Leofwine_draca Who doesn't love an old-fashioned serial? These are episodic films, typically divided into 15 minute "chunks", that were often played at matinée cinema showings before the main movie. They're the film equivalent of the classic pulp magazines of the 1930s and '40s, offering spectacle and excitement and inevitable cliffhangers to keep you coming back week after week.Made in 1952, RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON is a rather late addition to the genre but one which effectively captures the fighting spirit of the oldies. Yes, it's two-fisted action all the way in this one, and the twelve chapters (running for approximately three hours, no less) fly past thanks to the emphasis on fights and chases. Forget boring dialogue and characters sitting around endlessly - that's all jettisoned here in favour of excitement.And boy, do I miss the days when children's entertainment wasn't afraid to get its hands dirty. George Wallace's Commando Cody isn't the kind of hero you'd expect in a modern-day setting that's for sure; he's thick-set, mid 40s, no dashing good looks, just an ordinary guy. And yet his face fits, and somehow he inhabits that role just right.Each and every instalment is packed with fiery death, long fights with multiple opponents slugging it out, ray guys and atomic bombs and interspace travel. The special effects are remarkably good, especially of Commando Cody flying on his jetpack, and have actually dated less than the awful-looking back-projection effects of, say, the SUPERMAN films. In short, there's nothing to dislike here, and this is one of those films you watch and can't help thinking that "they don't make 'em like this anymore"!

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- 1952, Earth is attacked by a series of strange unexplained atomic explosions. The U.S. Government gets the help of scientist, Commando Cody. He traces the explosion origins to Moon terrorists. Cody and his crew fly to the Moon in their rocket ship where they confront Radik, the Moon's evil ruler, who is bend on conquering Earth by using his atomic weapons.*Special Stars- George Wallace and Clayton Moore. ATTN: Bit actor- Leonard Nimoy *Theme- America defends the Earth.*Based on- 50's Atomic scares and Cold War issues.*Trivia/location/goofs- Colorized, The complete Serial of all 12 week chapters as Commando Cody and his crew defend the Earth from impeding invasion from the Moon. Commando Cody and his flying suit along with his scientific friends battle the Moon men and their gangster allies. Leonard Nimoy's earliest film roles. Location shot in California's Chatsworth famous, Iverson Film Ranch and at Republic Studios (CBS Radford), Studio City, CA.*Emotion- Great theater serial chapter film to enjoy. You can see were today's blockbuster science fiction directors got their youthful starts. These films are full of real cliffhangers and amazing escapes and they will keep you on the edge of your seat.

flapdoodle64 (Or: 'Republic Recycles Rocket Man') In 1949, in one of their last bursts of inspiration, the thrill engineers at Republic produced 'King of the Rocket Men,' which capitalized on the popularity of the flying hero Superman, from the eponymous 1948 Columbia film serial. Although Rocket Man flew, he was in fact an ordinary human scientist who happened to have a helmet and rocket pack, and who battled the terrorist Dr. Vulcan.King of the Rocketmen premiered 6-8-1949...3 weeks later, on 6-27-1949, the DuMont TV network premiered Captain Video, another science fiction hero who became one of the 1st bona fide superstars of early TV. After Rocket Man and Capt. Video, a number of science fiction heroes were popular on TV up through about 1955, when other trends began to dominate.Capt. Video's creators had been inspired by the movie serials. In turn, Columbia Pictures obtained the rights to the Capt. Video character, and produced the super-cheap but super-profitable 'Captain Video Master of the Stratosphere' serial. During this craze for quasi-military science-fiction heroes, Republic re-purposed the splendid Rocket Man flying footage and mixed in additional stock footage from about a dozen other serials to create Commando Cody. The name Commando Cody, BTW, was surely designed to capitalize on the popular TV character 'Commander Cory', of the hit TV series 'Space Patrol.' Thus it came to be that Republic was in the position of trying, late in the game, to jump aboard a trend that it inadvertently helped create! (But by the end of 1956, both the movie serials and the TV space heroes would be gone forever!)One of the ways you can identify the re-used footage is when people in 1952 suddenly all hop into 1938 or 1946 automobiles for a car chase. You have to remember, cars from this era were fortunate to last 50,000 miles, so the idea that the streets of downtown Los Angeles of 1952 are suddenly filled with 1938 cars is not plausible. I lost track of how many times the characters all jumped into these automotive anachronisms...Recylcing old footage is not necessarily a crime...in fact, some of Republic's best serials featured loads of reused material. But this serial shows a seriously uninspired writer, and it all seems kind of forced. Not to mention, Rettik the Moon Man is not a particularly menacing villain, with the other Moon Men and their Earth gangster stooges also lacking in menace and brain power. The Moon Scenes are pretty bad, even when compared with the stuff from Flash Gordon, and there is not a lot of emotional energy.George Wallace is physically unimpressive as the titular hero, but in the action scenes he does a surprisingly good job of conveying urgency. He is actually OK, as are his companions.Probably the best performance is by Clayton Moore, as one of the Earth gangsters inexplicably selling out his own planet for chump change. The performance is fun for everyone who saw his Lone Ranger performances and wondered what the guy actually looked like...well, here he is, and a he's a good actor, it turns out.There are plenty of fight scenes, but nothing as inspired as the stuff from the early 1940's. Worst of all, the final chapter resolves the conflict without Our Hero getting into a suitable physical confrontation with the villain. This is rather unsatisfying.By 1952, serials were fading fast, in terms of popularity and quality. This one is typical for that era. There are 2 other Rocket Man serials besides this one, the aforementioned 'King of the Rocket Men,' and 'Zombies of the Stratosphere.' Both King and Zombies are superior this serial, although this serial is an amiable waste of time.The great Lydecker Brothers created some new FX for this serial, some nice shots of a rocket ship taking off and flying...these shots were reused in Zombies, as well as being used in the amazingly strange Republic quasi-TV series 'Commando Cody, Sky Marshall of the Universe.'

Ralph This serial is interesting to watch as an MST3K feature, but for todays audience that's all it is. I was really surprised to see the year it was made as 1952. Considering that fact alone makes this a solid (lowly?) 2 in my book. The cars used don't even look contemporary, they look like stuff from the 30's. It's basically Cody (the lone world's salvation? Sheesh talk about an insult to everyone else, like the military), anyway it's Cody in his nipple ring flying suit against Graber and Daley two dumb*ss henchman who sport handguns and an occasional ray gun thats pretty lame in its own right, enjoy. If you want to watch a really good serial see Flash Gordan, it's full of rockets that attack each other and a good evil nemesis and also good looking women, this has NONE of that. And Flash was made 15 or so years before this crap so you can give it some slack. Something made in 1952, this bad, deserves a 2. Nuff said. give it a 6 if your watching it as a MST3K episode, those guys have some good fun with it; a tweak of the nipples here, a tweak there and I'm flying! And now as an added bonus, I bring you the Commander Cody Theme song as originally sung by Joel and his two character bots Tom Servo and Crow aboard the satellite of love for episode eight The Enemy Planet:(Singing at the very beginning credits);(TOM SERVO SINGING) YOUR WATCHING COMMANDER CODY.... HE IS THE NEW CHARACTER FROM REPUBLIC,HE GETS IN TROUBLE EVERY WEEK... BUT HE'S SAVED BY EDITING,JUST A TWEAK OF HIS NIPPLES... SENDS HIM ON HIS WAY,A PUMPKIN HEAD AND A ROCKET PACK.... WILL SAVE THE DAY,(JOEL SINGING) HIS LABRATORY IS A BOXING RING... WHEN BAD GUYS COME TO MIX IT UP,SOMEBODY ALWAYS GETS KIDNAPPED... AND CODY HAS TO FIX IT UP,HE DRINKS HIS TEA AT AL'S CAFE... AND FLIES ALONG ON WIRES,HE BEATS THE CROOKS AND FLIES WITH HOOKS... AND PUTS OUT FOREST FIRES,(CROW SINGING)BAD GUYS BEWARE... CODY IS THERE,YOU'LL LIKE HIS HAIR IT'S UNDER HIS HELMUT... AND BECAUSE WE CAN'T THINK OF A GOOD RHYME,THAT'S THE END OF THE COMMANDER CODY THEME SONG... SO SIT RIGHT BACK WITH A WILL OF GRANITE,AND WATCH CHAPTER EIGHT, CAUSE THAT'S THE ENEMY PLANET