Radar Men from the Moon

..say Star Wars. Comparing a 1950s serial with what many think is THE movie ? Think about it-how scientifically correct is Star Wars ? How many familiar images does it use ? The bad guys wearing black or gray uniforms, they have "Storm Troopers" do their dirty work? Where have we seen THAT before ? it In both cases the producers were trying to tell a story and sell tickets. And remember, 1952. The space programs were just getting started, the USSR orbited Sputnik in 1957, the US sent up Vanguard in 1958, 1961 when Gagarin orbited the Earth is still nine years away. I remember watching the Commando Cody series on TV in the 1950s, those special effects looked pretty believable, the scenes where the rocket takes off and you see the car and the building that you saw when the actors arrived-the Lydecker Brothers did that all long before CGI. Roy Barcroft, Republic's Villain in residence as Retik. I read that Barcroft took his work in the serials very seriously because he knew how much they meant to the kids, he insisted the other actors do so as well-it shows.

George Wallace stars as Commando Cody, a scientist and inventor who uses a jet-pack and special helmet to fly around and fight bad guys. He must thwart the efforts of Retik (Roy Barcroft), Ruler of the Moon to spearhead an invasion of the Earth so that the dwindling population of the moon can move here. Retik tasks his lackey Krog (Peter Brocco) with using the advanced weaponry of the moon to weaken the Earth's defenses. Cody and his team of helpers fight Krog at every step, so Krog enlists Earth criminals Graber (Clayton Moore) and Daly (Robert Stevenson) to help out.

This serial introduces the recurring character of Commando Cody, but it doesn't give much background, and we jump right into the middle of the action. The movie reuses a lot of footage from earlier serials, most prominently King of the Rocketmen and The Undersea Kingdom. Chief villain Retik is wearing the same moldy costume previously used in The Purple Monster Strikes and Flying Disc Man from Mars. The action is typical serial stuff, with lots of fist fights, and shoot-outs where no one is actually shot. I enjoy how the villains often continue to punch Cody in his metal helmet. One would think that it would quickly become apparent that that was a bad idea. Future Lone Ranger Clayton Moore was said to have been very exuberant in his fight scenes, and even broke leading man Wallace's nose. Commando Cody shall return!

This first Commando Cody adventure ain't bad, but the rocket suit, and most of the flying footage, was straight from Republic's first rocket suit serial, King of the Rocket Men (1949), usually considered the last of the great classic serials. Everything good in Radar Men (and there's plenty that's good) is better in Rocket Men! Please see it! The hero and villain have more personality, the action is more hard-hitting and extreme, the plot is more focused, and - perhaps most importantly - there is much mystery and subterfuge. In Rocket Men, our hero must keep his identity secret - no one knows it's him in that suit. And the villain too has a secret identity - we see him only in silhouette. Here, in Radar Men, everybody knows who everybody else is. Enjoy Radar Men (I know I did), but first, enjoy Rocket Men!

(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.'

In 1936 Republic made a very boring serial called Undersea Kingdom. But it had some fancy aircraft effects. In 1941 Republic made an okay serial called The Adventures of Captain Marvel. But it had amazing flying footage of Marvel. In 1949 Republic made a reasonably good serial called King Of The Rocketmen. More amazing flying effects. This was all a lead up to something. In 1952 Republic would make a true comic book classic.

Republic Studio effects man Mr Howard Lydecker is the most under-rated effects man in Hollywood. His work in Radar Men (and the above mentioned serials) steals the show. We have full scale spaceships, miniature spaceships, rocketman flying in the sky, fancy sci-fi hardware all over the place (including an early model of that female robot from the Lost In Space episode "Ghost Planet"), it is all here!

I also like looking at 1950s cars race around country roads and there is no shortage of that here. All great stuff! The cast? I don't know any of them but who cares? This is just screen comic book entertainment and nothing else. In the 1960s Howard Lydecker would do effects for TV's Lost In Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.