but her momentary curiosity is his only chance to turn around and run away. Ursa, knowing she has had him trapped this whole time, lets him run a few feet as Andy laboriously pants and trots as fast as he can back toward the capsule and drops his tool hurrying to flee. 

Ursa rises from the moon’s surface and easily flies above the astronaut. She appears to still be studying him as she stares down while effortlessly flying above him. His head is down; unaware of her location, and with his momentum giving him nowhere to go, Ursa this time strikes with no warning by landing straight down at his face. Ursa shows here she is a woman of action by wasting no more words with the terrified astronaut and immediately attacks him, ripping the insignia off his spacesuit giving him no chance to retreat this time. She slightly raises her head in superiority as she watches him fall backward. One wonders if she may have suspected this man needed to breathe inside his suit. She also may have been annoyed by his brief escape. Ursa now makes it clear it's not enough for her to simply watch him die. In this moment, she reveals the true nature of her character and the “perversions” that Jor-el spoke about. Ursa indulges in an act of pure sadism by punishing the downed astronaut with a violent kick to his groin. 

She kicks him with such force, he flies off into deep space! She places her hands on her hips with a fulfilled and satisfied pose, watching him shoot off the moon’s surface and vanish into the darkness of orbit. The deleted scene that follows is when she tells Zod her only want is, “Men, to kill!” Finally, freed from the Phantom Zone, Ursa’s misandry has also been liberated. What the character of Ursa does in the moon scene is establish her modus operandi for the rest of the film. With her dialogue she depicts her character's curiosity and her objective - here it's to find out what kind of creature he was. With her physical strength, she goes and gets what she wants. Here, she intimidates him, she uses her power of flight, she tears his insignia and she shows she is not afraid to use her combative skills to play just as hard as the boys (and hit below the belt!) In just over one minute of screen time, Ursa is shown to be intelligently strategic, fearless, forceful, amused, curious, annoyed, sadistic, violent, a misandrist, and ultimately satisfied. Quite a lot of character packed into a short scene and brilliantly realized!

CINEMATIC BREAKDOWN OF URSA ON THE MOON

It’s worth the time to closely look at the framing, image composition, character blocking and action of how this scene was filmed, as this gives a subtext for Ursa’s character for the remainder of the movie and also illustrates why this scene is so effective and memorable.  If you don't like the dryness of shot-by-shot analysis, please feel free to skip ahead to the next section about Ursa on Planet "Houston." The Moon sequence was shot under Richard Donner's direction and we'll take a deep look into how this classic scene was shot and edited. 

     

The suspense for the audience begins with Nate spotting Ursa flying past his capsule, giving us a bad feeling for how the villains will interact with these astronauts. Incidentally, Ursa's character begins her pattern in this scene of crossing the film screen from the right side of the frame toward the left. The film then cuts to Andy progressing in a close up of his feet shuffling. He continues trotting unfazed until he looks up and stops at a halt in shock of something, as we see his eyes bug out in a close up.

In the following shot, from his point of view, Ursa is walking directly at him (or at the audience as Sarah Douglas is walking directly toward the camera) between the two moon rock boulders, giving him and we the audience the feeling there is nowhere to escape. They first meet together in the same shot when she enters the frame of a wide shot, walking from the right side across to the left, cornering him into the left end of the film frame where he has been standing at a halt.

 

This puts the audience in the astronaut’s shoes, with the feeling of his being outmatched by someone who doesn’t need a spacesuit to be on the moon. The first time you see the film, the way this scene is set up, the audience gets the feeling of nervous butterflies for the astronaut having seen the appearance of Ursa as he is stopped on the left side of the frame and she calmly takes her time walking all way from right to left. This subconsciously illustrates Ursa is in control their meeting as she can walk across the whole frame up to him and he is stuck at a standstill. In the editing of their dialogue, Ursa continues to create pressure on his character, demanding to know what kind of a creature he is and looking down on him with her imposing presence as he looks up with shock and awe. Sarah Douglas gets several close ups and creates a striking image. Her approach as Ursa is fierce. 

"You!"

"Uh"

"What kind of a creature are you?"

"A man?"

Upon learning he's a man she raises her eyebrows in amusement. As Ursa mockingly smiles, he seems unsure of her and almost seems to be admiring her momentarily, looking her up and down.  That moment quickly turns to fear as Ursa spots his badge and her eyebrows lower as her expression turns to a dark desire.

If one were watching this scene without sound, it’s very clear from the blocking of the characters and the composition of her close-ups against him, that Ursa is the dominant character. Even the costumes signify this as she is clothed in black and he in white - evil is clearly in command. Ursa reaches across to take his insignia, invading Andy’s space on the left side of the film frame, causing him to back away quickly.

Each time when she moves across the film frame, her character takes control of the space within the frame, giving the astronaut "nowhere to go" and suffocating the space in the film frame with where he can escape - essentially "boxing" him in the left side in every film image. He then turns around and on the reverse angle runs from screen right to screen left now. However, the previous shots established that moving from screen right to screen left is Ursa’s dominant screen direction starting with her initial contact, so this tells us that his character is destined to fail in his attempted escape back from where came. The suspense continues to build as the audience knows she can fly and he can’t, so his impending doom is palpable as in the wide shot we see her impassively fly up and over from the right side of the film frame towards the left while he can't see her. Again, to his knowledge, she can only walk.

 

Sarah Douglas flies with such elegant fluidity here, and throughout the film, and demonstrates her great skill to handle the demands of performing with a wire harness rig that the physical acting adds to the sense of terror. There is a brief shot from Ursa's point of view as the camera passes him. 

When she lands in front of him in the Theatrical Cut there is a scary image of her coming out of the darkness, stealthily emerging barely visible in her all-black outfit. As he looks up he sees her, but it is too late. She again invades his screen space going from screen right to the screen left to tear his metal patch off, “like paper.” 

As he falls backward, Ursa stares with malicious fascination, subtly raising her head in a beautiful close up. With this nuance, Sarah Douglas shows the audience Ursa thinking; She is gaining understanding of her powers in this new galaxy and realizes how easily she has won this battle. 

The next image is a beautifully composed wide shot as he falls to the moon’s surface on the far left side of the frame with her standing over him in the middle left of the frame. This exemplifies to the audience the feeling that he has been completely outmatched and the horror she can be capable of to all mankind. It may be the most prototypical shot for her character in the film, standing over a downed man. And again, she has stopped his movement and kept him stuck on the left side within the film frame. He is never able to progress forward.

Ursa now gives the slightest impression of an evil smile around her lips and in her eyes – a brilliant exquisite touch from Ms. Douglas in a close-up showing Ursa indulging in the sadistic pleasures in her mind. Ursa seems gratified in this shot, staring down at her first victim, fulfilling her initial amusement and condescension of when he said he was a man. She is simultaneously choosing how to wickedly end this man's existence. Sarah Douglas has an understated approach to her acting in these shots, showing us the unfolding confidence and pleasure in the mind of her character with flawless facial expressions.

For the climax of this scene, we now see a full shot of the astronaut lying on his back, feet to the camera. He is on the left half of the frame and the back of Ursa’s head and shoulders fill the right side of the frame. As has been fully established, Ursa invades Andy's space coming from screen right to left, however, this is the final death blow. Ursa narrows in on his crotch, stepping toward him with her right foot and cocking her left leg back for a super-kick aimed right between the legs. 

In the next wide shot, she literally sends him off the screen and into the void of space, as he flies off into the far left of the film frame. Andy's character was never able to move from the left side of the frame to the right side of the frame in this scene despite every attempt and in the end he is sent to his death endlessly flying back to the left side of the frame. Ursa establishes her power as a character subconsciously to the audience by how this scene is blocked and shot. She completely dominates his character's attempts at progressive movement in every frame. It therefore ends with Ursa standing imperious, placing her hands on her hips, watching him sail off. More importantly for her character, as she has just been freed from the Phantom Zone, she is again fully realized to be the killer she is. The scene then ends as it began - showing the astronaut’s point of view. 

This time, however, instead of her approaching him as he stood in place, Ursa stands in place looking at him and the audience sees her from his point of view as he sails violently backward into orbit to his death. The close ups of Ms. Douglas in this scene are evilly glamorous and there is a vicious elegance to how she walks, flies, moves and behaves as Ursa and this perfectly establishes her as a supreme villainess. It is also worth noting the music in the Theatrical Cut is more suspenseful and highlights the key actions of the scene better than the music in the Donner Cut which is rather flat and un-dramatic.

In this showcase scene for Ursa, we watch her grow as a character as she is able to survey, confront, and easily triumph. In contrast with the other villains, Zod is given only 50 seconds of screen time for his kill on the moon (the second of their three killings), which is done rather impersonally. Zod hides behind the moon rocks and engages in a brief tug of war with the cosmonaut’s air cord. It’s not as bold or as engaging as Ursa walking right up to her victim.  Zod is equally cold and callous, but he doesn't develop the moment of relation with his victim as Ursa did with Andy. He makes a brief comment to himself about Boris's fragility and as the Cosmonaut floats, Zod yanks the cord from him. Non gets about 45 seconds of screen time for his kill. We don’t see Nate die, but we do see Non unleashed to destroy the ship and Nate beginning to be crushed as Non gets his villainous moment, but Non also doesn't interact with his victim. In the end, Zod dispatches Boris by pulling his air hose; and, Non crushes down the ship, dispatching Nate. Unlike them, Ursa physically rips and kicks her victim, first grabbing Andy's space suit and tearing it open and then gratuitously kicking him with full force. This physical behavior and her interaction with him, almost teasing him that he may have a chance to live, really demonstrate how her character's personality thematically drives this entire sequence. (*And an interesting fact - Ursa wears two space insignia after this moon scene. The blue one on her waist is from Andy, whom she killed, but the gold one encircled in red that's on her right chest is from Boris, the Cosmonaut. This means after she killed Andy that she found Boris' body and took his insignia. Is this a possible deleted scene? This may explain why when Zod and Non ride the moon cart to the lunar capsule where Nate is, Ursa is trailing behind them.) 

In this character-establishing moon scene, Ursa manifests her pure evil. Her up close and personal killing of Andy is the most shocking part of Superman II and most certainly the cruelest death in the series of the four Superman films. At this point in the Superman series, no characters had been killed onscreen. That she is a super-woman and is the first to kill was rather shocking to a 1980 audience and pioneering when looking at it today. If there was any question that this female villain was just going to be eye candy at General Zod's side, it disappeared instantly for the audience here. Ursa is fearlessly confrontational in how she murders him and Sarah Douglas' acting imbues and heightens the scene with a raw intensity. Ursa's actions set the tone here for the violence and impact the villains can have for the remainder of the film, and for herself, Ursa establishes her uniquely visceral quality of evil. In terms of violence, there’s really nothing the villains do or could do after this that could shock the audience as much as here. 

 

URSA ON PLANET “HOUSTON”

The moon scene began the pattern that whenever the trio of villains encounter a new life form or situation, Ursa is the first to make contact. She is the first to discover life forms on earth when she encounters the snake; She is the first to face the police officers on the road; She is the first one in the saloon to interact with the townsfolk. Ursa is without a doubt the General’s lead attacker and is an inquisitive scout and this is a large part of what makes her character interesting. Upon landing on earth, she eagerly picks up the “primitive” snake and examines it; fearlessly letting it slither over her arm. The snake snaps quickly, biting her hand. Ursa reacts by angrily throwing it to the ground and seems more startled than hurt. This scene has caused a bit of a debate online amongst fans for years – was she actually hurt by the snake bite? She initially reacts by holding her hand, but then shows no signs of pain as the shooting script indicates: 

150 FAVORING URSA – Unhurt, but annoyed, she throws it to the ground. She scowls and glowers at the snake. 

The ultimate point of this scene is to show her discovering her heat vision as she stares in anger at the snake, burning it to a crisp. Again, her emotions turn to satisfaction and elation, “I have powers beyond reason here!” Zod is not particularly amused and Non is unable to access his heat vision, apparently because he’s not angry enough. Next, upon meeting the deputy on the dirt road, was a scene that was different from the earlier script drafts. In the Theatrical Cut, she confronts the deputy, but simply rips his badge from his uniform after tauntingly asking him if the badge means that he follows another leader. She mocks him by stroking his badge up and down, invading his space, as she speaks to him. Her actions end there, however, as the violence in this scene was toned down and implied rather than exhibited. In the Mankiewicz 1977 draft, she first bends his gun when he attempts to shoot her, and she then snaps the deputy’s wrist, proving he is no match for her and leaving him in agonizing pain. She tells the officer, “You will not die yet. I will keep you alive to play with” and the scene ended with her advancing on him. 

As the trio come to meet the people of the small town, Ursa cannot resist joining in with the arm wrestlers. When she and Zod enter the saloon, she eyes the two men arm wrestling. The badges, the snake, the arm wrestling – everything seems to catch her curious eye. She walks in with a superior confidence; at first staring down the arm wrestler who has stood up and then facing the arm wrestler at the table by standing above him, looking down at him. This mirrors her scene on the moon when she at first stares at Nate in the capsule and then decides to face Andy first. The arm-wrestler, in all his sexist arrogance, insults her and tells her to sit her “buns” on his lap. Ursa stares at him, giving him no pleasure of a reply; her imposing body language says it all and she has clearly decided who she wants to hurt next. Ursa was considered a bit of a feminist character when the film came out and she clearly would never indulge this kind of man’s (or any man's) remarks. Ursa instead goes to sit across from him and places her right elbow on the table raising her hand toward his. She says her famous line, and only line in the scene, “Let’s just hold hands,” and as he grabs her hand to arm-wrestle, she instantly sends him down, breaking his arm right through the table, causing him to fall to the floor and pass out.

 

Again, Sarah Douglas has such a grasp of the character as her walk and posture convey Ursa’s confident attitude - Ursa's actions often speak louder than words. Ms. Douglas has spoken of how she and Terence Stamp developed a singular walk to have them stand out apart from the human characters in the film. Ursa looks condescendingly at each of the arm wrestlers, ignoring the other men who are present in the saloon and revealing how Ursa is attracted to the action and how she looks to flaunt her powers. Ms. Douglas also demonstrates an excellent physicality in this scene which compliments Ursa’s wicked intelligence. Ursa has surprisingly little to do in the wreckage of the small town. She does begin to show some impatience with Zod when she complains about the slow unfolding of their powers. As the local newsman tries to report before the camera, she angrily says, “Enough of this man! If the whole world is watching, cannot we show them something more interesting?” At this point Zod and Non get into the action. This scene was scaled down from a concept in an earlier script in which the villains destroy cities around the world in a montage. Essentially they destroy the small town and deface Mount Rushmore before they head to the White House. However, Ursa does get to impressively cap the carnage with the only two onscreen deaths of the scene when she uses her super-breath to blow down an attacking helicopter.

 

Ursa mocks the soldiers needing helicopters, “Look, they need machines to fly,” upon her first sight of how humans fly and, at Zod’s suggestion, unleashes death with a kiss and a regaling smile. The fact that the only men in the film who get a kiss from Ursa die a fiery death is a tribute to the lethality of her unique mix of femininity and misandry. It is at this point Zod realizes there is nothing that can stop him on Earth. Sarah Douglas’ facial expressions in this scene show Ursa relishing the pinnacle of her power, defeating not only humans, but their technology as well. 

WHITE HOUSE 

Ursa, in the Donner Cut, gets a deliciously icy moment that is one of her few improvements in this version of the film as Ursa appears in less footage in the Donner Cut. In the White House scene in the Theatrical Cut, the entrance of the villains is quickly cut and paced. Ursa gets to inflict three particularly cruel deaths in both versions of the film. As she lands through the ceiling, Ursa again makes the villains' first contact as she grabs the first guard by the face and throws the petrified man high through the roof of the White House to a presumable death. The anger on Ursa's face as she attacks him is a look that in itself, can kill.

       

       

       

         

Each version then varies as she continues to throw several guards who approach her. However, her killing of one agent is given a much more suspenseful edit in the Donner Cut and depicts her ice-cold cruelty. As we near the end of the havoc, the agent gets knocked to the floor, losing his weapon and desperately kneels down while covering his head, trying to avoid the wrath of Ursa who is heading directly to him. Ursa firmly stops in front of his cowered body with a priceless nonchalant look on her face, waiting for him to look up at and acknowledge her. There is a tense moment of cutting back and forth after which he reluctantly uncovers his face to see if she has gone, only to find her standing right over him and staring directly into his eyes. In a beautiful close up, Ursa has a wicked expression - a thin smile and a then a wink of her eye - and with this she gives him one brutal kick to his face, snapping his head backwards killing him instantly. Leaving his body at her feet, she then turns and gets in a lethal elbow to an attacking agent’s throat, effortlessly dispatching him as she catches up to the patiently-waiting General Zod and Non. With her Kryptonian strength, it's inevitable both these guards died from her swiftly forceful blows to the head and throat, just as the two guards Zod shot and the guard Non throws through a brick wall are implied to die as lingering on a character's moment of death is not PG material and also would slow the pace of the havoc in the scene. 

In the Theatrical Cut, the scene is also excellent, but in a different way. First we see a shot of the American flag falling from atop its' pole and sliding down to the ground. Before we see it hit the ground, what follows is a cut to a shot of the agent falling to the ground at Ursa’s feet. We then see a quick extreme close up of Ursa’s wicked face and then a medium shot as she kicks him in the face. This juxtaposition of shots can be seen as her symbolically defeating America with her kick, as the agent’s fall to the ground follows and “completes” the first shot of the flag starting to fall to the ground. Inside the oval office Ursa continues to get in verbal and symbolic digs against men. In a scene added to the Donner Cut, she cannot resist insulting and then tearing the insignia from the Generals with a delicious line, “What a backward planet this must be – where the men wear the ribbons and jewelry.”

 

General Zod, again, allows her to have her moments of indulgence and this scene illustrates their symbiotic relationship. When Lex Luthor arrives at the White House, Ursa has to be stopped by Zod to not break his bones, and to her satisfaction, damages one of Luthor’s fingers when he has the gall to try and hold her hand as he tries to sell Zod on his talents. She literally follows his every step, waiting for Zod to give the word, but Luthor’s promise of delivering Superman keeps Zod from letting her get what she wants. Sarah Douglas plays Ursa as a laser-focused villainess in her stalking of Luthor (seriously, no pun intended;). 

METROPOLIS AND FORTRESS BATTLES 

After Zod goads Superman into returning, the battle of Metropolis starts with mostly Non and Zod fighting Superman. Ursa mysteriously evades Superman and then sets him up by luring him into Non’s grip. As she grabs him from behind, she has a great line in the Donner Cut, mocking Superman’s clean image as he pauses to punch her, “What? You’d hit a woman?!” Ursa then almost gets to strike Superman with a flagpole before Non loses grip on him at the last second and she ends up sending Non into the top of the Empire State Building with her “home run” swing. Ursa later memorably knocks down Superman when she hurls the manhole cover into his stomach. This is another instance of her hitting a man when he’s down as Superman is emerging slowly out of the manhole when she blindsides him. Ursa expresses to Zod that Superman is a “sentimental idiot” about his caring for people and she quickly uses that to her advantage by getting Non to help her throw the bus full of people at Superman, which hurts him so badly it causes him to realize he cannot defeat them and he retreats the battle in defeat.

 

In this first battle of Superman vs. the villains, it is ultimately Ursa’s idea of crushing Superman with the busload of people that wins the battle for the villains. Unlike Zod who is thrown into the Coke sign and Non who is thrown about the city by Superman, Ursa doesn’t suffer even a moment of failure in the entire battle (and film) until the final battle in the fortress. Superman’s tricks at the fortress confuse each of the villains and Lois knocks her into the abyss twice. 

In the Fortress of Solitude as she has in the rest of the film, when they all surround Superman's holographic images, Ursa makes the first strike for the villains by squaring off against Superman, attacking him with a super-kick. The shooting script makes it explicit that Ursa has “her boot up, aiming for a super-kick at his groin.” However, to her surprise, Superman is just projecting himself as a hologram and she falls when her super-kick passes through Superman's holographic image. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see a full physical battle between the two, but in 1980 it didn’t match Superman’s wholesome image to fight a woman, even one as evil as Ursa. Fans clamor over the new superpowers and inconsistencies in this scene, which do seem a bit rushed in development. It seems to make no sense that earthling Lois, with her leg, pushes Kryptonian Ursa into the abyss. It’s certainly inconsistent with the rest of the film, such as at the Daily Planet when Lois punches Ursa and nearly breaks her hand, and doesn’t even cause Ursa to flinch. Ursa is able to recover from being pushed over the ledge and flies back behind the crystal walls, and with Non, grabs Lois promising to Superman to tear her apart. At this point, Ursa no longer lets go of Lois’ neck, and in the Donner Cut is about to snap it, but Zod has a moment of mercy. After Superman depowers the villains from his crystal chamber and disposes of Zod and Non fails to fly, falling off the ledge, Ursa is given the sendoff all moviegoers wanted as Lois got to punch evil Ursa into the abyss. For the villains, the story has come full circle as Ursa was the first to attack on the moon and the last to be defeated in the fortress. 

INTELLIGENCE 

It can be argued Ursa proves she is a better strategist than Zod by the end of the film. On the moon, she is the one who listens in on Nate, learning the planet the astronauts are from. Her clear strategy and method of how she took down Andy, as detailed earlier, show her excellent planning. With her consistent fearlessness, she tests the villains’ powers by being the first to interact with the earth creatures in each scene and learns from them as she bests each of them decisively. And as she confronts each of them she puts them on the spot with her dialogue in every scene and the men are forced to react to her.  With the astronaut she demands he answer her questions. With the East Houston deputy, she walks right up to him and asks him, "What is this symbol?" to which he just repeats her words, "Follow a leader?" and she tears his badge right off his uniform. The arm wrestlers catcall her and she turns the tables on them to insist they "hold hands." Throughout all versions of the film, she calls the shots and she is able to dictate the human mens' reactions by initiating insults and violence towards them. And she is efficient in demanding the earthlings respect Zod, with her lines, "General Zod does not take orders! He gives them," "He's the General!" and "Come forward, your General wishes to speak."

Ursa has no patience for Lex Luthor and it’s only Zod’s will that keeps Luthor alive from Ursa’s wrath. Ursa, with great malice, in the Donner Cut has what may be her very best line in every version of Superman II when she demands to kill Luthor at the Daily Planet, yelling at Zod, “Let me kill him!” Zod’s repeated trust of Lex Luthor along with his lust to defeat Superman ends up being their undoing. Had she been allowed to kill the scheming Luthor as she wanted, Superman would have had a much harder time figuring out how to trap all three of the villains. In her battle with Superman in Metropolis she conceives several sneak attacks against Superman, from strangling him from behind to get Non to then grab him to catching Superman off guard when he emerges from the underground when she hurls a damaging manhole cover at him. Superman never seems to know where she is, and she humorously taunts him by mockingly calling his name, "Superman" as he struggles to see where she is.  She appears to use her all-black outfit to her advantage as he never seems to see her coming in the night sky.

Ursa is the one who gets Non to combine their strength and overpower Superman by throwing the bus at him and it is she who decides to take Lois Lane as a hostage when they go to the fortress, “Why not increase his handicap?” she mused aloud as she grabbed Lois. Ursa’s singular focus to defeat, threaten and kill the humans proved unstoppable for Superman to overcome. Zod, Ursa and Non had defeated Superman in Metropolis, but by going to his home at the Fortress of Solitude, Zod gave up his advantage by letting Superman fight them on his home turf, where he had secrets (including new powers like the infamous “Cellophane ‘S’!”) to defeat them. However, as this is a Superman film, of course he has to win and his intelligence saves the world. But, Ursa was clearly an outstanding, clear-minded and highly intelligent strategist in her own right.

BEAUTY/COSTUME 

Part of the character of Ursa, as described in each of the drafts of the script, is her beauty. Ursa, in her portrayal by Sarah Douglas, is a glamorous, statuesque woman, but her obvious attractiveness is not primarily focused on throughout the film, it’s just referred to as if it's understood by everyone. It was prominent in the advertising and press for the film. In the Topps trading cards for Superman II in 1981 Ursa’s profile card labels her as “Beautiful, but Deadly Ursa” and quotes Sarah Douglas, “While the kids will hate me for my wickedness, their dads should say, ‘Well, at least she’s sexy.’”

Her character is described as, “Ursa – as evil as she is beguiling. Flashing her consuming hatred for men with her seductive beauty, the Phantom Zone villainess Ursa sears human males with her heat vision and chills them with her cyclonic breath.” Her introductory card in the 1978 Superman set is a close up and simply calls her, “Villainess Supreme.” Numerous magazine articles upon the film's release highlighted the striking beauty of the character (as well as of Sarah Douglas).

The costume of Ursa was designed by Academy Award Winner Yvonne Blake and consists of a one piece “jumpsuit” made of sheer black voile (which is slightly see-through) embellished with reflective black faux leather piping. There are long slits along the sides of the arms and legs that show off the extremities, and the outfit is completed by black patent thigh high leather boots (which were very deep dark brown/black, but that photographed on camera as black). These slits in the jumpsuit along with the high heeled boots added to the sex appeal. The S.F. Sunday Examiner and Chronicle (June 14, 1981), in a profile on Sarah Douglas, noted Ms. Douglas was also given upraised eyebrows, bright red lipstick (a feminist trademark), false black fingernails and pale white make up. In Starlog #47, Sarah notes her real-life long hair was pinned up under a short-cropped wig to play Ursa.

Ursa has sideburns which come to a sharp point accentuating her striking cheekbones; and with the short hair and a lack of skin showing, these somewhat tomboy-ish qualities were intended to give her an other-worldly, alien-like allure. Sarah is quoted in Starlog #47, “I felt she should appeal to kids and dads, and even goats for that matter.” Along with the descriptions of Ursa’s beauty from the scripts described earlier, in all versions of the film characters' comments regarding her looks are imply her beauty throughout the film. Nate, the astronaut, comments when he sees her undulating, “It’s might pretty out there…mighty…Pretty!" Zod asks “dear” Ursa to “blow a kiss” to the men in the helicopter poised to attack them. In the Donner Cut, when Ursa is introduced to Luthor via the crystal in the Fortress of Solitude, Miss Teschmacher has to poke Luthor to stop him from staring at her too long. He later tries to touch her by holding her hand in the White House and gets his finger crushed. Of course, the arm wrestlers in the saloon all stare her down and one of them catcalls her “sweet thing,” telling her to sit on his lap. In a scene possibly (and seemingly likely) filmed from the Donner-filmed Mankiewicz script, instead of her saying, “You are master of all you survey,” just before Luthor arrives at the oval office, Ursa enters that scene as we hear a man’s scream cut off in the hall, and she says to Zod, "I'm bored with this puny planet. The men here do not even try to resist anymore." Perry White, in the Donner Cut, calls her “A broad that looks like the queen of the runway!” - Sarah Douglas very much embodies a woman who could walk the runway in great style, but a "broad" is certainly a derogatory word today and not an embodiment of Ursa's character. Ursa is ultimately a stunning woman in both beauty and strength. 

PHYSICALITY 

Close views of the various versions of the film show Sarah Douglas seemed to do the high majority of her own stunts. The flying scenes are numerous and she was held in the air by a complicated wire harness rig, becoming the first woman to fly in a comic book film.  Sarah flew with such proficiency that Ursa easily has the most regal style in her flying and landings out of the Kryptonians. After all, not only did she have to do everything Christopher Reeve, Terence Stamp and Jack O'Halloran did, but she had to do it in heels! 

The role was incredibly demanding on the actress as she notes in Starlog #47, “Many, many weeks go by and you don’t actually speak any lines. You’re just flying (on the high wires).” She had to endure long hours having body molds made of her for special effects shots. Emphasizing her strength and equalness to the men, Ursa is the villain carrying Lex Luthor on her back for the long flight to the fortress instead of the much lighter Lois Lane, who is carried by Non. The role was a tremendously physical one and Ursa’s hits, throws, kicks and flying are nearly all done with Sarah Douglas’ face and body visible to the camera.

Ms. Douglas has said in interviews that she was really punched by Margot Kidder in the finale and did an astounding job of falling backward upon really being hit! Ms. Douglas has also commented that she suffered an injury in the bus-throwing scene as she, for a moment, believed she had superpowers and held on to the bus too tightly as it moved and it injured her shoulder. This was one of nine injuries she said she endured during the seventeen months of shooting she did on the film. Ms. Douglas nailed the manhole cover scene in one take, flipping the cover up into her hand and hurling it directly at Superman in one fluid motion, amazing the crew and her director Richard Lester - who didn’t have an alternate plan if she couldn’t handle the dexterity and precision required of the throw.

Ursa is constantly in the middle of the action, flying, fighting, hitting, throwing and kicking and the only physical action we don’t see her character do, is run. Ursa never chases anyone or anything; she lets everything come to her and relies on her powers, intelligence and skill to get her through. Ms. Douglas had to take on all of these daily physical challenges to project the image of Ursa as physical and yet darkly elegant onscreen and she made all of these scenes look easy, further dictating her performance is an absolute triumph. 

Also worth noting, from the physical violence that is present in all cuts of the film, Ursa has the highest onscreen death count of all three villains, or of any villain in the Christopher Reeve Superman films! The 6 deaths she inflicts are the astronaut, the two soldiers in the chopper and three guards in the White House.  (By comparison, Non kills 4; the Kryptonian guard in the intro, an astronaut, and in the Television cuts a White House guard thrown through a brick wall who presumably dies, and the boy on the horse, at Zod's behest. Zod kills 3; the astronaut and the two White House guards he shoots in the Donner Cut). Other characters are hit or thrown by the Kryptonians, but they appear to move after these blows, so it appears they are just injured. Of course more deaths are implied from the villains taking over Earth, but in this film and series of films, Ursa excelled as a physically deadly Femme Fatale. 

MAN-HATING 

Sarah Douglas in the February 22, 1979 edition of The Daily Mirror (just after the release of Superman: The Movie in Great Britain) stated, "I knew I'd made it when 'Gay News' wrote that I looked suspiciously butch. Wait till they see my man-hating role in part two." The article describes her still barely-known character as, "downright evil and a man-hater to (thigh-high) boot!" Sarah further described Ursa, in the S.F. Sunday Examiner and Chronicle in 1981, "I'm just a good old downright bad person. I do a bit of gooching around, kicking men off the Earth and placing my thigh length black leather boots in tricky spots. Crucial spots, actually." She also conveyed an amusing observation of how she had to talk about Ursa's man hating in the different countries she promoted the film. "The Australians are a bit raunchy and I was able to say, 'Ursa kicks men in the b--ls. In South Africa I had to be more gentile and say: 'Ursa kicks men in the groin.' In America?  Oh, they don't have any b--ls at all in America." These funny comments on the differences in cultures link back to the origin of Ursa’s character when she was designed in early script drafts as a woman driven by her hatred of men (and similarly to Faora Hu-ul's development in the comics). The explicit man-hating was certainly trimmed down from original scripts to her portrayals in both the Theatrical and Donner Cuts, but the core of her creation still is prevalent throughout. The Television Cuts of 1984 and 1988 include deleted scenes that exhibit very explicit dialogue such as her “Men to kill!” pronouncement on the moon and also a curious scene in the East Houston town. In this scene, Zod orders Non to throw a police siren hundreds of yards to kill a boy escaping on his horse. It inexplicably explodes when it hits the boy, but what most people seem to always remember about this scene is Ursa’s response. A woman protests to Zod, “He was only a boy.” Ursa in a moment of sadistic elation retorts, “Who will never become a man.” Clearly this scene was deleted due to the child’s death being too violent for a Superman film. In earlier drafts of the script, the man-hating aspect also came out in other dialogue such as from Jor-el’s original introduction of her which was once, “You, whose countless men have suddenly become accident prone” and in a later draft, “On the woman, URSA, whose perversions and unreasoning hatred of men have finally threatened even the male children on our planet.”

Incidentally, in earlier script incarnations there was a fourth Phantom Zone villain, a trickster named Jak-el, whom Jor-el said terrorized children. When shooting of the film began, this trait was transferred to Ursa as spoken by Jor-el in the opening scene. When there were four villains in the first Newman draft (which can be found online) Ursa had very little to do and was something of a minor character (along with Non), while Jak-el was clearly second to Zod. In that Newman, Newman and Benton 1976 draft, the villains landed in Australia and not East Houston. Ursa, again has a much smaller role, but has one big scene in what was the equivalent of the small town scene, when she encounters a rough male character (Johnny Greer), who probably ended up in the Theatrical Cut becoming Jody - the man Zod levitates and drops to the ground. From the script - 

JOHNNY GREER: You're not. . . You're not. . . a man. 

FAVORING URSA, MED.: She advances on Johnny Greer, vamping. 

URSA: (mockingly) But you are. . . 

JOHNNY GREER: Beat it, sister. I've seen your kind before. 

URSA: You never will again! 

She knees him in the groin with the force of a howitzer at close range. Johnny screams and falls to the ground. 

She obviously did not get to knee the townsman in the groin in the film, but ironically her kick to the astronaut is not in any version of the script. So, her man-hating seemed to have been being worked on as they were filming her scenes. In all film versions she is described as a threat to all mankind. Ursa’s distaste for Lois Lane keeps her character from becoming exclusively man-hating because all of her damage and destruction is aimed at male characters. She hates Lois at first sight and delivers a wonderful condescending line upon meeting her - "What an undemanding male this Superman must be." However, when looking at her character more closely, nearly every one of her actions seems to be aimed at emasculating men, both symbolically and in actuality, and illustrate her being a woman who is physically and intellectually superior and who very much embodies and owns that she is.

We've looked at the face value of her scenes in Superman II, so it's worth a look at the symbolism and subtext of Ursa's violence and behavior in the many versions of the film as they represent her misandry. In the forest, Ursa grabs the snake and in her anger to its’ attempt to bite her, she burns it with her eyes – snakes are seen as an almost universal phallic symbol throughout history - and Ursa’s enmity for men is symbolized in her reaction to it; On the moon, Ursa first causes the Astronaut to flee and drop his tool, a symbol of his manhood, and his demise comes from her kicking his actual manhood; In the battle of Metropolis, she rips the flag pole (a phallic object) off the building and swings it at Superman and ultimately slams Non into the top of the Empire State Building with a “home run,” suggesting a superiority to both of them; She humiliates the arm wrestlers in their own saloon, beating them at their own game, breaking the man's arm through the table; In the White House, she terrorizes the guard who tries to hide at her feet, and after teasing him first that she may be gone, fatally kicks him in the face (a trait of hers is she never makes the remotest effort to bend and face the men who are down, she simply stands over them and kicks them); Ursa easily tosses the guards in the White House who are powerless with their manly weapons and guns against her; Ursa, in the Donner Cut, again shows her superiority to Non when, during the flashback that Luthor views of her in the fortress, she grabs Non’s arm and forcefully lowers it down as Jor-El describes her crimes; Also in the Donner Cut, when looking carefully, it appears it's Ursa who fractures the monolithic Washington Monument as the villains fly by (it's definitely most consistent with her character that she would destroy it); A "kiss" from her kills the soldiers in their armed chopper; Ursa’s fight with Superman in Metropolis has her knock him out by hitting him in the waist with the manhole cover and later in the fortress she aims her super-kick at his groin (good thing he was a hologram;) and of course throughout the film, Ursa takes only male characters’ insignia, military ribbons and badges at her pleasure. This taking of badges or "trophies" even exhibits a more depraved or serial-killer-like behavior in how Ursa kills and/or humiliates all men she encounters. She defeats every type of masculine archetype throughout the film - an astronaut, policemen, arm wrestling cowboys in a saloon, military men in their chopper, armed secret service guards, military generals, and in Metropolis, even Superman himself. Despite attempts to scale back her man-hating, it appears it was too ingrained in the entirety of the script and remained a major character attribute. And again, even something as definitive as a Topps trading card said she hates men!

DOMINATRIX LABEL 

This leads to the sort-of “elephant in the room” question that is sometimes written about her character. Was Ursa a dominatrix? Starlog #111 in 1986, in a profile on Sarah Douglas, stated Ursa was called a “leather-clad dominatrix” by movie critics and numerous articles at the time described her as that. Though she shows not even a moment of any type of expressive sexuality in any version of the script or film, the label has been loosely, and perhaps unfairly, associated with her character since the film’s release. She does not appear attracted to any man (or woman) and appears asexual in all versions of the film. As there is no direct or overt sexual characterization with her character, this description of Ursa is ultimately up to the viewer. Cinematically, as described above, there is a lot of symbolism going on with Ursa – some of it obvious - such as that Ursa is a character obsessed with symbols! In looking at how she is presented, right from the start she comes off as an evil woman, always in complete command of herself. Her actions are essentially any combination of ordering around, attacking, humiliating, mocking and killing male characters she confronts, who are dressed in traditional uniforms of men who are “good.”  

By contrast, Ursa is dressed in all-black from head to toe. The appearance of her fighting these traditionally heroic men is therefore very classic good versus bad. The flashes of skin that show in her black outfit and design of her boots were created and tailored differently than Zod’s and Non’s outfits as she has a decidedly wicked and sexy look. Her black patent boots are very tall, coming up to an angled point at the top of her thighs and are easily the most dominatrix-like part of her outfit. Physically, Ursa is a tall woman (Sarah Douglas is 5'10" and with the heels, easily over 6' - the average woman is 5'4") and she towers over most men she encounters in the film. Her not needing to breathe, her ability to fly, and her super-strength clearly exude dominance and even a Goddess-like power. In her character-defining scene with the astronaut all these dominant aspects about her are archetypically displayed. Ursa looks down on and talks down to him domineeringly, demanding he answer her. When she finds out he is a man, he becomes her prey and she destroys him by tearing the insignia off his space suit and then kicking him in the groin to finish him off. Ursa could have just watched him suffocate or finished him in other innumerable ways but specifically choosing to kick him in his testicles clearly crosses the line into sadism. 

When people over the decades call her a dominatrix, it's this type of behavior and symbolism that they are likely associating that claim to. Each subsequent time in the film that Ursa tears badges, ribbons and symbols from men, it calls back to her behavior of violently dominating the astronaut by taking his badge and his manhood in this, her first real scene. This is still a PG film though, so if anything, this scene acts as an establishment of her pure unabashed hatred for men and her later actions are in harmony with this, even if not all her actions are as malevolent. Some look at the Superman character metaphorically as a Christ-like figure and Jor-el as God-like, giving his only son to the human race. The villains too have been seen allegorically, as some have called Zod a Lucifer stand-in. Film characters and stories can be looked at as substitutes for many other social stories and roles in life. So, it can be plausible that Ursa can be seen as a character who, while not explicitly sexual in any way, could be viewed metaphorically as a dominatrix. Ursa is other-worldly and untouchable for human men and earth creatures. Again, even the snake is incinerated for attempting to bite her. The men who get "kissed" by her die. With her Goddess-like powers, if she is to be described as a dominatrix, perhaps she may more accurately be described as a divine one, if you will, or you can simply look at her character at face value - a villainous killer.

CRITICAL AND FAN RECEPTION 

Sarah Douglas was the only cast member to do worldwide publicity for the film and was prominently featured in many interviews and articles in 1980-81. Fans would be amazed at how warm and engaging she was and how this contrasted so much with Ursa.  In the S.F. Sunday Examiner and Chronicle (6/14/81) again, Ms. Douglas wittily noted, "People ask me how I can be so evil, when the real me is so different, so civilized. In England, we simply call it acting." Her portrayal of Ursa received excellent reviews at the time of release and also in recent years as reviewers visit the classic Christopher Reeve Superman films. A cursory search of reviews show she has nearly universal positive reviews. “Slinky”, “sultry”, “un-ladylike” were descriptions of Sarah’s performance in contemporaneous reviews as people tried to rationalize how a female could be such a baddie at that time. The legendary film critic, Pauline Kael, in 1981, stated “This Ursa has the kind of face cameras worship and she does her dirty deeds with blasé’ nonchalance and the merest flick of a malicious smile.” For Pauline Kael to be impressed, you know you had to have done something right. Jack Mathews of the Detroit free Press in 1981 stated, “Sarah Douglas is fun to watch as the man-hating Ursa, dressed from the Nieman-Marcus catalog of outer space S&M-wear.” David Denby of New York Magazine called Sarah Douglas “devastating in her shiny interplanetary dominatrix rig.” Cinefantastique’s review described her as an “arrogantly sensual bonus.”

At the time of release, in Japan her scene with the astronaut was cut from the film due to their sensitivity of a woman being so strong. More recently online Lylesmoviefiles.com states, “Douglas is excellent as his cruel lieutenant providing one of the more sinister femme fatales in the genre.” Decider.com echoed comments of numerous Gen-Xers stating, “the mesmerizing hold Sarah Douglas’s Ursa had on my fragile, eggshell mind.” WatchMojo.com named her sixth in a Top 10 Female Supervillains of all time video.

The Superman Homepage website notes in quality she stood right with Terence Stamp as Zod, and that “Ursa was very well acted and performed, never faltering the evil and wicked persona of a member of the Phantom Zone.” Endless fan sites, comment boards and fan reviews praise Sarah Douglas’ performance as more and more people have seen the film over the years. It has most likely become Ms. Douglas’ definitive career role. 

LEGACY 

With both official cuts of the film re-released on 4k by Warner Brothers in 2023 we can get an even better look at the character of Ursa in Superman: The Movie and Superman II. As much as Richard Lester’s vision of the production differed from Richard Donner’s, both directors must be credited with allowing Sarah Douglas ample screen time to create a memorable character. The earlier drafts of the script gave Ursa much less to do. Her scenes on the moon, in the saloon, and even in the battle of Metropolis are all expanded upon from earlier drafts. While Richard Lester’s scenes may have been more comedic, Lester’s Ursa scenes are a little less comedic than most of his other scenes. Again, in Starlog #47, Sarah Douglas states, “(Lester) allowed Ursa to have a little moment of ecstasy when she’d get angry.” Combined with Ursa’s stark actions from Richard Donner’s scenes, Ursa has a personality of curiosity and viciousness that are linked together seamlessly through the performance of Ms. Douglas.

This could not have been an easy performance, given such production changes. Jor-El spoke of Ursa’s perversions. Her purpose seems to be of inflicting cruelty. Each of the men she humiliates, conquers and kills is for the pleasure she gets out of it. Ursa shows no mercy and no pity. Sarah Douglas’ performance is slightly understated at the right times and at other times is unleashed for the audience, to both join in with and be shocked by Ursa's actions. Ursa's joy and curiosity at her superpowers are what makes her so interesting. She attracts us with this behavior along with her beauty and her style and she then turns us on our heads with her ruthlessness and violence, and yet still charms us with an evil grace. Ursa is a cold-blooded vixen who relishes the terror she inflicts, yet does it all with a magnificent charm and commanding poise. Ultimately, she is a fascinating character and one who deserves a second (or first) look from today’s comic book film enthusiasts. Characters in films of the 2020’s are written in a more self-conscious way than characters from forty-plus years ago, who were just “acting” or “behaving” without continuously commenting on their inner-monologue as is the trend today. Watching Superman II, we have to look at the details of the actress' performance to try to surmise what Ursa is thinking and who she is, and Sarah Douglas gives us a lot to think about. Ursa is very clearly is an equal to Zod and is treated as such. She does not truly need Zod, but clearly serves his power-hungry wishes and gets to fulfill her perverse wishes in return. She is a powerful and strong-minded independent woman and this makes Ursa a consummate villainess. Like other great characters in classic films, we get more detail out of her in each repeat viewing. 

Perhaps Sarah Douglas herself said it best, in an interview with the Daily Mirror in April of 1977 when it was first being announced publicly that she had won the part and was beginning production. Regarding her role as Ursa, she is quoted, “I may not have much to say but I promise that people won’t forget me.” 45 years later and counting – we have not.